Indelible Moments

Jack Dempsey’s Indelible Moments

USCB will present Indelible Moments: 1970 Street Photographs from Two Cultures, by Jack Dempsey, January 27 – February 20. The two exhibition areas will feature an exhibit of over 50 street photographs from the US and South America during the early 1970s. The front exhibition hall will show photographs from two extended trips to Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru in 1971 and 1972. The interior exhibition hall will exhibit photographs from the central, eastern, and southern US, around the early 1970s as well.

Dempsey’s work highlights the contrasts and similarities of the two cultures during that unique period in our history. “Certain scenes I came upon were thought-provoking to me because of shadow and light shapes that bounced to the either end of the value scale and made mid-tones become the backdrop. Images of store windows, with or without people, were also intriguing. The arrangements, the styles, typography, the objects, for example hats, political posters, fences, or mannequins are cultural artifacts and sometimes art. I’m sure the work of Eugene Atget, an early pioneer of photography, and artist/photographers like Bill Brandt and Walker Evans have always influenced my awareness of the artifacts of the street.”

“I don't recall that ‘street photography’ was a term that photographers used often in the 1970s. It's a pretty good term, though. Typically, these types of photos aren't documentary. Neither are they photos that concentrate on snapshots, art, nor the craft of photography. Even so, street photos can be any of these things.” “I often carried one or two Nikon rangefinder cameras inside a woven shoulder bag. These cameras were well used when I first bought them and got pretty beat up. I loved them and adjusted the f/stop, shutter speed, and twitched the film advance lever without looking as I walked along.” “Considerable work was involved in restoring the 50-yearold negatives that were often stored in hot closets or in rooms without air conditioning. The images are printed on archival paper from high resolution scans. Some were quite a challenge to restore and required a lot of digital post-production.”

circuit our spiritual, mental and emotional being in order to reconnect us to the things that matter most in life. What if, I asked, rituals are needed to wake us up to universal themes of love, peace, creativity and the unlimited possibilities that

Trumpets are often used to announce great events. Perhaps New Year's Eve hooting, hollering and horn blowing are the ritualistic tools revelers use to prepare them for the New Year. Maybe our ancestors weren’t too different from who we are today. While we are consumed with modern technology and the unforgiving regime of nine-to-five work days, our ancestors were quite likely fixated on the demands of farming. Could it be that rituals and ceremonial observations have always been used to jar human beings out of the lull of day-to-day activities in order

It seems appropriate that the first An opening reception is Friday, Jan. 27, celebrations of a New Year occurred 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Center for the Arts, USCB. For between the end of winter and the more information - https://www.uscbcenterbeginning of spring. Spring is symbolic of forthearts.com, or jdempsey.net birth. While winter is synonymous with death. The ten seconds between the New Year and the outgoing one can be viewed as a moment of transition. We are between the death of winter and the spring of life. Isn’t it appropriate we enthusiastically bid a farewell to the past and gleefully

This New Year’s Eve will be a different kind of celebration for me. For the first time in years I will go into the night and enter into the morning with a reverence for what has happened in the past and for what can be in the future. While, I don’t think I will partake in the primal calls of pain and joy by yelling or making noise with noise makers, I do intend to salute the outgoing year and joyfully embrace the The Funambulist

My Word for 2023

Again, it’s time to select a word as my guiding light for the new year. I want my word choice for 2023 to be rich and velvety, a comfort as I move into an alien world of Medicare and swelling knuckles. I choose the word . . . savor. It’s a first cup of coffee in the morning kind of word. A sip of newness. A warming of the palms of my hands against the sides of a ceramic mug or over the crackle of burning wood. It’s sunset. Or better yet, sunrise.

The word savor conjures a kind of inner satisfaction, a long breath inhaled and then, exhaled, a purposeful pause in the action of busyness. To savor is to await and then receive. It is a kind of orgasm of spirit, delight meeting satisfaction. To savor is to step back and consider, to be grateful. Choosing the word savor gives me a deeper appreciation of fleeting moments, times so quick to come and go that if I am not conscious and aware, I will miss everything. Now is the time to not miss anything.

Like every new year, I set goals and most of them drift away to memory. Every year, I reset my sights on the care of my body. I think about all of the words I have failed to write, that I abandon; literary orphans confined to quiet corridors in my mind or left stagnant in every ink pen I have not lifted.

I keep telling myself now is the time but my scattered energies and easy tendency toward boredom are convenient distractions to keep from savoring little things - my terrier’s soft fur, the quiet grin on my husband’s face from across the room, a thank you from my mother-in-law as I deliver a small plate of Christmas cookies to her coffee table.

To savor brings a tinge of sadness over what’s been lost, when I’ve forgotten to look back as I walk away, to say I love you one more time, to reach for and touch someone’s hand. There are times I forget to put my fork down and purposefully chew, to inhale steam from of a bowl of seafood gumbo over rice, or cautiously sip a homemade broth, titillating nerve endings and allowing aroma to wake my memory.

What I am coming to understand is that pain and suffering ask to be savored right alongside joy and pleasure. This is a difficult lesson and unwelcome request and I am ill-equipped with a skill set for this. When I confront the reality of a loved one’s death, witness homelessness and addiction, acknowledge a friend’s undesirable diagnosis, or mark my own slow deterioration, I can deny reality or become almost creative in my approach to dilemma. To sit with loss and hardship and savor the ways these challenges will cause me to adapt and transform may be the greatest lesson this new year word experiment will present. I guess I will find out.

Maybe my 2023 word choice gives me a new way of making resolutions. I resolve to try new foods, learning to take and enjoy time in the kitchen. I resolve to be still more often. Since I am retired and my “birthday number” continues to increase, maybe I’ve earned the hours to be at rest. I resolve to give myself permission to read without guilt. I resolve to pay attention to this gift and passion for writing. I resolve to love better, to look up and see the sky, to relish the aroma of the seasons and listen, really listen to songbirds, creek gurgles, and the new music my nieces text to me on Spotify. I resolve to keep my body active by swimming and walking, to use those pickle ball racquets, peddle my bike, and join in a yoga class now and again.

Savor . . . so close to the word savior, and isn’t that word packed with meaning? I continue to want to be in communion with a Spirit greater than myself. I find joy in prayer, by which I mean, conversation with God. That’s where miracles happen. I ask for help, and a friend texts to share a word of encouragement. I don’t know the next step and I wake up from a dream with a new idea. I can’t find the next right word, and somehow this rusty brain hears a whisper. Of course, an online thesaurus helps too confirming the cliche that God helps those who help themselves.

Happy New Year. If you wish, pick a word and resolve to go on an adventure with it. Our lives are so precious. Making time to love, to serve, and to be intentional in littleness is a gateway to savor each day with verve. A pinch of salt and a dash of Tabasco don’t hurt either. Have fun, be well and savor each spicy moment of 2023!

Vivian Bikulege

WHATEVER

Vivian Bikulege shares her life with Mac & Trooper. Along with writing, her passions include faith, family, friends and the natural world. She holds an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte and has contributed to Lowcountry Weekly for fifteen years.

Crys Matthews Makes Music on Malphrus

Crys Matthews will perform at Music on Malphrus, 110 Malphrus Road, in Bluffton Saturday, January 21, at 7 pm. General Admission is $25. Doors open at 6:15 pm.

Already being hailed as “the next Woody Guthrie,” Crys Matthews is among the brightest stars of the new generation of social justice music-makers. A powerful lyricist whose songs of compassionate dissent reflect her lived experience as what she lightheartedly calls "the poster-child for intersectionality," Justin Hiltner of Bluegrass Situation called Matthews’s gift "a reminder of what beauty can occur when we bridge those divides." She is made for these times and, with the release of her new, hope-fueled, love-filled social justice album Changemakers, Matthews hopes to take her place alongside some of her heroes in the world of social-justice music like Sweet Honey in the Rock and Holly Near. Of Matthews, ASCAP VP & Creative Director Eric Philbrook says, “By wrapping honest emotions around her socially conscious messages and dynamically delivering them with a warm heart and a strong voice, she lifts our spirits just when we need it most in these troubled times. ”Matthews began performing in 2010, but cemented her acclaim at Lincoln Center as the 2017 New Song Music and Performance Competition grand prize winner. That year she also released two new projects—her album of thoughtful songs on love and life called The Imagineers, and her EP called Battle Hymn for an Army of Lovers, which tackles social justice themes. Matthews also won the People’s Music Network’s Social Justice Songs contest at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance. Loyal fans quickly followed as Matthews racked up performances at large music festivals and prestigious venues across the country including the Sundance Film Festival, Kerrville Folk Festival, and locally at venues like The Birchmere, The Hamilton, Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, and Jammin' Java. In her Ted Talk about difficult conversations called "Sing, Don't Shout—An Alternative Approach" Matthews spoke about being born and raised in a small town in southeastern North Carolina by an A.M.E. preacher, and how she witnessed the power of music from an early age. A former drum major and classically-trained clarinetist turned folk singer, Matthews is using her voice to answer Dr. Martin Luther King's call to be "a drum major for justice." “I believe in hope,” Matthews said. “As a socialjustice songwriter, it is my duty to keep breathing that hope and encouragement into the people who listen to my music.” And, from the title track to the last track, Changemakers does just that all while tackling some heavy topics like immigration, the opioid crisis, Black Lives Matter, and gun safety to name a few.“ Ani DiFranco said, “People used to make records as in a record of an event," said Matthews, “so I hope that these songs will serve as a time capsule, a record of the events of the last four years and what it was like to live through them.” Crys Matthews's thoughtful, realistic and emotional songs speak to the voice of our generation and remind us why music indeed soothes the soul. www.crysmatthews.com

Paid Advertorial by The Christian Science Society of Beaufort

Peace Begins With

Each of Us

“Let There Be Peace on Earth” is the title of a song written by Jill Jackson-Miller and Sy Miller. The lyrics convey the timeless message: May peace on earth begin with each one of us as individuals. We could say that peace can begin for everyone right at home, so to speak.

Peace can often seem “out there” – elusive and difficult to achieve. But if we think about starting with ourselves, peace can seem less distant and more readily attainable.

I’ve learned about peacemaking from my study of the Bible, and of Christian Science, which was founded by Mary Baker Eddy. The Bible story of Abigail and her husband, Nabal, has always stood out to me as a good illustration of peace beginning with the individual. In this case, peace began with Abigail’s efforts to compensate for Nabal treating David in an unbrotherly way. Thanks to Abigail, violence was averted between David’s men and her family (I Samuel 25).

Christ Jesus taught peacemaking skills. He stated, “Blessed are the peace makers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). And then he articulated a variety of ways to make peace, including “Be reconciled to thy brother,” and “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despite fully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:24, 44).

The basis for consistently expressing such love is brought out in Christian Science, which shows how peace is grounded in the spiritual perspective that there is one God, also explained as the divine Mind. This is the one and only Mind of all God’s offspring – of all humanity. As we understand that this is so, we increasingly express the godly love of that Mind in our interactions among our fellow human beings.

Mrs. Eddy wrote, “The First Commandment in the Hebrew Decalogue – ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ – obeyed, is sufficient to still all strife. God is the divine Mind. Hence the sequence: Had all peoples one Mind, peace would reign” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 279). Since peace – including harmony, goodness, love – is part of God’s very nature, it is inherently part of our individual nature as God’s offspring. And understanding that brings out this inherent quality of peace in practical expression. Since each one of us is God’s offspring, and God has all power, everyone has the right and the ability to understand and demonstrate this peace.

There was a time when I had been mistakenly judged at work, by an individual who was senior to me, for having done something I didn’t do. While this wasn’t a potential lose-your-job kind of situation, for credibility, future advancement, and simple justice, it was important for me to be perceived rightly. Instead of becoming angry, I took the peaceful approach. I went to God in prayer and felt divinely guided to approach my senior with sincerity to share my side of the story. The individual listened sincerely, and I felt I was heard. At the same time, I prayed and affirmed that God, the one Mind, was in control – not many minds. And so, we both could only express that Mind. I also prayed to love the individual as God’s offspring, just as I was.

As I continued to pray in this way, I felt an easing of tension and misunderstanding between the senior and me. In addition, some information surfaced that corrected any mistaken perceptions, and this also helped us to go forward in a good, peaceful working relationship. I was humbled when I found out my senior had submitted my name for a leadership award.

We each can make a difference toward peace in the world around us as we take the initiative to be peacemakers at every opportunity. May we open our thought to the idea that peace can begin right within each one of us. Then we can expect to experience Jesus’ promise: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”