Poetry Returns to McLeod Plantation Historic Site in November

Press Release

The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission’s Poetry at McLeod series returns this fall. The first event will be Saturday, November 12th and will feature poet Evie Shockley at McLeod Plantation Historic Site.

In this innovative series, African American poets reclaim the plantation landscape by exploring the past, present, future, and the imagined in their own voices. Often representing pain, suffering, survival, and perseverance, the featured poets confirm that plantations are places of conscience.

Evie Shockley will read poetry of her own works from 11 am to 1 pm on November 12th. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, poet Evie Shockley earned a BA at Northwestern University, a JD at the University of Michigan, and a PhD in English literature at Duke University. The author of several collections of poetry including a half-red sea (2006) and the new black (2011), Shockley is also the author of the critical volume Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation African American Poetry (2011). Her poetry and essays have been featured in several anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009), Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook (2010), A broken Thing: Contemporary Poets on the Line (2011), and Contemporary African American Literature: The living Canon (2013).

Shockley’s honors include the Holmes National Poetry Prize and fellowships from Cave Canem, the Millay Colony for the Arts, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. Coeditor of the journal jubilat from 2004 to 2007, Shockley is a professor at Rutgers University.

Poetry at McLeod is free to the first 50 participants, and thereafter free with park admission. Advance registration is not required for the poetry sessions.

The following day, on Sunday, Nov. 13, Shockley will also host a Poetry Workshop entitled “Sounding Out History & Writing into Silence” at McLeod Plantation Historic Site. During this session, Shockley will discuss her poems and/or others that work consciously with sonic effects and orality in relation to the literal and figurative silences in our knowledge of the history of slavery. Depending on the group’s size and interest, there may be writing prompts and sharing of written poetry. Registration is required, and space is limited. The Poetry Workshop is free of charge to attend, but registration is required. For additional details on the workshop or to register, visit CharlestonCountyParks.com.

This series is made possible by the generous support of The Poetry Society of South Carolina and the Charleston County Parks Foundation.

CCPRC opened McLeod Plantation Historic Site as a public county park and historic site in 2015. Located on James Island, McLeod Plantation Historic Site is a former sea island cotton plantation. In 2019, it was named a “Site of Conscience,” a designation that places it among an international coalition of museums, historic sites and memorials that confront both the history of what happened at the sites and their lasting impacts. For more information on McLeod Plantation Historic Site and the Poetry series, visit CharlestonCountyParks.com or call 843-795-4386.

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