Coastal Carolina University has re-imagined its cultural arts season, creating a virtual experience for connoisseurs of the arts. Spring 2021 will bring the arts to you with a season you can stream from your favorite chair, the backyard, or even your breakfast table.
Enjoy CCU’s cultural arts including award-winning documentary film screenings, complete with discussions with the directors; readings and discussions with nationally renowned guest authors. With lectures, concerts, theatrical performances and more, Spring 2021 cultural arts with Coastal Carolina University promises enlightenment, beauty, and excitement for viewers of all tastes and ages.
The fully virtual Spring 2021 CCU Cultural Arts season requires reservations for each event. Tickets are free, and the Edwards College encourages and appreciates donations. Virtual tickets may be obtained online by visting tickets.coastal.edu.
January
Friday, Jan. 29, 7:30 p.m.
Puppapalooza
Department of Theatre
This captivating evening of storytelling via puppetry is a collection of works conceived and created by CCU students. Through puppetry, imagination is transformed into reality, where worlds are inhabited by characters that illuminate our collective stories. The production represents the collaborative efforts of more than 60 creators, performers, and mentors. A live Q&A session will follow the show.
Please note: This performance is designed for an adult audience. It contains adult language, situations, and themes. It is not recommended for viewers under the age of 18.
More on the Department of Theatre
February
Friday, Feb. 5, 6:30 p.m.
Teaching Gullah Geechee Language
Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies
Sunn m’Cheaux, a native speaker of Gullah from Charleston, S.C., and instructor of Gullah in Harvard University’s African Language Program (ALP), discusses his teaching of Gullah Geechee language. His presentation will also focus on challenges facing students who are native Gullah speakers.
This event is the first of four in the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies’ Spring 2021 speakers series.
More on Sunn m’Cheaux
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Saturday, Feb. 6, 10 a.m.
Arctic Security
Great Decisions in Foreign Policy Lecture Program
Richard Kilroy, associate professor in CCU’s Department of Politics, discusses global policy and security surrounding Greenland and the Artic region.
U.S. President Donald Trump left many scratching their heads when it was rumored that he was looking to purchase the large island nation of Greenland from Denmark. While any potential deal seems highly unlikely, the event shows the changing opinion within the U.S. government toward engagement with the Arctic region. Because of climate change, large sheets of arctic ice are melting, exposing vast stores of natural gas and oil. With Russia and China already miles ahead with their Arctic strategies, can the U.S. catch up?
The Great Decisions Lecture Program is hosted jointly by CCU’s Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy, Department of Politics, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and Center for Global Engagement. Great Decisions is the oldest and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. This event is the first of four in the Great Decisions Spring 2021 series.
Contact Richard Kilroy at rkilroy@coastal.edu for ticketing information.
More on Richard Kilroy
More on Great Decisions
Friday, Feb. 12, 6:30 p.m.
Gullah Geechee Food Traditions, Part I
Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies
Join Laura Herriott, a lifetime resident of Georgetown County’s Sandy Island, as she prepares traditional Gullah dishes from her island home. Herriott owns Wilma’s Cottage, a 1950s-era house on Sandy Island that was built by her grandparents and is now available for accommodations as an inn. Herriott often cooks Gullah fare for guests and will discuss the history and culture behind each dish.
This event is the second of four in the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies’ Spring 2021 speakers series.
More on Laura Herriott and Wilma’s Cottage
More on the Charles Joyner Institute
Saturday, Feb. 13, 10 a.m.
The Korean Peninsula
Great Decisions in Foreign Policy Lecture Program
Soo Kim, policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and adjunct instructor at American University, discusses the relationship among leaders and policy makers in South Korea, North Korea, and the United States.
The Korean Peninsula is facing a defining era. Attempts by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump to repair the rift between North and South have lost any momentum as Pyongyang continues to test long-range missiles for its nuclear weapons program. As the rift between the U.S. and China grows further, South Korea may end up in the middle of the two superpowers. What does the future hold for the U.S. relationship with the Republic of Korea?
The Great Decisions Lecture Program is hosted jointly by CCU’s Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy, Department of Politics, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and Center for Global Engagement. Great Decisions is the oldest and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. This event is the second of four in the Great Decisions Spring 2021 series.
Contact Richard Kilroy at rkilroy@coastal.edu for ticketing information.
More on Soo Kim
More on Great Decisions
Tuesday, Feb. 16, 6 p.m.
Longleaf: The Heart of Pine, a film by Rex Jones
CCU Cultural Arts
A screening of Longleaf: The Heart of Pine will be followed by a discussion with director and creator Rex Jones. This documentary, produced by the Southern Documentary Project, traces the history of the longleaf pine, which once covered nearly 90 million acres in areas from Virginia to Texas and today is reduced to two million acres. The South’s “primeval forest,” and especially the old-growth longleaf pine, was nearly a casualty of human settlement and progress; and today, efforts are underway to recreate this natural resource in abundance. Longleaf: The Heart of Pine is cultural and natural history of the species.
Jones is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with the Southern Documentary Project, an institute at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. His works have been broadcast on PBS, chosen as official selections of film festivals throughout the country, and won multiple awards from various organizations. Longleaf: The Heart of Pine was broadcast on Mississippi Public Broadcasting in April 2016.
More on the Southern Documentary Project
Wednesday, Feb. 17, 5:30 p.m.
Creative Nonfiction Reading: Rebecca McClanahan
Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series
Award-winning author and educator Rebecca McClanahan will read from her 11th and latest book, In the Key of New York City: A Memoir in Essays (2020). McClanahan’s work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, and the Georgia Review, and she is the recipient of two Pushcart prizes, the Glasgow Award in Nonfiction, and the N.C. Governor’s Award for Excellence in Education. McClanahan teaches in the MFA programs at Queens University in Charlotte, N.C., and Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.
The Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series, sponsored by the Department of English, brings noteworthy, contemporary writers to campus to discuss their works and their craft.
More on Rebecca McClanahan
More on the Department of English
Thursday, Feb. 18, 6:30 p.m.
Gullah Geechee Food Traditions, Part II
Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies
Personal chef and food historian Benjamin “BJ” Dennis, who has been featured in the New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain on The Food Network, cooks Gullah Geechee staples and discusses their West African roots. A native and resident of Charleston, S.C., Dennis grew up Gullah and gained nationwide recognition for his authentic cuisine through the pop-up Charleston café Butcher and Bee in 2012; he’s been sharing Gullah food and culture with a growing audience ever since.
This event is the third of four in the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies’ Spring 2021 speakers series.
More on BJ Dennis
More on the Charles Joyner Institute
Saturday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m.
Global Supply Chain and National Security
Great Decisions in Foreign Policy Lecture Program
Michael Murphree, assistant professor in the Department of International Business at the University of South Carolina, discusses the impacts of material shortages and other challenges within the global supply chain.
The shutdown of global supply chains due to the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the forefront an issue with the high level of global economic interdependence: what happens when one country is the main source for an item, say face masks, and then can no longer supply the item? Countries suddenly unable to meet the demand for certain supplies are faced with growing calls for economic nationalism. What are some of the lasting effects that the pandemic could have on global supply chains and trade? How would this affect national security?
The Great Decisions Lecture Program is hosted jointly by CCU’s Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy, Department of Politics, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and Center for Global Engagement. Great Decisions is the oldest and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. This event is the third of four in the Great Decisions Spring 2021 series.
Contact Richard Kilroy at rkilroy@coastal.edu for ticketing information.
More on Michael Murphree
More on Great Decisions
Friday, Feb. 26, 6:30 p.m.
Gullah Geechee-Sierra Leone Connection
Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies
Amadu Massally, a native of Sierra Leone and founder of global community organization Fambul Tik, presents the documentary Gullah Roots. The film traces the cultural ties between the Sea Islands of Georgia and SC and West Africa, from which Gullah evolved. Fambul Tik, which means “family tree” in the lingua franca of Sierra Leone, is a heritage tourism group that fosters connections among descendants of Sierra Leone in areas around the globe.
This event is the fourth of four in the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies’ Spring 2021 speakers series.
More on Fambul Tik
More on the Charles Joyner Institute
Saturday, Feb. 27, 10 a.m.
China and Africa
Great Decisions in Foreign Policy Lecture Program
Richard Aidoo, CCU professor in the Department of Politics, discusses the complexities of international relations between China and Africa, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Covid-19 crisis has put a massive strain on what was growing a positive economic and political relationship between China and the continent of Africa. As Chinese President Xi Jinping’s centerpiece “Belt and Road initiative” continues to expand Chinese power, the response to the spread of Covid-19, as well as the African government’s growing debt to China, has seen pushback. What are some of the growing economic and political issues between China and Africa?
The Great Decisions Lecture Program is hosted jointly by CCU’s Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy, Department of Politics, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and Center for Global Engagement. Great Decisions is the oldest and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind. This event is the fourth of four in the Great Decisions Spring 2021 series.
Contact Richard Kilroy at rkilroy@coastal.edu for ticketing information.
More on Richard Aidoo
More on Great Decisions
March
Tuesday, March 23, 5:30 p.m.
Fiction Reading: Donald Quist
Words to Say It Visiting Writers Series
Donald Quist will read from For Other Ghosts (2018), a collection of thirteen interrelated stories of loss and rebirth. His essay collection Harbors (2016) was a Foreward INDIES bronze winner and International Book Awards finalist. Quist’s writing has appeared in AGNI, North American Review, and The Rumpus. He has created the online nonfiction series PAST TEN and serves as co-host of the Black & White and Read All Over podcast. Quist earned his MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is a Gus T. Ridgel fellow in the English Ph.D. program at the University of Missouri.
The Words to Say It visiting writers series, sponsored by the Department of English, brings noteworthy, contemporary writers to campus to discuss their works and their craft.
More on Donald Quist
More on the Department of English
Tuesday, March 30, 5 p.m.
Blaxploitalian: 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema
Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, Intercultural Language Resource Center
This live-streamed documentary will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session with director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu. Blaxploitalian discusses 100 of presence and absence of diversity in the Italian film and TV industry. It spans diasporic, hybrid, historical, critical, and cosmopolitan lenses, uncovering the careers of frequently overlooked entertainers: Black actors in Italian cinema. Engrossing interviews with Afro-Italian, African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and African diasporic actors are interspersed with conversations with international scholars who provide critical and historical frames to understand actors’ personal and professional challenges within the Italian film industry.
Kuwornu, a filmmaker-activist-producer-educator born and raised in Italy and based in Brooklyn, holds a B.A. in Political Science and Mass Media from the University of Bologna. Kuwornu produced and directed Inside Buffalo, a documentary based on the African American segregated combat unit 92nd Infantry Division, nicknamed Buffalo Soldiers, that fought with heroism in Italy during the second World War. Inside Buffalo won Best Documentary at the Black Berlin International Cinema Festival, had viewings at the Pentagon and the Library of Congress, and received a letter of congratulations from President Barack Obama. Kuwornu has presented documentary screenings and lectures at more than 300 universities around the world.
More on Fred Kudjo Kuwornu
More on the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies
APRIL
Tuesday, April 20, 5:30 p.m.
What We Left Unfinished: a film by Mariam Ghani
CCU Cultural Arts
A discussion with director/producer Mariam Ghani will follow the screening of this film. What We Left Unfinished is an award-winning documentary about five unfinished feature films from the Communist era in Afghanistan (1978-91), when films were weapons, filmmakers became targets, and the dreams of constantly shifting political regimes merged with the stories told onscreen. It is also a tribute to a tight-knit group of Afghan filmmakers who loved cinema enough to risk their lives for art.
Ghani’s previous projects in Afghanistan have documented afterlives of former secret prisons; real estate speculations in reconstructed Kabul; and forgotten histories of Afghan modernists, artists, and intellectuals. Her films and installations have been presented at Lincoln Center, MoMA, the National Gallery, CCCB in Barcelona, and Garage in Moscow. They are in the permanent collections of the Guggenheim, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Arab American National Museum, and the Devi Art Foundation (India).
More about Mariam Ghani
More about What We Left Unfinished
Watch What We Left Unfinished trailer
TICKETS
The fully virtual Spring 2021 CCU Cultural Arts season requires reservations for each event. Tickets are free, and the Edwards College encourages and appreciates donations.
Virtual tickets may be obtained online by visting tickets.coastal.edu.
Ticket holders will receive an email reminder and access link several hours before the performance. Clicking the link within the email will allow attendees to enter our virtual auditorium, The Cultural Arts: Teal Room, at the appropriate time.