2020
February 20 – PechaKucha 36
As a participant in the first-ever International PechaKucha Day, 2/20/2020, on this exciting evening Charleston PechaKucha as always featured an array of Charleston’s most stellar creatives: Juan Cassellett, co-owner and chef at Malagon; Jesse Vickers, interior designer and principal of JLV Creative; Beki Crowell, Soul Artist, vibrational healer, and writer; Kaminer Haislip, designer and silversmith; Michael Smallwood, actor, writer, playwright, and educator; Jess Nichols and Erik Holmberg, masterminds behind the J. Stark product line; Henry Riggs, comedy writer, actor, improvisor, and teacher; Nakeisha Daniel, actor, vocalist, and arts education advocate; Jae Smith and Bennett Jones, co-host/co-author and organizer/produce of Tales from the Manor.
PechaKucha 36 was also notable as the tenth in CAF’s continuing collaboration with Charleston Music Hall.
Poster Design: Josh Capeder. Emcee: Wolfgang Zimmerman of Rialto Row. DJ: Professor Ping.
Charleston Music Hall
April 21-May 18 – PechaKucha Reprise
With the goal of providing meaningful stimulation to our creative community in the earliest days of the pandemic shutdown, Charleston Arts Festival and Charleston Music Hall negotiated with the leadership of Charleston City Paper to disseminate video presentations from PechaKuchas 28 through 36 via the CP website on a two-three episode per week basis. These represented presentations recorded since the initiation of the CAF-CMH sponsorship of Charleston’s PechaKuchas.
April 21 – PechaKucha 28 (January 8, 2018)
April 24 – PechaKucha 29 (March 2, 2018)
April 27 – PechaKucha 30 (May 30, 2018)
May 4 – PechaKucha 31 (September 5, 2018)
May 5 – PechaKucha 32 (November 12, 2018)
May 9 – PechaKucha 33 (January 31, 2019)
May 11 – PechaKucha 34 (June 5, 2019)
“Bearing Witness”
“Bearing Witness”, a free three-part virtual play reading series, produced in partnership with PURE Theatre and Buxton Books, was launched to partially fill the creative void engendered by the coronavirus pandemic. Each of the three plays were new original works by local playwrights and touched on issues of race and parity in our United States..
Each reading was followed by a virtual panel discussion between audience members, experts in various fields, and creatives from PURE Theatre and the larger community. Spanning more than 200 years, “Bearing Witness” gave audiences the opportunity to think deeply about racial injustice and to come together to consider how to move forward in equity.
July 17 – Denmark: Every Man Has a Story
The series opened with Denmark: Every Man Has a Story, a new play by Dr. Ade Ofunniyin. This inspiring new work chronicled what might have been Denmark Vesey and his lieutenant Gullah Jack’s stories leading up to the planned Rise of 1822 in Charleston, South Carolina. Their revolutionary spirit and patriotic bravery earned them a place in the temple of souls who are eminently martyred in the act of “freedom fighting.”
Cast: Douglas Scott-Streater and Joel Watson
Panelists: Jonathan Green, Ade Ofunniyin, and Lori-Elizabeth Parquet
July 31 – Last Rites
The second offering in the series was a reprise of Last Rites, written by PURE Core Ensemble member, Randy Neale, and took a leap forward in time to the 1968 Detroit riots This compelling piece of theatre received stellar reviews at its premiere at PURE Theatre in August, 2019.
Cast: Joy Vandervort-Cobb, Michael Smallwood, and R.W. Smith
Panelists: Patricia Williams-Lessane, George Hopkins, and Lori-Elizabeth Parquet
August 14 – Retcon
The series concluded with Retcon, a new play by PURE Core Ensemble member Michael Smallwood, which took another leap forward over a half-century to the present day and examined black rage through the lens of superhero mythology.
Cast: Tonya Smalls-Williams, Javaron Conyers, and Sullivan Hamilton
Panelists: Michael Smallwood, Patricia Williams-Lessane, and Lori-Elizabeth Parquet
October 16-17 – “It Never Changes To Stop”
Charleston Arts Festival collaborated with uber-talented Charleston-based choreographers—Sara Sumner, Starla Kurtz, Caitlin Phibbs, and Crystal Wellman—to produce “It Never Changes To Stop” for two live contemporary dance performances. Staged outdoors at Tradesman Brewing Co., the piece was conceived as a playful interpretation through movement of the stages of life and the common thread of being human that binds us all.
Tradesman Brewing Co.