Charleston Currents

POEM: “Officials Are Optimistic He Has Been Killed”

Palmetto Poem, by Gilbert Allen: Driving, I barely hear—because
on Route 291,
beside the Greenville cemetery,
this afternoon’s big wind

by Palmetto Poem · 07/06/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Palmetto Poem

REVIEW: The Painter

A novel by Peter Heller | Heller’s first book, The Dog Stars was a bestselling debut novel, and when he set out to write The Painter he was hoping to avoid the sophomore jinx. He has managed this, and then some. The Painter begins with a bang, literally.

by Charleston Currents · 06/29/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

HISTORY: Gov. David Beasley

S.C. Encyclopedia | David Muldrow Beasley was born in Lamar on February 26, 1957, the son of Richard and Jacqueline Beasley. He graduated from Lamar High School in 1975 and attended Clemson University from 1976 to 1978. He transferred to the University of South Carolina in 1979 after being elected to the S.C. House of Representatives at the age of twenty-two. He received his undergraduate degree in 1979 and his law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1983. He married Mary Wood Payne on June 18, 1988. They have three children.

by Charleston Currents · 06/29/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

REVIEW: The Moon Sisters

The Moon Sisters, a novel by Therese Walsh: After their mother’s probable suicide, sisters Olivia and Jazz take steps to move on with their lives. Jazz, logical and forward-thinking, decides to get a new job, but spirited, strong-willed Olivia—who can see sounds, taste words, and smell sights—is determined to travel to the remote setting of their mother’s unfinished novel to lay her spirit properly to rest.

by Charleston Currents · 06/22/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

"Mother" Emanuel AME Church, Charleston, S.C.

HISTORY: African Methodist Episcopal Church

S.C. Encyclopedia | To escape racial discrimination in Philadelphia’s Methodist Church, Richard Allen, a former slave, organized the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church there in 1787. It is the oldest African American religious denomination and existed mainly in the North before the Civil War.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 06/22/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

REVIEW: The Queen of the Tearling

Review by Maggie Mohr of The Queen of the Tearling, a novel by Erika Johansen: Magic, adventure and mystery combine in this captivating tale about a young princess who must reclaim her dead mother’s throne, learn to be a ruler and defeat the Red Queen, a powerful and malevolent sorceress determined to destroy her.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 06/15/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

HISTORY: Ever wonder why it’s called Ashley PHOSPHATE Road?

S.C. Encyclopedia | The South Carolina phosphate mining industry began after the Civil War and dominated world production in the 1880s. Mining began in late 1867 on plantations near Charleston after the gentlemen-scientists Francis S. Holmes and St. Julien Ravenel and the chemists N. A. Pratt and C. U. Shepard discovered that local “stinking stones” contained unusually high amounts of bone phosphate of lime (BPL).

by Charleston Currents · 06/15/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

REVIEW: Wolf in White Van

Review: Wolf in White Van: Sean Phillips is reclusive due, in large part, to a severe injury he sustained as a teenager. His main contact with the world around him is through Trace Italian, the mail-order role-playing game he created and runs. Troubles arise for Sean when two players, Carrie and Lance, switch their playing from the game world to the real world. As Sean’s story, along with the story of Carrie and Lance, unfolds, the reader is taken on a riveting journey backward through Sean’s life.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 06/08/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

HISTORY: All Saints Parish

S.C. Encyclopedia | Established on March 16, 1778, All Saints Parish comprised the Waccamaw Neck of what came to be Horry and Georgetown Counties. In 1721 the peninsula became part of Prince George Winyah Parish, but separated from the rest of the parish by the Waccamaw River, it remained isolated and sparsely settled for decades. Because they could only reach […]

by Andy Brack · 06/08/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

REVIEW: Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy

Few Civil War histories seem suitable for toes-in-the-sand beach-reading, but Junius and Albert’s Adventures in the Confederacy manages to fit that bill with wondrous delight.

by Charleston Currents · 06/01/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews