Charleston Gaillard Center Releases Raising the Volume Episodes XIV-XVII

FOR RELEASE WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021 MEDIA CONTACTS: Marcus Amaker Artist-in-Residence mamaker@gaillardcenter.org Charlton Singleton Artist-in-Residence Emeritus csingleton@gaillardcenter.org GAILLARD CENTER SOCIAL MEDIA: @gaillardcenter @gaillardcenter facebook.com/thegaillardcenter

Charleston Gaillard Center Releases Raising the Volume Episodes XIV-XVII May 5, 2021 – Charleston, SC – Today the Charleston Gaillard Center released the final four episodes and lesson plans of Season One of Raising the Volume.

Featuring conversations on music, race, art, activism, and more, the series is curated by Artists-in-Residence, Marcus Amaker and Charlton Singleton. In Raising the Volume, Charleston’s Poet Laureate Amaker and Grammy Award winner Singleton explore issues through open, honest dialogue. Each conversation includes an in-depth conversation with local Black leaders, educators, business owners, and artists.

The following episodes and lesson plans were released today: Episode XIV - Dr. Bernard Powers analyzes life and Black history.

Topics include his experience marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the influence of Jazz Ambassadors, and the development of the International African American Museum.

Episode XV - Jirah Perkins explores art and being you.

Topics include the importance of women creating Black art, what it means to be a Black woman, and being yourself.

Episode XVI - Osei Chandler describes discovering your Kuumba.

Topics include his experience founding the Black Student Organization, marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Kwanzaa principle, Kuumba.

Episode XVII - KJ Kearney highlights Black Food Fridays.

Topics include the effect of the pandemic on minority-owned businesses, overcoming obstacles, and creating personal, qualitative goals for success.

“Season One was an opportunity for us to celebrate Black joy and introduce viewers to some of the powerful people in our community,” stated Marcus Amaker. “I believe it's my duty to use my privilege as an artist to share the microphone with others. And I'm happy that these episodes and conversations have been given new life in the classroom."

Charlton Singleton noted, “Raising the Volume has been an enlightening, educational, and extremely enjoyable experience for me. It is not everyday that you get a chance to talk with and share experiences with the leaders, movers and shakers, and pillars of your community. Again...I am grateful to the Gaillard Center and Team for all of their support behind this!”

Each video is accompanied by a lesson plan for both middle and high school students. The Gaillard Center’s on-staff educator, Sterling deVries, will facilitate cross-school virtual meetings for students in different areas to discuss the content of the interviews. Seventeen lesson plans are available now at gaillardcenter.org.

The lesson plans highlight the following interdisciplinary themes: global awareness; civic literacy; working creatively with others.

Watch the episodes and download the plans here. All videos and lesson plans are available for free as part of the Gaillard Center’s Education and Community Program.

Previously released episodes include:

Episode I - A conversation on music, racism, art, activism, and more with Marcus Amaker & Charlton Singleton.

Episode II - A conversation on Charleston activism, past and present with former Municipal Court Judge for the City of Charleston for 33 years, Judge Arthur McFarland.

Episode III - A conversation on awareness and action with the Executive Director of YWCA, LaVanda Brown.

Episode IV - A conversation on growing up in Charleston and life as a journalist and author with Herb Frazier.

Episode V - A conversation on arts management with Dr. Karen Chandler.

Episode VI - A conversation on The Jazz Initiative and Jenkins Orphanage Band with Dr. Karen Chandler.

Episode VII - A conversation on his life and the health of our Black community with Dr. Thaddeus J. Bell.

Episode VIII - A conversation on entrepreneurship with Andrea Davis.

Episode IX - A conversation on finding your voice with Dr. Kylon Jerome Middleton.

Episode X - A conversation on music and life with The War And Treaty.

Episode XI - Kellen Gray examines classical conducting.

Episode XII - Marcus Amaker and Charlton Singleton talk about music, joy, and memory.

Episode XIII - Regina Duggins discusses her role as a mentor, teacher, and community leader.

Funding for this program is provided in part by BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Charleston Water System, Puffin Foundation West, Ltd., and TD Charitable Foundation.

ABOUT MARCUS AMAKER Marcus Amaker was named Charleston, SC’s first Poet Laureate in 2016. He’s also the award-winning graphic designer of a national music journal, an accomplished electronic musician, and a mentor to hundreds of students.

His poetry has been presented by The Kennedy Center, and has appeared in Departures magazine, Chicago Tribune, PBS Newshour, and several other publications. In 2019, he won a Governor’s Arts award in South Carolina.

His poetry has been studied in classrooms and has been interpreted for ballet, jazz, modern dance, opera and theater. Marcus has recorded three albums with Grammy Award winning drummer and producer Quentin E. Baxter of Ranky Tanky.

His latest book is The Birth of All Things, from Free Verse Press. He’s currently the Gaillard Center’s artist-in-residence.

MUSIC tapeloop.bandcamp.com NEW BOOK, VINYL AND MORE newpoetrybook.com WEBSITE marcusamaker.com ABOUT CHARLTON SINGLETON A native of Awendaw, SC, Charlton Singleton began his musical studies at the age of three on the piano. He would then go on to study the organ, violin, cello, and the trumpet throughout elementary, middle and high school. In 1994, he received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance from South Carolina State University. Since that time, he has taught music at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, as well as being an adjunct faculty member at the College of Charleston. In 2008 he co-founded and became the Artistic Director and Conductor of the Charleston Jazz Orchestra; an 18 piece jazz ensemble of some of the finest professional musicians in the Southeast and the resident big band in Charleston, SC. Mr. Singleton is also the organist and choir director at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Charleston, SC. In November of 2016 he was named the inaugural Artist in Residence at the recently renovated Gaillard Center in downtown Charleston. He remained in this position until July 2019; at that point he was named Artist in Residence Emeritus. In this position he continues to lead the Summer Youth Jazz Orchestra Camp as well as lead the “Jazz Through the Ages” assembly, which attracts a capacity crowd of students at the Gaillard Center.

As a performer, Charlton leads his own ensembles that vary in size and style. He has performed in France, Great Britain, Scotland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, The Netherlands, as well as many great cities throughout the United States. He is a founding member of a new ensemble called Ranky Tanky. The group is a quintet that interprets the sounds of Gullah from the Southeast Coast of the United States. In 2017 Ranky Tanky reached the top of the Billboard, iTunes, and Amazon Contemporary Jazz charts with their self-titled debut recording. In 2019 they accomplished the same feat with the release of their sophomore effort, “Good Time”, which recently won the 2020 Grammy Award for “Best Regional Roots Music Album”.

In addition to performing, he is in demand as a speaker, clinician, composer, and arranger. He has also shared the stage with and/or worked with some of most talented entertainers in the world, including Bobby McFerrin, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton, Houston Person, Darius Rucker, Fred Wesley, and Cyrus Chestnut to name a few. Outside of music and entertainment, he and his wife, MaryJo, are the proud parents of Shalamar and D’Marcus, as well as their pets...Sassy, Jango, Mojo, Kota Bear, Pumpkin, and Ginger.

WEBSITE charltonsingleton.com INSTAGRAM @csmusician FACEBOOK @charltonpsingleton ABOUT STERLING DEVRIES Sterling deVries, the Director of Education at the Charleston Gaillard Center, is dedicated to supporting the educational community through the arts. Following fifteen years as a classroom teacher, deVries builds on the knowledge that arts are an integral part of classroom content. Her Master’s degree in Arts in Education changed her approach to teaching and resulted in a student-centered, arts-enhanced method of content mastery.

ABOUT DR. BERNARD POWERS BERNARD E. POWERS JR. earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American history at Northwestern University and in 2018 retired as professor emeritus of history from the College of Charleston after twenty-six years. Currently Powers is the founding director of the College of Charleston’s Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston.

He has presented papers on various aspects of African American history at conferences and reviewed books and manuscripts for journals and presses. His work appears in book chapters and in scholarly and popular periodicals. He edited

the 1999 Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Black History Month Kit entitled “The Legacy of African American Leadership for the Present and the Future.” His article “Community Evolution and Race Relations in Reconstruction Charleston, S.C.” was included in the Century of Excellence Centennial Volume 1900-2000 of The South Carolina Historical Magazine (July,2000). A recent book chapter is “Churches as Places of History: The Case of Nineteenth Century Charleston, South Carolina,” in Interpreting African American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites (2015). Powers is the author of Black Charlestonians: A Social History 1822-1885, (1994) a Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book for 1995. He was an associate editor of the Encyclopedia of South Carolina (2006). He co-authored We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel (2016) which contextualizes the city’s 2015 racially motivated murders.

Most recently he has edited 101 African Americans that Shaped South Carolina (2020) published by the University of South Carolina Press. His current research examines African Methodism in South Carolina. Bernard Powers has appeared in documentary films, including the PBS production, “African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” and “Emanuel: The Untold Story of the Victims and Survivors of the Charleston Church Shooting.” Powers has been extensively involved in public history and has served as a consultant for historic sites. He is the founding past president of the Charleston Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He was also president of the South Carolina Historical Association and of the Advisory Board of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. He is an emeritus trustee of the Historic Charleston Foundation and a former member of the City of Charleston Tourism Commission.

Powers has also served as the interim president of Charleston’s International African American Museum (IAAM).

In 2019 the Association for the Study of African American Life and History recognized Powers’ lifetime commitment to “research, writing, and activism in the field of African American life and history” with the Carter Godwin Woodson Scholars Medallion.

Bernard Powers is a member of Morris Brown A.M.E. Church in Charleston, where he also serves on the Board of Stewards. He is married to Lorraine O. Powers who is a retired school administrator.

ABOUT JIRAH PERKINS Jirah Perkins is a multidisciplinary artist based out of Charleston, South Carolina.

She has been creating ever since she was a child. Art has always been her favorite

way of expressing her creative voice and has stood as a tool of therapy. She experiments through different mediums and styles with a focus on women empowerment. Jirah incorporates her photography references, bold colors and textures and even poetry to create a sensory experience through her work.

Her most recent collection, "Miss Mary Mack", focuses on the representational meaning of childhood handgames. This collection involves the use of abstract and realistic subjects to depict the flair and unadulterated joy of black-girl hood.

WEBSITE ujorii.com INSTAGRAM @ujorli FACEBOOK @Ujorlifineart ABOUT OSEI CHANDLER Osei Terry Chandler is the widowed father of three adult offspring. A retired educator, he was the Director of the Educational Opportunity Center at Trident Technical College.

Osei continues to vountarily produce and host the Roots Musik Karmau for South Carolina Public Radio. This Caribbean oriented music program has been broadcasting since April, 1979... almost 40 years. Chandler was recently inducted into the Lowcountry Music Hall of Fame.

Chandler's voice can be heard on the "Weekend Jazz" segment of the widely syndicated "Jazz Works" programs.

Because of his various involvements and committments Osei has been called a "community activist". Osei's family, (along with four or five other families), was among the first to practice Kwanzaa publically in Charleston in 1978. He co founded the still active Ebony City Soccer Club - "The Li'l Peles"; he is co- founder of the Charleston Remembrance Program (an annual commemoration to the African ancestors who perished during the Middle Passage); Osei has served as Presidentof the Avery Institute of Afro-American History & Culture and as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Avery Research Center.

Chandler has hosted a good number of concerts; he has facilitated and pasrticipated in a variety of presentations and panels relative to the enlightenment and upliftment of his family and his community.

Osei Terry Chandler holds a bachelor of Arts degree form MacMurray Colleg and Master's Degree from Webster University.

ABOUT KJ KEARNEY The founder of @BlackFoodFridays, KJ Kearney, created this initiative to encourage people to support Black owned food and beverage businesses each and every Friday. Started in April of 2020, at the beginning of the global pandemic, the original goal was to highlight Black owned restaurants that were open during COVID-19. It has since evolved into an aggregate landing page for people, all over the world, who are being intentional about spending with Black owned food-based businesses.

KJ is also the creator of the TikTok video series entitled #BlackFoodFact. His 60 second Black food history lessons were featured on the Today Show for making “Black Food History More Accessible.” The Black Food Fridays message has been shared in local, national, and international publications such as: The Charleston City Paper, The Post & Courier, the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveller UK, Mic.com, The Takeout, NBCBLK, Twisted UK, and the aforementioned Today Show.

WEBSITE blackfoodfridays.com INSTAGRAM @blackfoodfridays TIKTOK @blackfoodfridays ABOUT THE CHARLESTON GAILLARD CENTER The Charleston Gaillard Center is a 501c3 nonprofit performing arts organization in Charleston, South Carolina, committed to enriching lives through unforgettable experiences. Throughout the year, we provide exceptional programming and vibrant educational opportunities for the community.

Please consider a contribution as we continue to find innovative ways to connect, inspire and entertain. Donate to support the arts in your community. You can learn more about our educational resources and programming at gaillardcenter.org. ###