The Slave Dwelling Project, Historic Charleston Foundation, and Gaillard Center Present Prints in Clay

Press Release

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The Charleston Gaillard Center announces Prints in Clay, a day-long multimedia artistic and educational exploration into the many significant contributions of African-Americans to the history and culture of the community. The four-part program consists of a historical tour, a visual exhibit, a curated dinner, and an evening concert. This program was developed in partnership with The Slave Dwelling Project and Historic Charleston Foundation.

“BEYOND THE BIG HOUSE” TOUR @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Step inside the back buildings and former work lots of Charleston’s private houses during the second annual Beyond the Big House Tour, September 15, 2018, presented by The Slave Dwelling Project, the Charleston Gaillard Center and Historic Charleston Foundation. Kitchens, carriage houses, slave dwellings and even churches where the enslaved worshiped have survived to tell the stories of African Americans in early Charleston, their lives and immense contributions to the fabric of our city.

THE FOOD OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA, CURATED DINNER BY DR. JESSICA HARRIS @ 5:00 pm

This amazing culinary event curated by Dr. Jessica Harris celebrates the contributions of African-American culture to Lowcountry cuisine. The dinner features a three-course meal, historically-informed and designed by Dr. Harris, featuring cuisine of the African Diaspora. This three-course, curated dinner features agricultural products essential to cooks of the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the dinner will blend context with cuisine, mouth-watering delights with historical background. This three-course, curated meal will also include beer, wine and a specially curated signature cocktail.

STILL, WE RISE! FEATURING J’NAI BRIDGES AND LOWCOUNTRY VOICES WITH ARRANGEMENTS BY WYCLIFFE GORDON @ 7:30 pm

The Charleston Gaillard Center presents a powerful evening of African-American Spirituals sung by mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, accompanied by an instrumental septet and choir with Musical Director and Commissioned Arranger Wycliffe Gordon. The program will be accompanied by a photographic exhibit on The Slave Dwelling Project, from September 10 through September 21. This program is presented in partnership with Historic Charleston Foundation.

Tickets for “Beyond the Big House Tour” ($40 + applicable fees) and The Food of the African Diaspora ($89 + applicable fees) on sale Friday, July 20. Tickets for Still, We Rise! Featuring J’Nai Bridges and Lowcountry Voices with Arrangements by Wycliffe Gordon on sale now. Multiple ticket packages are available.

BY PHONE: (843) 242-3099: ONLINE: www.gaillardcenter.org
IN PERSON AT THE TICKET OFFICE: Charleston Gaillard Center at 95 Calhoun Street. Ticket Office hours are Monday – Friday 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

The photo exhibit will be on display at the Charleston Gaillard Center from Monday, September 10 through Friday, Septem-ber 21. Hours: Monday – Friday: 9AM – 6PM | Saturday, September 15: 11AM – 8:30PM

ABOUT THE SLAVE DWELLING PROJECT:

The Slave Dwelling Project’s mission is to identify and assist property owners, government agencies and organizations in preserving extant slave dwellings. The organization identifies preservation resources and assists communities to mitigate the possibility of demolition of local existing slave dwellings. Joe McGill, founder of the Slave Dwelling Project, is a Civil War Re-enactor (54th Massachusetts Regiment) and a descendant of enslaved people. McGill has reached over 90 historic sites in more than 18 states, engaging with diverse audiences by conducting education programs and drawing attention to slave dwellings by staying in them overnight. The goal of the Slave Dwelling Project is to bring historians, students, faculty, writers, legislators, organizations, corporations, artists and the general public together to educate, collaborate and organize resources to save these important records and reminders of our American history.

“Now that I have the attention of the public by sleeping in extant slave dwellings,” says McGill, “it is time to wake up and deliver the message that the people who lived in these structures were not a footnote in American history.”

ABOUT THE HISTORIC CHARLESTON FOUNDATION:

Through public advocacy, educational outreach, research and interpretation at its house museums and preservation initiatives like the Neighborhood Impact Initiative, Historic Charleston Foundation (HCF) has succeeded in protecting buildings and neighborhoods since its founding in 1947. In recent decades, preservation issues in the city have evolved dramatically. An increase in development pressures as well as escalating real estate values, for example, have threatened the historic character and fabric of areas on the upper peninsula. Through its Neighborhood Impact Initiative program, HCF has re-habilitated fourteen area houses since 1995. Working closely with community efforts, the primary goals of the program include providing safe and affordably priced houses to long-time residents and preventing their displacement. Recently, as part of the program, HCF partnered with the New Israel Reformed Episcopal Church to create an urban garden on a vacant lot at the end of Romney Street.

At its house museums, HCF educates the public and school children about the people who lived and worked on those properties, both enslaved and free. Continuing research, architectural investigation and archaeology are constantly expanding the knowledge we have to share.

ABOUT DR. JESSICA HARRIS:

According to Heritage Radio Network, there’s perhaps no greater expert on the food and foodways of the African Diaspora than Doctor Jessica B. Harris. She is the author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and food-ways of the African Diaspora including Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking, Sky Juice and Flying Fish Traditional Caribbean Cooking, The Welcome Table: African-American Heritage Cooking, The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent, Beyond Gumbo: Creole Fusion Food from the Atlantic Rim. Harris also conceptualized and organized The Black Family Reunion Cook Book. Her book, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, was the International Association for Culinary Professionals 2012 prize winner for culinary history. Her most recent book is My Soul Looks Back: A Memoir.

ABOUT THE CHARLESTON GAILLARD CENTER:

The Charleston Gaillard Center is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to developing and operating a state-of-the- art performing arts center in downtown Charleston, SC. Opened in October 2015, our vision is to be a centerpiece of the Lowcountry, providing excellent year-round programming. To support the Charleston Gaillard Center, our education program or to learn more contact us online at www.gaillardcenter.org or call (843) 724-5212.