Charleston Currents – Herb Frazier

Post Tagged with: "Herb Frazier"

BRACK: Culture wars are exasperating but may energize America

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | America’s culture wars are wearing us out. There’s too much distrust, frustration and pent-up anger. Some want to make America great again, but that sends red flags to others who see the sentiment as dog whistles for a more divided society. Others wonder when America wasn’t great.

Perhaps we can all agree on one thing: America is more polarized and divided than ever in recent memory. And maybe. Just maybe, we can use that which divides to unite us.

by Andy Brack · 07/27/2020 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

FOCUS: Tubman book featured in Magnolia’s Children Garden

By Herb Frazier | In honor of Black History Month, Tri-County First Steps has placed in the Children’s Garden at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens the book “Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom,” by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

This book is a tribute to Tubman’s strength, humility, and ability to navigate nature and the outdoors. It is the perfect book for children 5- to 8-years old. Scan a QR code on the book’s cover to hear an interactive storytelling session narrative by Dorchester County First Steps Director Crystal Campbell.

Parents can listen to the story using their cellphones to enjoy Campbell’s lyrical story that brings the full radiance of Tubman’s life. Pages of the book have been placed on 16 story boards along a winding path in the garden.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 02/17/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

2/17, full issue: From Harriet Tubman to the presidential primary

IN THIS EDITION
TODAY’S FOCUS: Tubman book featured in Magnolia’s Children Garden
COMMENTARY, Brack: Welcome to South Carolina
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: SCIWAY
NEWS BRIEFS: State to have largest surplus in history
PALMETTO POEM, Platt: Dresden’s Frauenkirche weeps for Notre-Dame de Paris
FEEDBACK: Teachers need more
MYSTERY PHOTO: Tranquil setting
CALENDAR: Knotts, Ragusa to talk Feb. 23 about Democratic primary

by Charleston Currents · 02/17/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

FOCUS: Lights of Magnolia to feature Chinese lanterns, dragons, more

By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents | Chinese lanterns will glow for four months beginning Nov. 15 at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens, illuminating America’s oldest garden at night for the first time in its 343-year history.

Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has partnered with the Zigong Lantern Group in China to present “Lights of Magnolia: Reflections of a Cultural Exchange.” The lantern festival includes custom-designed installations of large-scale thematically unified lanterns, a fusion of historic Chinese cultural symbols and images that represent the flora and fauna of Magnolia.

The lantern festival, the first ever at a public garden in North America for Zigong, places Magnolia in a position to play a prominent role in supporting Charleston’s tourism traffic, said Tom Johnson, the garden’s executive director. “We are expecting record-breaking attendance for this visually stimulating display of stunning Chinese art that will glow in the night,” he said.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 11/11/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

11/8: Lights of Magnolia; Hate crimes; Bridge; Veterans

IN THIS EDITION
FOCUS: Lights of Magnolia to feature Chinese lanterns, dragons, much more
BRACK: Time for S.C. to pass hate crimes protections
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston Gaillard Center
GOOD NEWS: City gets $18.1 million grant for bike-walk bridge over Ashley
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: This puzzler might be impossible
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Opera houses
CALENDAR: How you can honor veterans today and beyond

by Charleston Currents · 11/10/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

FRAZIER: The women of Magnolia share a love of nature and beauty

By Herb Frazier, special to Charleston Currents | Decades ago when Magnolia Plantation and Gardens only opened the gates during the azalea-bloom season, Nona Hastie Valiunas and one of her cousins hid in the bushes then jumped out to scare the tourists. It was a playful time for young Nona who now shares ownership of the gardens that has been in her family for more than three centuries.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/08/2019 · Comments are Disabled · My Turn, Views

4/8: “The Public” opens; Remembering Fritz Hollings; Magnolia’s women

IN THIS ISSUE:

FOCUS: Film about libraries, homeless to have Charleston premiere Friday
COMMENTARY, Brack: Thank you, Fritz Hollings
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston International Airport
GOOD NEWS: Walters inaugurated; Port volume up
FEEDBACK: Send us your thoughts
MYSTERY PHOTO: This one may be too tough
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Ernest F. Hollings
CALENDAR: Lots going on in the area

by Charleston Currents · 04/08/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

Pictured above is a hand-colored 1863 image (Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper) of the Emancipation Day celebration on Jan. 1, 1863, under a grove of oaks outside Camp Saxton along the Beaufort River. Columbia filmmaker and Charleston native Bud Ferillo, who provided the engraved image, tells us that celebration of the first Emancipation Day was the largest in the South of freedmen when sine 3,000 people attended. Today, the location is home to Naval Hospital Beaufort.

FOCUS: Morris Brown AME to host special Watch Night today at noon

By Herb Frazier | Today at noon, the Charleston community will gather at Morris Brown AME Church to celebrate a moment in history when enslaved people anticipated freedom.

This special event at Morris Brown will be an homage to services first held on Dec. 31, 1862. At that time, the enslaved met in praise houses and churches to await the end of slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863.

Those first freedom’s eve services in 1862 have become an annual celebration called Watch Night held on New Year’s Eve in black churches across America. While many congregations, like Morris Brown, have held this service its original purpose had been lost in time. Last year, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission began an effort to preserve and sustain this cherished tradition.

by Andy Brack · 12/31/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

12/31: Watch Night at noon; Cauliflower and more: USS Charleston

IN THIS ISSUE | Dec. 31, 2018

FOCUS: Morris Brown AME to host special Watch Night today at noon
COMMENTARY, Brack: There are so many things I don’t understand
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Magnolia Plantation and Gardens
GOOD NEWS: USS Charleston to be commissioned March 2
FEEDBACK: Do you have any opinions? Send them to us
MYSTERY PHOTO: Is it a castle?
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Columbia College
CALENDAR: Restaurant Week is around the corner

by Charleston Currents · 12/31/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue

GOOD NEWS: New map shows real power grip in South Carolina

Staff reports | Our sister publication, Statehouse Report, provided an interesting map of where real power in the S.C. House lives in its recent issue. The map, inspired by a report in The New York Times, is proportional making geographically-large districts the same size as compact ones. The result? As highlighted above, the Republican Party totally dominates the S.C. House of Representatives (we knew it has an 80-44 grip on power, but the map shows the Upstate’s grip on politics.).

by Andy Brack · 11/26/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs