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gullah

  • In her later years, Josephine Wright of Hilton Head Island became a symbol for saving the rapidly disappearing land of the direct descendants of enslaved Africans. But this weekend she was remembered by loved ones for her giving spirit.
  • This week, Dr. Eric Crawford, a Gullah/Geechee scholar and Associate Professor of Musicology at Claflin University in Orangeburg, joins us to talk about Gullah culture and about editing a second edition of the late Dr. Wilbur Cross’ book, Gullah Culture in America (Blair, 2022).The book chronicles the history and culture of the Gullah people, African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of the American South, telling the story of the arrival of enslaved West Africans to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia; the melding of their African cultures, which created distinct creole language, cuisine, traditions, and arts; and the establishment of the Penn School, dedicated to education and support of the Gullah freedmen following the Civil War.
  • A golf course is a golf course no matter how small — that’s the cry on Saint Helena Island as a developer continues to push his plans despite a decades-old zoning law.
  • The city of Charleston wants to hear from Gullah Geechee communities to document and preserve their history. A $75,000 grant from the National Park Service has launched a 2-year project called the Gullah Geechee Heritage Preservation Project.
  • Saint Helena Island's decades old zoning law banning golf carts, gated communities and resorts is still being challenged. The law is meant to protect the island's Gullah Geechee people.
  • Boo hags, haints and other spirits are found throughout Lowcountry Gullah folklore. A boo hag is said to use witchcraft to steal energy from the living while they sleep. They steal a living person’s skin and wear it to move among the world of the living without suspicion. In this episode of South of Spooky, hosts Gavin Jackson and A.T. Shire learn about boo hags and their connection to Gullah culture. Could it be possible they've run into a boo hag and didn't know it?
  • St. Helena Island family shares the history of their Gullah culture and the contributions of African Americans during a monthly campfire supper on their farm.
  • Jonathan Green says that he creates his art for a purpose: to educate and inspire. He describes the newly published collection of his paintings, Gullah Spirit, as a kind of call for a community of mothers working together like those who raised him. He believes mothers are better together raising children.
  • In Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands (USC Press, 2021) musicologist Eric Crawford traces Gullah/Geechee songs from their beginnings in West Africa to their height as songs for social change and Black identity in the twentieth century American South. While much has been done to study, preserve, and interpret Gullah culture in the lowcountry and sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia, some traditions like the shouting and rowing songs have been all but forgotten. Crawford talks with Walter Edgar about his work, which focuses primarily on South Carolina's St. Helena Island, illuminates the remarkable history, survival, and influence of spirituals since the earliest recordings in the 1860s.
  • In Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands (USC Press, 2021) musicologist Eric Crawford traces Gullah/Geechee songs from their beginnings in West Africa to their height as songs for social change and Black identity in the twentieth century American South. While much has been done to study, preserve, and interpret Gullah culture in the lowcountry and sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia, some traditions like the shouting and rowing songs have been all but forgotten. Crawford talks with Walter Edgar about his work, which focuses primarily on South Carolina's St. Helena Island, illuminates the remarkable history, survival, and influence of spirituals since the earliest recordings in the 1860s.