Bakari Sellers and Bruce Feiler Headline Conroy Center’s 5th Annual March Forth

Sellars (Credit John R. Walder – Carbon Thread Agency)

Press Release

Entering its fifth year, March Forth is a signature annual program of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center commemorating the anniversary of Pat Conroy’s death (March 4, 2016) with educational conversations about storytelling, conservation, social justice, and inclusivity—major themes of Conroy’s writing and teaching life.

The annual event will be held virtually on March 4th, 6th, and 7th, 2021 (Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday), and presented in partnership with Penn Center, NeverMore Books, the Beaufort County School District, and First Presbyterian Church of Beaufort. March Forth is sponsored by South Carolina Humanities, a not-for-profit organization inspiring, engaging and enriching South Carolinians with programs on literature, history, culture, and heritage.

Thursday evening’s program is free and open to the public on Zoom or as a livestreamed video on the Conroy Center’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/patconroyliterarycenter). Saturday and Sunday’s seven programs require advance registration with a $25 all-inclusive fee. Learn more and register at https://marchforth2021.eventbrite.com. Books by presenting authors are available through Beaufort’s NeverMore Books.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Feiler

Thursday, March 4th, 6 pm: Bruce Feiler, New York Times best-selling author of Council of Dads and Walking the Bible (both adapted as TV series) will discuss his newest book Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age in conversation with Rev. Patrick Perryman of First Presbyterian Church of Beaufort. (free online event)

Saturday, March 6th, 10 am: Former State newspaper journalist Claudia Smith Brinson will discuss her book Stories of Struggle: The Clash Over Civil Rights in South Carolina with Rev. Joseph A. Darby of Charleston’s Nichols Chapel AME Church.

Saturday, March 6th, 11:30 am: CNN commentator and former South Carolina State Representative Bakari Sellers will discuss his New York Times best-selling memoir My Vanishing Country in conversation with Charleston Post and Courier editor and writer Adam Parker. 

Saturday, March 6th, 2 pm: Debut Young Adult author Kalynn Bayron will discuss her novel Cinderella Is Dead in conversation with Beaufort High School students led by Conroy Center intern Holland Perryman.

Saturday, March 6th, 3:30 pm: Penn Center staff members Dr. Marie Gibbs and Dr. Charlene M. Spearen will discuss the The Convergence of Land and Self, an exploration of the connection between three common threads:  Penn Center’s history, the Gullah community, and Pat Conroy’s attention to landscape as evocative of one’s journey and sense of self.

Sunday, March 7th, 12:30 pm: Join us for a virtual tour of the Pat Conroy Literary Center’s new location, led by executive director Jonathan Haupt.

Sunday, March 7th, 2 pm: Environmentalist authors J. Drew Lanham, author of Sparrow Envy and recipient of the E.O. Wilson Award for Biodiversity Conservation, and John Lane, author of Whose Woods These Are and a South Carolina Academy of Authors honoree, will discuss their writing lives and their student-mentor relationship, moderated by USC Beaufort writer-in-residence Ellen Malphrus.

Rose

Sunday, March 7th, 3:30 pm: Join us for a panel discussion of Meeting at the Table: African-American Women Write on Race, Culture, and Community, featuring novelist and editor Tina McElroy Ansa, journalist and editor Wanda S. Lloyd, professor and hip hop scholar Regina N. Bradley, and actress and Disney Legend Anika Noni Rose.

Learn more about the year-round educational mission of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center online at www.patconroyliterarycenter.org or in person at 905 Port Republic Street in downtown Beaufort.

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