Learning The Lessons of Tragedy: A Conversation on Race, violence, and Reasoning:
Considering The Aftermath of the Orangeburg & Charleston Massacres in Art, Words, & Images
On Thursday, February 22nd, 2018, at 5:30pm, The I. P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium will host a colloquium and documentary film screening focused upon assessing the social, cultural, and historical lessons that may be understood based in an evolving awareness of the complex narrative of the Orangeburg Massacre, a tragic event in South Carolina’s history which occurred 50 years ago on February 8th of 1968, and its aftermath. The discussion will proceed following a viewing of the film Orangeburg: 50 Years Later, a work produced and developed by broadcast journalist, Steve Crump of WBTV, Charlotte. Documentary photographs by Cecil Williams and Jerry Fryer, representing the events that precipitated the tragic deaths of three students, will be on exhibition to support discourse on the past and its impact upon contemporary issues and socio-cultural developments. In the humanist process of developing cultural resources for our mutual survival, we must all be able to move beyond mere oppositional awareness to a collaborative or cooperative mode of being in our shared world. All political controversy has its beginning in this space of the division of interests between individuals and the diverse iterations of civic, state, regional, national, and international concerns.
Framing the documentary screening in a contemporary contextual point of departure are two exhibitions supported by the South Carolina Humanities Council; one is of images created by a diverse group of artists from the Southeastern region, the other of photographic works by Cecil Williams and Jerry Fryer, documenting the events that culminated in the Orangeburg Massacre. The exhibition is entitled Resistance, Reform, & Reasoning: The Orangeburg Massacre and Its Aftermath, 50 Years Later. The overall intention motivating this project is to establish a catalyst to discourse across generations pertaining to the significance of this tragic event and how it has become infused within our contemporary public consciousness. In addition, the role of student activists who serve as a form of public moral conscience will be explored and assessed, and other invited guests as well as the participation of the general public may be available for comment and to enhance our community discourse.
Colloquium panelist, Cecil Williams, a recipient of the Governor’s Order of the Palmetto, is a photographer and documentary journalist of national significance, who will discuss the events surrounding the images recording the events leading to the Orangeburg Massacre, and Williams will offer his reflections on student activism and the contributions of young people during the period of the 1960s and 1970s. Books by Williams and works by other authors, pertaining to the Orangeburg Massacre, will be offered for sale during this event.
Artist, Dr. Leo Franklin Twiggs, whose extraordinary images in response to the Charleston Massacre of 2015, has also been recognized by receipt of the Governor’s Order of the Palmetto, and the distinguished Elizabeth O’Neil Verner Award in the Visual Arts; will discuss how the artistic expression may be used to help a community understand and respond to terrible tragedy, and as an artist of national & international significance, Twiggs will be a contributor to the colloquium discussion. Dr. Twiggs’ batik tribute to the Charleston Nine, entitled Requiem for Mother Emanuel, shown at The Stanback in March of last year, is currently on view in Columbia at the South Carolina State Museum. Dr. Twiggs will also have his award-winning book, Messages From Home available for purchase.
The discussion will be moderated by Frank Martin, Interim Director of The I. P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium.
The producer, writer, and director, Steve Crump of Charlotte, creator of the documentary, Orangeburg: 50 Years Later will be present to address questions other distinguished, invited guests. Artists whose works are included in the exhibition of paintings, drawings, photographs, and installation works include: Juan Logan, Gwylene Gallimard & Jean-Marie Mauclet, Dogon Krigga, Michaela Pillar-Brown, Kim LeDee, Maggie O’Hara, Alexander Thierry, John Glenn Wright, Susan Smith, Alvin Glen, Giordano Angeletti, Cliff Emery, and Omari Fox. Some works in the exhibition have been made available through an on-going partnership with IFArt Gallery of Columbia. The general public is cordially invited to attend all activities.
This program is supported and funded in part by a generous grant to the I. P. Stanback Museum & Planetarium at South Carolina State University received from the South Carolina HumanitiesCouncil.