Bring on the bog: Have ‘A Little Chicken and Rice’ at CCU luncheon
Fittingly, Coastal Carolina University will bring people together to celebrate chicken bog's diverse history and significance at a luncheon presentation on Friday, Nov. 2, at noon in the Alford Ballroom on campus. Tickets are $10. Individuals who are still in the process of recovering from Hurricane Florence may receive free tickets.
Students in the fields of history, politics, studio art, graphic design, communications, photography and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program have spent the last eight months investigating and interviewing people on the intricacies of chicken bog in a project initiated through the Athenaeum Press, CCU's student-driven publishing lab. The endeavor has culminated into a DIY bog kit that includes recipe variations as well as a booklet that highlights eight stories of chicken bog cooks from across Horry and Georgetown counties.
The luncheon and presentation will bring together some of the diverse variations of chicken bog with a panel discussion on the continued importance of the dish to our changing community.
Alli Crandell, Athenaeum Press project manager and director of digital initiatives of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, said the learning process surrounding the dish elicited numerous heated proclamations from cooks and community members regarding the superior version of chicken bog. However, project developers maintained an objective stance on the matter.
"We've become a bit bog agnostic over this project," said Crandell. "We've had great bog with nothing but onions, and great bog with mushrooms. It's been amazing watching students, some of whom aren't from this area, get to know chicken bog and perlou and get excited about trying more."
For the project, students traveled from Loris to interview Ricky Dew and Melissa Todd, both winners of the famed Loris Bog Off, to Murrells Inlet to talk with Latonya Gore, who won the Murrells Inlet Bog Off. While the stories are personal, the students also investigated the history of bog, from the enslaved peoples and chefs of the rice plantations to the tenant farming that spread across most of this region.
"I came into this project pretty familiar with chicken bog from my dad. He was a Conway native, and I thought I had bog pretty well figured out," said Valerie McLaurin, a graduate student who worked with the Athenaeum Press on the project.
"But this project has really opened my eyes to the bigger history of chicken bog and perlou and how they're intertwined. This project has been interesting because it's a dish that a lot of people know, but a lot of people know it in a different way. But it's still a dish that brings people together."
The Athenaeum Press also held a booth at the Oct. 20 Loris Bog Off (at which Chris Conner was named the area's 2018 chicken bog champion). The annual bog off is organized by the Loris Chamber of Commerce.
Unlike other university presses, the Athenaeum Press develops projects from the ground up with a team of faculty, students and community members. Teams generate, refine and storyboard the project, then design and build the project across a wide variety of formats. The result is a multimedia work that is both digital and tangible. Over the past five years, the press has produced a photography book about a 19th century journey in a paper canoe, a web series documentary about homelessness in Myrtle Beach, and an interactive and traveling museum exhibit on African-American soldiers during WWII, among others. More press projects can be found at the press' website at theathenaeumpress.com.
Tickets to the luncheon and presentation are $10; tickets for the luncheon/presentation and a DIY chicken bog kit and booklet are $25. To purchase tickets, call Cali Duncan, special projects assistant at the Athenaeum Press, at 843-349-2947 or visit http://ccu.press/bog. Individuals still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Florence may obtain free tickets by calling or visiting the Press website. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and seating is limited.
Additional resources:
Alford Ballroom, Atheneum Hall Alumni Center at 104 Independence Drive, park at Lackey Chapel, 105 University Blvd.