Examining the life and artistry of enslaved S.C. potter David Drake
On Sunday, Feb. 19, the Peace Center will host what may be the year’s best opportunity to celebrate the art and lives of South Carolina’s most distinguished Black artists, both living and deceased.
S.C. Governor’s Award recipient and poet Glenis Redmond, joined by MacArthur Fellow and literary historian P. Gabrielle Foreman, will lead a discussion of the collaborative book, Praise Songs for Dave the Potter. Featuring the art of internationally acclaimed Gullah painter Jonathan Green and Redmond’s poetry, Praise Songs for Dave the Potter examines how South Carolina slave David Drake has inspired visual artists and poets who claim him as an artistic ancestor.
One of the country’s most accomplished 19th century potters, David Drake was a South Carolina slave in the Edgefield District. His pots—many inscribed with song and verse—are treasured artifacts by collectors and museum curators across the U.S.
Redmond and Foreman will lead a discussion of Praise Songs, and books will be available for purchase and signing afterward.
Tickets are $15 and all are welcome. Click here for more information.
Submitted material
Celebrate 50 years of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts tonight
SCETV special starts at 8 p.m.
Tonight, South Carolina ETV will premiere the stories of nine high-profile past recipients of the Governor's Awards for the Arts at 8 p.m. on South Carolina ETV and streaming.
The South Carolina Arts Commission, the sole presenter of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts, initiated a film project telling the story of the awards for their 50th anniversary. Host Jackie Adams (right) will lead viewers through the result: nine vignettes that look at South Carolina arts, culture, and history through the eyes of living, high-profile South Carolina artists who have received the award through the past 50 years:
John Acorn
Wilfred Delphin
Mary Jackson
Glenis Redmond
Tom Stanley
William Starrett
Leo Twiggs
Sam Wang
Cecil Williams
Read the SCAC news release on The Hub here.
Adams, a freelance on-camera talent based in Columbia with an extensive arts background, will introduce the films that profile each artist. The filmmakers behind them, Renderhouse Films of Columbia, spent several months documenting the artists. They turned nine stories that cross diverse lines— racial, ethnic, gender, and artistic disciplines—into individual works of art themselves, notable for their high production quality.
How to watch
South Carolina ETV, the state’s public educational broadcasting network, will broadcast through its 11-station TV network that spans the state. Viewers can access the broadcast via:
cable, satellite, and some streaming live TV providers
Further information about accessing SCETV is available here.
Can't make it or forget to DVR? Subsequent re-airings of the production will occur on other SCETV channels, including Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. on the South Carolina Channel and Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. on ETV World.
Jason Rapp
SCAC to celebrate 50 years of Governor’s Awards for the Arts
SCETV to premiere retrospective special on Jan. 5
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLUMBIA, S.C. – A retrospective broadcast commemorating 50 years of the South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts with the stories of nine high-profile past recipients is to premiere Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023 at 8 p.m. on South Carolina ETV.
The South Carolina Arts Commission, the sole presenter of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts, initiated a film project telling the story of the awards for their 50th anniversary. The result was nine vignettes that look at South Carolina arts, culture, and history through the eyes of living, high-profile South Carolina artists who have received the award through the past 50 years:
John Acorn
Wilfred Delphin
Mary Jackson
Glenis Redmond
Tom Stanley
William Starrett
Leo Twiggs
Sam Wang
Cecil Williams
“The South Carolina Arts Commission is extremely proud of its role in recognizing our state’s most accomplished artists and advocates with the Governor’s Awards for the Arts each year. If the pandemic had one silver lining, it forced us to switch from an in-person format to a streaming presentation that allowed our work to continue while being accessible,” SCAC Executive Director David T. Platts said.
“In 2022, our homegrown streaming presentation became a broadcast on South Carolina ETV. It has been a pleasure to partner again with them to commemorate this anniversary. Renderhouse Films did a phenomenal job telling these artists’ compelling stories, and it all came together in a special way.”
Jackie Adams (right), a freelance on-camera talent based in Columbia with an extensive arts background, will be host of the hour-long broadcast. She will introduce the films that profile each artist. The filmmakers behind them, Renderhouse Films of Columbia, spent several months documenting the artists. They turned nine stories that cross diverse lines— racial, ethnic, gender, and artistic disciplines—into individual works of art themselves, notable for their high production quality.
Adams’ 25 years of experience include positions in non-profit arts administration and leadership, arts education, community arts, and curatorial and studio practice with Columbia College, the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Richland County School District One, Lewis and Clark, and many statewide, regional, national artists.
South Carolina ETV, the state’s public educational broadcasting network, will broadcast the retrospective premiere through its 11-station TV network that spans the state. Viewers can access the broadcast via livestream on the homepage of SCETV.org; by using a digital antenna; or through cable, satellite, and streaming live TV providers. Further information about accessing SCETV is available here.
Subsequent re-airings of the production will occur on other SCETV channels, including Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. on the South Carolina Channel and Jan. 23 at 2 p.m. on ETV World.
About the South Carolina Arts Commission
The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.
A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in artist development, arts industry, arts learning, creative placemaking, and folklife and traditional arts. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @scartscomm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content.
Jason Rapp
S.C. Arts Commission to present four Governor’s Awards for the Arts in 2022
for immediate releaseCOLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) is happy to announce four recipients who are to be honored in 2022 with South Carolina’s highest award for exceptional achievement in practicing or supporting the arts.
The SCAC presents the South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts annually each spring. The appointed members of the agency’s board of directors vote on panel recommendations for the award. In 2022, the SCAC board approved the recommendations of the following honorees from their respective categories to be recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina:
ARTIST: Darion McCloud, Columbia
INDIVIDUAL: Ed Madden, Columbia
ARTS IN EDUCATION: Carrie Ann Power, Aiken
ORGANIZATION: One Columbia for Arts and History, Columbia
"Recipients always represent the best of South Carolina. They are talented, successful, and dedicated. They give of themselves to ensure access to the arts for all,” SCAC Chairwoman Dee Crawford said. “By presenting them the Governor’s Award, we celebrate their achievements and thank these accomplished recipients for enriching life and culture throughout South Carolina.”
“This class of Governor’s Award recipients is notable for the ways it improves access to the arts across the spectrum,” elaborates SCAC Executive Director David T. Platts. “Making the arts more representative is central to the South Carolina Arts Commission’s mission. All four of these recipients demonstrate tireless efforts to help the arts be more inclusive and accessible.”
A diverse committee, appointed by the S.C. Arts Commission Board of Directors and drawn from members community statewide, reviews all nominations. After a rigorous process and multiple meetings, the panel produces a recommendation from each category with a nomination that is sent to the board for final approval. Serving on the panel for the 2022 awards were Shani Blann (Lexington), Dr. Philip Mullen (Columbia), Glenis Redmond (Mauldin), Bhavna Vasudeva (Columbia), and Bradley Wingate (Greenville).
Recipients of the South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts and Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards are honored during a video presentation of the South Carolina Arts Awards. The SCAC and its partner for the Folk Heritage Awards, McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina, are working to finalize plans for the 2022 awards and announce details on a later date.
About the 2022 South Carolina Governor’s Awards for the Arts RecipientsDARION MCCLOUD (Artist Category) is an actor, director, storyteller, educator, arts activist, and children’s literature advocate from Columbia. He is also the founder and creative director both of NiA Theatre Company and Story Squad. McCloud is a Riley Institute Diversity Fellow and the 2019 recipient of the Theatre Artist of the Year Award from The Jasper Project. A formally trained visual artist with a bachelor’s in art studio from the University of South Carolina, he found his way to the stage via telling stories and stayed, acting and teaching there for more than 20 years. He enjoys crafting theatre, storytelling, and art experiences for old and young and the initiated and the un-initiated in environments as varied as classrooms, corporate settings, libraries, campfires and, of course, theatres; he is a company member for Columbia-based Trustus Theatre and the South Carolina Shakespeare Company. McCloud has numerous statewide partnerships to his credit in higher education, the humanities, and the arts. He considers himself as having committed his life to the transforming power of art.
ED MADDEN (Individual Category) is a poet, activist, and a professor of English, with a focus on Irish literature, at the University of South Carolina. There, he is also director of the women’s and gender studies program. His academic areas of specialization include Irish culture; British and Irish poetry; LGBTQ literature, sexuality studies, and history of sexuality; and creative writing and poetry. In 2019 he was named a Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and a visiting artist fellow at the Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil. In 2015, Madden was named Columbia’s first poet laureate, a post he maintains today. Madden has been a South Carolina Academy of Authors Fellow in poetry twice and was South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow in 2011. He has been writer-in-residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Garden and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston as part of the state’s African American Heritage Corridor project. He also was 2006 artist-in-residence for South Carolina State Parks. His numerous publishing and editing credits include four of his own: Nest, Ark, Prodigal: Variations, and Signals, and his chapbook So They Can Sing won the 2016 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize. Photo by Forrest Clonts.
CARRIE ANN POWER (Arts in Education Category) has been an arts educator and advocate in South Carolina for more 30 years. Beginning in 2004 she was the fine arts department chair, grant manager, and visual arts teacher at East Aiken School of the Arts (EASOA) until 2015. During that time, she transformed EASOA by adding full-time dance and theatre programs, developed and implemented all aspects of the EASOA after-school arts program, and secured donations to fund scholarships providing low-income families access to programs. During that tenure she coordinated the Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts, which improves and enhances arts lesson plans based on the 2010 S.C. Visual and Performing Arts Academic Standards. She then served as the education associate for visual and performing arts at the South Carolina Department of Education from 2015 until 2019, where she oversaw the development of K-12 Design Standards for visual and performing arts and later coordinated their revisions. Power served an active role on notable state arts or arts education boards and, in her community, supports educational outreach programs that bring professional artists into schools.
Founded as a non-profit in January 2012, ONE COLUMBIA FOR ARTS AND CULTURE (OC) (Organization Category) served as de facto office of cultural affairs for Columbia until being officially named as such earlier this year. Its mission is to “advise, amplify and advocate for strengthening and unifying the cultural community of Columbia” and does so by promoting cultural activities taking place in the city through various means. In 2014, OC facilitated the formalization of Columbia’s public art program, which has resulted in the creation of more than 60 public artworks and an online directory of public art throughout the city of Columbia. The organization facilitates other projects related to tactical urbanism, creative placemaking and enhancing public space. When Columbia established the honorary position of city poet laureate in 2015, it tasked OC with creating the selection committee that resulted in Dr. Ed Madden being awarded the title. OC is responsible for Amplify, a comprehensive cultural plan approved by city council in 2020. In recent years, it undertook the lengthy process of developing of a modern flag for the city adopted by city council in 2020.
About the South Carolina Arts Commission
The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.
A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in four areas: arts learning, community and traditional arts, artist development, and arts industry. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @scartscomm on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content.
Jason Rapp
Scholarship opportunity for emerging Greenville writers
Glenis Redmond Scholarship for Emerging Writers
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Sunday, February 28, 2021
Glenis Redmond’s love of words has carried her across the country for two decades.
She travels nationally and internationally reading and teaching poetry and has had posts as the poet-in-residence at the Peace Center in Greenville and at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Glenis is a Cave Canem Fellow, a North Carolina Literary Fellowship Recipient, and a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist. She also helped create the first Writer-in-Residence at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Glenis believes that poetry is a healer, and she can be found in the trenches across the world applying pressure to those in need, one poem at a time.
In 2020, she was awarded the South Carolina Governor's Award for the Arts as the artist recipient.
About the scholarship
This scholarship is awarded annually to high school seniors or first-year college students to support their development as creative writers as they attend college.
Award amount: $1,000
Submissions open: January 1st
Submissions close: February 28th
Winner announced: March 15th
Eligibility
College-bound high school seniors and first-year college students, ages 17-20, and who are current residents of Greenville County, South Carolina. Students may enroll in any major but must plan to further develop their creative writing abilities.
Students must plan to enroll in a two-year or four-year college on either a part-time or full-time basis.
Visit this link to apply.
Submitted material
Announcing the six recipients of the 2020 Verner Award
Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Award for the Arts to be presented in May
For Immediate Release
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s highest award for achievement in the arts is to be presented to six uniquely qualified arts practitioners and supporters announced today by the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC).
The SCAC Board of Directors approved panel recommendations for the following recipients from their respective categories to be recognized for outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina:
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT: Dr. Philip Mullen, Columbia
ARTIST: Glenis Redmond, Mauldin
INDIVIDUAL: Mary Inabinett Mack, St. Helena Island
ARTS IN EDUCATION: Cindy Riddle, Campobello
BUSINESS: United Community Bank, Greenville
ORGANIZATION: Charleston Gaillard Center, Charleston
“This year’s recipients represent the best of South Carolina. They are talented, successful, dedicated to giving of themselves to ensure everyone who wants to can benefit from access to the arts,” S.C. Arts Commission ChairwomanDee Crawford said. “By taking our arts community to new levels, they are elevating our state as well. With the Verner Award, we celebrate their achievements and thank them for enriching life and culture here in South Carolina.”
A diverse committee, appointed by the S.C. Arts Commission Board of Directors and drawn from members of the South Carolina community at large, reviews all nominations and, after a rigorous process, makes recommendations to the board for final approval after a series of panel meetings produces a recommendation from each category.
The South Carolina Arts Awards
The Verner Awards will be presented with the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards at the 2020South Carolina Arts Awards on Wednesday, May 6 in a luncheon and ceremony at the USC Alumni Center (900 Senate St., Columbia). Luncheon tickets are $50 per person and are to be available for purchase by mid-March.
About the Verner Award Recipients
Philip Mullen (Lifetime Achievement) has been a mainstay in the South Carolina arts scene since coming to Columbia to join the University of South Carolina faculty in 1969. Five of his works are included in the State Art Collection and others adorn the collections of Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn Museum, Columbia Museum of Art, Greenville County Museum of Art, and McKissick Museum among others. He has had solo exhibitions in at least eight states and Washington since 1972. He is the only living South Carolina artist to have been featured, in 1975, in the prestigious Whitney Biennial by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, regarded as one of the world’s leading art shows.
Poet and teaching artist Glenis Redmond has a love of words that’s taken her across the country and Atlantic Ocean to performances at the White House, Library of Congress and London. She is currently poet-in-residence at the Peace Center in Greenville and The State Theatre in New Jersey as well as a teaching artist for the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. She is the founder of the Greenville Poetry Slam and co-founder of a youth poetry slam in Asheville, North Carolina. Her work with the Peace Center led to her founding in of Peace Voices, a poetry program dedicated to poetic outreach and engagement in the community, in 2011.
As an ex-patriate South Carolinian in New York City, Mary Inabinett Mack became a registered nurse and psychiatric/mental health nursing instructor. She earned a certificate for psychoanalysis and psychotherapy and two National Institute for Mental health fellowships. Mack fed on the New York arts scene and came home to “her Gullah folk and the sweet, salty air of the Lowcountry” in 1977. The art retail business she started became Red Piano Too Art Gallery, a leading folk art gallery that launched the careers of many artists. The first female chair of the Penn Center’s board, she is a lifetime member of its advisory board and was inducted into its 1862 Circle for embodying the spirit of the center and advocating for the enduring history of the Lowcountry, civil rights, and reconstruction it celebrates.
Cindy Riddle began teaching art in the Upstate in 1999. She worked at two schools before joining Spartanburg District One as a fine arts instructional coach for a year, then becoming the district’s coordinator for visual and performing arts, gifted and talented services. She is now an assistant superintendent in the same focus area. Riddle has national board certification in early and middle childhood art and is the current president of the South Carolina Education Association. She holds degrees from Anderson and Lander universities and Converse College and has been recognized six times with various awards for teaching. An artist and entrepreneur, she operates and creates and gives lessons from her Chicken Coop Art Company.
Headquartered in Greenville and in operation for almost 70 years, United Community Bank has $12.9 billion in assets and operates 149 offices in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. They abide by the Golden Rule, according to Chairman and CEO Lynn Harton, and are committed to maintaining extraordinary culture, creating meaningful relationships and earning the trust of customers, all with the goal of improving lives. Nominators and supporters of United Community Bank pointed to lengthy and generous support of South Carolina arts institutions like Artisphere and South Carolina Children’s Theatre in Greenville and Chapman Cultural Center in Spartanburg. The support comes from not just funding, but also the investment of time and service by its associates.
One of the Holy City’s most notable spaces, Charleston Gaillard Center provides the Lowcountry with a world-class performance hall, elegant venue space, and vibrant educational opportunities. A massive renovation project made possible by a $142 million public/private partnership created an iconic performance and event space appropriate for one of the world’s leading cities. In the last four years, Charleston Gaillard Center’s education and community program has provided arts-enhanced education programs to 130+ schools, covered the cost of transportation for 757 buses, and impacted more than 67,000 students in the tri-county region, all while remaining a 66% barrier-free program.
About the South Carolina Arts Commission
With a commitment to excellence across the spectrum of our state’s cultures and forms of expression, the South Carolina Arts Commission pursues its public charge to develop a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education, and economic vitality for all South Carolinians.
Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in three key areas:
arts education,
community arts development,
and artist development.
Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the Arts Commission is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources. For more information, visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696.
Correction
The initial version of this news release said Ms. Mack was first female member of the Penn Center board of directors. She was its first female board chair. The copy has been updated. (6 Feb. 2020, 10:44 a.m.)
Glenis Redmond laughs when she talks about it.
But, yes, the Ku Klux Klan gave the acclaimed poet a considerable career boost.
In 1999, the group marched in Asheville, North Carolina, where Redmond lived.
A group of Asheville citizens responded with a multiracial unity rally where Redmond, then a struggling poet, read some of her inspirational writings.
Booking agents happened to be present at the anti-KKK meeting, and they offered Redmond a contract on the spot.
“I literally signed up that next week to speak at schools and universities,” Redmond said. “And I was pretty much booked solid for two years straight.”
Redmond relishes the poetic irony — and poetic justice — of the experience.
“People ask me, ‘How did you get your start?’ and I facetiously say, ‘It was the Ku Klux Klan,’” she said with a laugh.
“It’s an odd intersection but that’s what motivated me to be at that venue,” she said. “It was where my life shifted from being below the poverty level to being able to pay the bills and buy a house.”
Redmond’s subsequent career as a poet has taken her everywhere from schools and Ivy League universities to women’s centers, prisons and homeless shelters.
“I walk into a lot of doors of people who don’t necessarily know they need poetry,” she said. “Many have never even considered poetry before.”
Redmond, whose uplifting work often focuses on the black experience, doesn’t justread her poetry. She performs her poems with an emotive, stirring voice and gestures that reflect both grace and strength. (Several of her poetic performances can be seen on YouTube.)
Redmond also teaches students, young and old, how to put their feelings into concentrated, rhythmic and powerful verse.
“They’re learning how to reflect deeply as a human being and how to write about that experience,” Redmond said.
Redmond believes in the transformative power of poetry as an antidote to a fast-paced, competitive society that seems to have little time for self-reflection.
“We don’t take time to listen to the world and to ourselves,” Redmond said. “That’s the role of the poet, to say, ‘Yes, there’s struggle here but there’s also beauty.’”
Most recently, she mentored five young people from around the country who had been chosen, from among 20,000 entrants, to recite their poetry at the White House for an audience of dignitaries that included first lady Michelle Obama.
Redmond held workshops with the young writers online before meeting them in Washington, D.C. and taking them to the White House.
“It was exciting,” Redmond said. “In addition to Michelle Obama, there were representatives of the top poetry organizations in the world. These five students were reading for the elite even though they had never done a reading before. Michelle Obama is such a supporter of the arts and was a wonderful host for our young people. She really put them at their ease.”
Redmond encourages young talent but cautions aspiring poets that it’s not an easy life.
“I tell them that if you can be anything else, do that,” Redmond said. “When you work for yourself, the work is 24-7.”
Poetic entrepreneur
As a poet, Redmond is also an entrepreneur. Like any contractor, she often has to juggle several jobs at the same time. Right now, she has at least four.
She’s poet-in-residence at Greenville’s Peace Center and at the New Jersey State Theatre. She’s a teaching artist at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center. She also maintains a lively free-lance career that keeps her booked a year in advance.
All of her affiliations involve performing her own work and mentoring young people.
At the Peace Center, where Redmond spends about five months every year, she conducts poetry workshops and public readings with young people and adults. The sessions are free and open to any aspiring poet.
She also hosts a series called Poetic Conversations in the Peace Center’s Ramsaur Studio. On Jan. 27, as a part of events honoring the life of Martin Luther King Jr., Redmond and blues musician Scott Ainslie will perform their piece “Southern Voices: Black, White and Blues,” followed by a conversation with the audience. (The 7 p.m. event is free and open to the public but reservations are required by emailing Taryn Zira at tzira@peacecenter.org.)
On Feb. 18, Redmond hosts a Black History Month Conversation with performance poet Joshua Bennett in the Peace Center’s Gunter Theatre. (Tickets are free and reservations can be made by calling 864-467-3000 or visiting the Peace Center website at www.peacecenter.org.)
Redmond, 52, has had to grapple with some of the usual challenges that an entrepreneur faces: dealing with contracts and taxes, purchasing health insurance, identifying her niche and then marketing her product, which happens to be herself.
“The poetry is always the thing I’ve focused on, but at the same time I’ve had to make a living doing this, so I’ve had to figure out the business side of it,” Redmond said.
“Even before I signed with an agent, I thought about how I might fashion myself so that a school district would be interested in me as a teaching artist,” Redmond said.
There’s considerable travel involved in being a performance poet as well. She calls herself a “road warrior for poetry,” alternating between homes in three cities: Greenville, Charlotte and New Brunswick, New Jersey.
“My present car, which I just put out to pasture, had 360,000 miles on it,” Redmond said. “All of those are poetry miles.”
Redmond had an office manager for 14 years to help with scheduling and other administrative matters. Now, the Peace Center and New Jersey State Theatre assist her on many of those responsibilities.
“They keep my calendar straight because I’m in so many places during the year,” she said.
Early on, Redmond embraced entrepreneurial risk. She gave up a job as a counselor in the early 1990s to take what she called “a vow of poetry”: She would make her living only by poetry. Or bust.
“I poured my life into poetry,” Redmond said. “I took that vow seriously. There were a couple of years where I was living below the poverty level but I was dedicated to being a poet. The work was volatile. It was often feast or famine.”
Learning the business of poetry involved mostly on-the-job training.
“I’ve had a lot of mentors and good fortune in terms of people who believed in what I do,” Redmond said.
A love of words
Redmond, who was born in Sumter, knew by age 11 that she wanted to be a poet.
“I knew in middle school that I loved poetry and loved writing,” Redmond said. “But now that I look back in hindsight, I think I was a poet all along, even before I could write because I was cataloging. I was taking snapshots of memories. I was holding on to them. I was also a voracious reader and I loved words and I loved story.”
Redmond came from an artistic family. Her father, who was in the Air Force, was a blues, jazz and gospel pianist. Her siblings sang in choirs.
During her teen years, Redmond wrote occasional poetry for her Baptist church.
“If someone died, I wrote the obituary poem,” she said. “If someone got married, I wrote a marriage poem.”
Later, Redmond graduated from Erskine College with a degree in psychology and worked as a drug and alcohol abuse counselor in Greenville for seven years.
It was in 1993 that Redmond took her “vow of poetry.” In some ways, it was merely an extension of her work as a counselor.
“I don’t see poetry as therapy but I do see it as therapeutic,” Redmond said.
In 1994, she created the first Poetry Slam in Greenville, featuring dynamic performance poetry.
Later, she was appointed a teaching artist with the South Carolina Arts Commission. She traveled the country also with “Poetry Alive!” — taking classic and contemporary poetry into schools.
She became a teaching artist with the Peace Center before being appointed poet-in-residence at the performing arts venue three years ago.
Along the way, Redmond got married, had twin girls, got divorced and earned her master’s degree of fine arts in poetry from Warren Wilson College.
“It was an unconventional life,” Redmond said. “I was a single mom with twin girls who made her living by being on the road. In order to survive, I had to leave home.”
Her girls, now 26, “were raised on poetry,” she said, “and they’re doing really well.”
For the latest in local arts news and reviews, follow Paul Hyde on Facebook and Twitter: @PaulHyde7.
YOU CAN GOWhat: Poet Glenis Redmond and blues musician Scott Ainslie perform “Southern Voices: Black, White and Blues,” followed by a conversation with the audience; the event honors the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 27
Where: Peace Center’s Ramsaur Studio
Tickets: Admission-free but reservations should be made by emailing Taryn Zira at tzira@peacecenter.org
Information: 864-467-3000
S.C. teaching artists highlighted on Americans for the Arts blog
The South Carolina Arts Commission was honored to be asked to contribute to an Americans for the Arts blog salon on teaching artists. Many thanks to the four artists highlighted: Bob Doster of Lancaster, Patz Fowle of Hartsville, Francee Levin of Columbia, and Glenis Redmond of Greenville.
(Image: Glenis Redmond with student)
Rich in Rewards: Why Teaching Artists TeachWhy do some artists decide to teach? For many, the attraction is a desire to connect students to a creative process and to the larger arts community. For others, teaching fuels their work as artists. The South Carolina Arts Commission’s Roster of Approved Artists includes more than 900 artists who have been approved to conduct residencies and performances in schools. Many have been teaching for as long as they’ve been artists. We wanted to know more, so we asked four Roster artists about their experiences.
Read the artist interviews here: http://blog.artsusa.org/2014/03/13/rich-in-rewards-why-teaching-artists-teach/
Milly
Students to perform original poetry at Peace Voices event
Students from throughout the Greenville, South Carolina community will perform original poetry at the Peace Center on Jan. 8 as part of the new Peace Voices program. Peace Voices is a special collaboration with nationally acclaimed poet and performer Glenis Redmond. As the Peace Center's artist-in-residence, Redmond is building a program that fosters creative expression through writing and performing poetry with young and mature writers.
Peace Voices creates a platform for youths and adults to express themselves through poetry, for the first time providing a space and a stage where the community can share their original poems in a performance setting. This initiative allows the Peace Center to reach diverse populations of all ages and backgrounds, while unlocking the artistic voices and stories inherent in the community.
The event begins at 7 p.m. in the Gunter Theatre and features a special performance by Redmond. The performance is free, but tickets are required as space is limited. Contact the Peace Center box office at (864) 467-3000 to reserve tickets.
Visit the Peace Center's website for more information and to read poems created through Peace Voices. Contact Staci Koonce with additional questions at (864) 679-9203.
Via: The Peace Center