A Message from Cindi for Midlands Gives 2023

Please Consider Supporting the Jasper Project This Year During Midlands Gives.

Jasper is an all-volunteer 501c3 with NO paid employees and NO overhead, so your donations go directly to the Columbia, SC arts community via events and publications.

Me with Jasper Project board president Wade Sellers and Elvis (aka Patrick Baxley) at Bernie Love 2023

Welcome to one of my favorite times of the year—the time for me to report back to you, our supporters, on how the Jasper Project has been using the funds you entrusted to us over the past year. It’s a joy to celebrate what we can accomplish together with your funding and the Jasper Project’s labors of love.

I always have a soft spot in my heart for Jasper Magazine, which was the seed of the Jasper Project and remains my favorite project of all. Last spring, we published a beautiful issue featuring Lindsay Radford Wiggins on the cover and Michael Krajewski as our centerfold artist. Kristine Hartvigsen wrote the piece on Lindsay, and I had the honor of writing about Michael who, actually, was the centerfold in the first ever issue back in fall 2011. This time, however, he is fully clothed!  We also featured a piece on Mike Miller’s new book, The Hip Shot, WOW Production’s first YouTube series,  Quincy Pugh’s Veteran’s Day Parade painting series, Carleen Maur’s experimental filmmaking, Artists for Africa, and two new books from Muddy Ford Press, (Jasper’s original underwriter before we became a non-profit under the leadership of Larry Hembree), including Night Bloomer by Jane Zenger and More God Than Dead by Angelo Geter. We wrote artist profiles on Lucy Bailey, Diko Pekdemir-Lewis, and Rebecca Horne; Music editor Kevin Oliver compiled a jam-packed article on 10 music artists to watch in the coming year; Will South wrote a piece on Tyrone Geter and his work and life in Gambia; and I had the honor of profiling David Platts, the ED of the SC Arts commission. Sadly, we also memorialized Wim Roefs and Mary Bentz Gilkerson.

Our fall 2022 issue of Jasper featured Wilma King on the cover and Jim Arendt in the centerfold. We wrote about Wideman-Davis dance, Baba Seitu Amenwahsa, Steven Chapp and Jerred Metz, Arischa Connor’s television successes, the Soda City jazz scene, Jamie Blackburn, poet Monifa Lemons and her stint as an actor on Lena Waithe’s film, Crooked Trees Gon Give Me Wings, Carla Daron’s new book The Orchid Tattoo, Amy Brower and the life of a casting agent, new theatre editor Libby Campbell, Dustin Whitehead’s new film Hero, Elizabeth Catlett, and included several poems and music reviews.

I don’t want to give too much away about the spring 2023 issue which is releasing on Saturday May 20th at the Artists Showing Artists event, hosted by Desirée Richardson of Death Ray Robin, but if you meet me that evening at the One Columbia Co-Op at 1013 Duke Avenue, you’ll get some fresh print featuring Philip Mullen, Olga Yukhno, Bohumila Augustinova, Katie Leitner, Dick Moons, Ivan Segura, Drink Small, Alyssa Stewart, and lots of surprises

Fall Lines volume IX - Cover art by Sean Rayford — https://www.seanrayford.com/

After the magazine my next favorite project has to be Fall Lines—a literary convergence. We just released our 9th volume and issued the call for our 10th. I’m incredibly excited to announce that, in addition to the Broad River Prize for Prose, which went this year to Tim Conroy, and Saluda River Prize for Poetry, which went this year to Jo Angela Edwins, that next year we will also be offering the Combahee River Prize to a SC BIPOC writer of poetry or prose. We’ve also formed an ad hoc committee, captained by poet Randy Spencer,  to study the best ways to grow Fall Lines as it moves into its 10th year.

Along the same lines we awarded the Lizelia Prize, named in honor of anti-Jim Crow poet-activist Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer, to Myrtle Beach poet Maria Picone. Maria will have her poetry chapbook titled Adoptee Song, published by Muddy Ford Press through a sponsoring relationship with the Jasper Project. Board member Len Lawson managed this project.

We devoted a lot of our time last summer to the Play Right Series, a project managed by board member Jon Tuttle. The winner of last year’s Play Right Series was first-time playwright, Colby Quick. After spending the summer working with Community Producers Ed Madden, Bert Easter, James and Kirkland Smith, Paul Leo and Eric Tucker, Bill Schmidt, Wade Sellers, and myself, as well as the cast of Colby’s winning play, Moon Swallower, we presented a heavily produced staged reading, directed by Chad Henderson, at the Columbia Music Festival Association in August. We were also delighted to invite the public to the reading and, via our relationship with Muddy Ford Press, offer published copies of Moon Swallower for sale.

Jasper Friends Dick Moons and BA Hohman pose with our host, Clark Ellefson, outside the Art Bar

In December, Clark Ellefson and Andy Rodgers hosted the Jasper Project at the Art Bar on Park Street where we staged our first official Santa Crawl, inviting all comers to don their Santa suits and drink like it was Christmas. We had a fabulous time and enjoyed a delicious house-created cocktail list with a portion of each sale going to the Jasper Project. Thanks Clark, Andy, and everyone at the Art Bar!

In February, the good folks in the Capital City Playboys invited us to partner with them on the fundraiser concert event, An Evening with Bernie Love—A Tribute to Elvis. We themed the event around Valentine’s Day and welcomed more than 100 folks to the 701 Whaley Market space where Marty Fort, Jay Matheson, Kevin Brewer, and Patrick Baxley as Elvis! We also hosted artists Jamie Peterson, Gina Langston Brewer, Cait Maloney, and Lindsay Radford Wiggins who showed and sold their work. At the same time, and thanks to Lee Ann Kornegay, we had reserved the Community Hallway Gallery at 701 Whaley for the month of February to stage an art exhibit we called Love Hurts/Love Heals featuring K. Wayne Thornley and Wilma King.

In March, created a new event called Artists Showing Artists. Artists Showing Artists is an opportunity for established artists to share the spotlight with other artists who may be emerging, new to the area, or who they want to highlight. The project encourages collaboration within and between disciplines and enlightens the community about both the featured artists and the art curation process. Our first event featured Saul Seibert who invited poet Alyssa Stewart (we’re publishing her first ever published poem in the next issue of Jasper Magazine - thanks Saul!), visual artist Virginia Russo, and rapper Keith Smiley.

Our next Artists Showing Artists event will feature Desirée Richardson of Death Ray Robin as our Artist Host. I hope you can join us on May 20th to pick up a copy of the spring issue of Jasper Magazine and check out all the artists Desirée has invited to join us!

In fact, our various gallery spaces across town have grown considerably, helping Jasper to spotlight the work of artists in small, captured spaces. We do a First Thursday artist-in-residence rotation at Sound Bites Eatery on Sumter Street that has thus far included Michael Shepard, Alex Ruskell, Kimber Carpenter, Ginny Merritt, Adam Corbett, Quincy Pugh. Marius Valdes, Gina Langston Brewer, Lindsay Radford Wiggins, Lucas Sams, Colleen Crichter, and Keith Tolen.

Steven White speaking to theatre goers at Harbison Theatre

In January, the Koger Center opened a space on the second floor of their building just outside of the Donor’s Gallery for the Jasper Project to show the art of Columbia-based artists. We opened with Thomas Crouch, then Lindsay Radford, followed by Quincy Pugh. We’ve scheduled additional visual artists to fill out the remainder of 2023 and are already programming into 2024 at the Koger Center as well as at Harbison Theatre in Irmo, where we’ve shown David Yaghjian, Steven White, Michael Krajewski, Lori Isom Starnes, and are currently showing Olga Yukhno. We also keep a running gallery at Motor Supply Bistro and in the sidewalk gallery at the Meridien Building on Main Street.  

I’m actually thrilled to announce that the Jasper Galleries helped put almost $18,000 into the pockets of working artists in Columbia since last March!

Board Member Bert Easter staffs the kegerator at a Jasper Project House Party

As the Jasper Project board of directors has grown, we’ve done a bit of reorganization. Christina Xan, whose work on the Tiny Gallery continues to be so efficient that we tapped her to manage all our gallery spaces, is now also serving as our treasurer. Emily Moffitt was also elected board secretary in January, just after officially joining the board, and Wade Sellers and Kristin Cobb both continue as board president and vice president respectively. Bekah Rice is officially our digital manager as well as our operations manager and, typically, our events director. We welcomed new members to the board including visual artists Ginny Merett and Kimber Carpenter, and Jasper Magazine theatre editor Libby Campbell

I’m sure I’m forgetting an event, a happening, or a party.

Please remember, it is your support of Jasper’s passion for supporting, promoting, and validating Midlands-area artists that allows us to do what we love. Thank you for your continued support.

Cindi

April 2023

Please enjoy a few more photos from the past year of the Jasper Project below —

Carla Damron at Richland Library leading discussion on her book, The Orchid Tattoo, for Jasper’s Nightstand Book Club

Me judging the Mad Hatter Art Show

Featured Artist Wilma King talks with artist Gerard Erley at the Love Hurts/Love Heals art show that she shared with K. Wayne Thornley— a Jasper Project with 701 Whaley

Lisa Hammond served as the poetry judge for Saluda River Prize for Poetry in 2022’s Fall Lines

Jasper was invited by the good folks at Curiosity Coffee to arrange a pumpkin carving contest among the city’s artists — it was a huge success, a lot of fun, and we had some beautiful (and terrifying) pumpkins result!

Point person = Bekah Rice

We featured the art of the four artists on the board at Artista Vista this spring - Ginny Merett, Kimber Carpenter, Laura Garner Hine and Emily Moffitt

Olga Yukhno speaking to theatre goers at Harbison Theatre for her spring exhibit

Our 2019 project, The Supper Table, is still touring. Here it is at the Myrtle Beach Gallery of Art just after being on exhibit at the Morris Center for Arts and History

Michael Krajewski with his exhibit at the Jasper Gallery at Harbison Theatre

More Featured Artists from 52 Windows - Ann Anrrich, Christina Clark, Tariq Mix, Wanda Spong

On Thursday, May 18 from 6-9pm at 701 Whaley, Mirci will host 52 Windows – An Evening of Art. This annual art auction and gala features ten local artists, delicious hors d’oeuvres from Aberdeen Catery, an open bar, and elegant music. Get your tickets today via mirci.org/events.

 The art on display and available for auction will include works by Ann Anrrich. Ann grew up in Columbia, SC, received her education here, and after traveling the world, re-entered the realm of art by capturing her two daughters in oil paints and pastels. These efforts led her to portrait work, mainly in Alabama, where she “learned the ins and outs of painting hair bows, smocking and bare feet”.  While she continues to do portrait work, most recently she has challenged herself in expressing the different colors of light and staying fresh in her painting. Her subject matter now includes landscapes, street scenes, and people both working and having fun.

 Ann is joined by Christina Clark, who recently found her way to pastel painting after many years as an amateur violinist. Her focus is on the ability of movement in abstract color to evoke memories and probe psychic depths. Her interest in the arts stems from an Austrian musical heritage.

Christina’s education background spans degrees from Cornell, Harvard, and Michigan State Universities. Her career was in non-profit organizations as well as local politics in Michigan, where she and her husband resided until coming to Columbia in 2019.

Sponsors of the event include BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Burkett Burkett & Burkett CPAs, Colliers International, Dominion Energy, Eighteen Capital Group, Goodwyn Mills Cawood, Grace Outdoor, Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union, Red Curb Investments, Stoudenmire Heating & Air, Synovus, TD Bank, WIS-TV; and many other Midlands businesses that support wrap-around behavioral healthcare.

One of ten featured artists, Tariq Mix has been finding beauty and inspiration in Black American culture for over two decades. Tariq developed a love for fine art during his time at Howard University and has nurtured his craft through the use of various mediums since 2001.

Mix portrays the beauty in the chaos that can go hand in hand with Blackness in America. His use of bold colors and strong lines reflect the nuances of Black culture and identity through the lens of fashion and music. His work can be found in the private collections of Tommy Mottola and Donald Byrd, along with various other private collectors. He hopes his work encourages viewers to embrace the storied black legacy that American identity was founded upon.

With a love of art centered on the landscape, the marshland, the seascape, and still life, Wanda Spong’s oil paintings will also be available for browsing and bidding at this event.

Wanda’s process for each painting begins as an emotional drawing to a given composition and moves toward an attempt to transfer that emotion-provoking quality onto a canvas. Experimenting with design, color, shapes, edges, and nuance, along with a practice of careful craftsmanship, will forever be exciting and challenging to her as an artist. Every person possesses a creative force within, and she hopes to share with others her love and appreciation for the artistic endeavor.

In addition to the ten featured artists, works by Christi Arnette, Shannon Bygott, Walker Covin, Bill Davis, Bonnie Goldberg, Taylor Kienker, Wilma King, Leah Richardson, Anderson Riley, K. Wayne Thornley, Nancy Tuten, and Susan Hansen Staves will also be available.

Don’t miss an evening of elegant music, delicious hors d'oeuvres, an open bar, and wonderful art! All proceeds support Mirci’s mission to provide wrap-around care to individuals who are vulnerable to the adverse effects of mental illness. Purchase your tickets here today: https://one.bidpal.net/52windows/welcome

Q&A with Bobby Hatfield: Growing in Hope

Bobby Hatfield is a musical scientist, an explorer of sound, experience, and emotions. Well known in the Columbia scene for his piano chops and unique song writing style, his live performances are something to behold– they never disappoint. Read about his growth as an artist, process, thoughts on Columbia and fellow musicians.

“I find art focused on the wounds maybe sometimes helps the pace of nursing those wounds, because it gives them context during their time rather than random infinite tyranny, and creating can be hard during those times but the unchecked loop can be disastrous. But while I breath I hope.”

Bobby Hatfield — photo— Kati Baldwin

JASPER: Tell us a little about how you got started and the projects you have been a part of over the years. 

HATFIELD: After 5 year run of The Sea Wolf Mutiny, Numbtongue was an idea to develop and experiment with songwriting and songcraft within purposeful constraints. What can I do when it is just me? What can I write around bass guitar as the lead voice? Can you write a Waltz at 4 beats per measure? And furthermore, can I deconstruct both the art that folks have heard already as well as continue to deconstruct myself as “the self” and the contradictory mechanics of faith and doubt, love and hate, heaven and hell, destiny and choice, hope, and hopelessness, and other rather cliche anxieties into an entirely not cliche expression? What could it mean to take away everything I relied on and create from scratch?  

I found myself as the side man on keys for ET Anderson, not out front. This helped me learn a way to exist in the more joyful bombast of TSWM, where I wasn’t the focus but could provoke a response through someone else’s music and be felt rather than heard. Staying busy with that let my musical imagination go a bit wild. My first release, Exhumation, was an attempt to sound as though it was a time capsule discovered in the sands of the internet, as though guitar distortion had never been heard before, to ask the question of nostalgia: “are you worth my time?” 

So, if my first release “exhumation” was about an abstract rebirth of sorts, my sophomore release Phantom Limbs is more about wiping the dust off such a creature as me, seemingly just discovered, and seeing who’s there now. And while it didn’t happen in a linear emotional way, what was looking back at me was a person in lament. A person with anger and trust issues. A person who had felt betrayed and not really dealt with or admitted to what that meant. And what I found in that fundamental sorrow was that, through no plan of my own, I found myself yearning to express these emotions in simple terms, and it bothered me that I needed to make beautiful monuments to what seemed less than beautiful feelings. Things like trying to process the sudden suicide of a friend and somehow search the hope. But I’ve learned since making and releasing it that to exude such thoughts doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and creating these songs as permanent places meant justifying the feelings as valid. Literally doing them Justice. We grow around pain and loss and grief the same way rings on a tree reveal their history on earth. And for me this album was a record of a tree still standing and growing in hope despite the damage, and really naming the feelings gives them a wholeness that you can then grow around. They don’t necessarily “heal” in the sense that you ever feel like you did before you required healing, but maybe just maybe you will feel them as apart of you whole. It was a struggle to get this record off my chest no doubt, but if there’s hope in simply admitting hopelessness, to continue on is to live your life carrying it but maybe not nursing it anymore. I find art focused on the wounds maybe sometimes helps the pace of nursing those wounds, because it gives them context during their time rather than random infinite tyranny, and creating can be hard during those times but the unchecked loop can be disastrous. But while I breath I hope. 

Numbtongue is kind of this idea that “you can’t taste it but you know it’s there” either because you’ve felt it so much or said it so much or because it’s hard to but words on it, and the new record title “Phantom Limbs” is similar as an idea where these specific instances exist longer after your done feeling them, and I know as I get distance from some of these songs creation, there’s an ability to look at them and the feeling inhabiting them more objectively, which makes it far easier to sing. I hope that what I’ve tried to do with this project is hope.

JASPER: What does your writing process look like? How has it changed or evolved over the years?

HATFIELD: Early on it was almost exclusively me writing and singing from the piano & later a guitar, but I wasn’t comfortable with just learning, so most of my early guitar playing [consisted of] alternate tunings that I felt were unique tonally. But I’ve constantly challenged myself into the next phase of something that might not feel natural to me but then I try to inhabit it in “my style.” I remember spending an entire year exclusively forcing myself to write or compose songs on the guitar in the standard tuning. Just to see if I could fit inside the mold. I liked what I learned about myself as an artist, but oddly I haven’t ever released more than one song publicly that was in standard tuning. I tried to stay in that traditional songwriter vein at first because I didn’t play other instruments so piano felt like a home base, and it still does. As I’ve gotten older and wilier about what is “allowed to be a song” and being my own producer on almost everything numbtongue related…. Inspiration can vary widely.

Sometimes it’s a lyric I like that falls out of my mouth acapella and then I try and find chords around it. Sometimes I start with a drumbeat that is lyrical itself already and I try to write against a unique linguistic beat. Sometimes I start with a bass line. What’s interesting is often a song will start on one instrument and end up totally focused on another one by the end. That is the case with my new song “I Will You Will” off my new record, it is very piano heavy live. But it began on acoustic guitar strumming the chord progression in a completely different key, than it is now., and all I had was the words “I never thought I never thought I would give up on you” just strumming 8th notes in standard tuning. That one idea that fell out randomly gestated for about 6 months or so, maybe longer. Now you won’t hear a single acoustic guitar on the song on the record because it was the vehicle that got me there, not necessarily the end product.  

Because I still love the concept record, some songs are born out of a communicative necessity in relation to the rest of a record of songs. Sometimes I realize “wow this song needs better track coming before it” or I hear an entirely new idea that should come after a song that already exists, and I’ve always really tried hard to make sure track 7 is interesting because records are risk of the sagging middle by track 7. I feel like a lot of artists in the past used tracks 7 for a perhaps average or mediocre song at times. I try to avoid mediocre or anything that takes up unnecessary space. I like writing with the sense that everything has  purpose and identity musically, even my singing voice, which I will fundamentally alter to fit the song if I can manage to make it sound convincing.  

JASPER: Do you have any tips or tricks for finding inspiration or getting over writer's block? 

HATFIELD: I find that it helps to chase rabbits even down their holes, and record yourself doing it. It may feel and sound dumb but if you watch and listen later, the replay can be informative even if uncomfortable. But also allowing writer’s block to be the block it is and let it rest, just walk around it, and move on to something different entirely that may feel freer or more fun and distracting. You can always come back to that block later; it is not the end of your world. Sometimes paths are dead ends for you. Walking around the block in the road can also be “maybe this is boring and I should juke styles right here and don something surprising just to hard left it both for myself and the listener so we can walk away from this dead end in real time together” and then you can decide if you want to repeat the phrase that dead ended and it feels like a pattern then that just has a dead end. Music is helpful in that it is a mercifully repetitive and endlessly self-healing of its mistakes in that way at times. It can also be deciding to rest and recharge and come back at it fresh in the morning. I need this advice because I am notorious for working 5+ hours straight in an idea that I hate later, but sometimes you have to see where the rabbit hole goes. I’ve sadly had a lot of success grinding an idea for five hours to a place I think is finished and sincerely liking the result of my efforts so I guess sometimes the advice is take a wrecking ball of ego to the writers block and destroy it by force of will. 

JASPER: How do you know when something is done? 

HATFIELD: The easiest answer is it’s done when it’s done? But the clearer answer is it’s done when you can hear everything you need to hear and feel what you want to feel. I find that it’s always a moment with my songs where I smile and say “oh there you are” as if it was always there until it finally makes sense what I want to hear.

JASPER: What is your favorite or least favorite show you've played in and why? 

HATFIELD: Favorite shows: all house shows. I have never played in a bad house show. The Price Street House Show was probably 2013 or 2014 with my old band The Sea Wolf Mutiny. It was up a flight of stairs on the second floor of this house right off Main Street in downtown Columbia SC. At the time I was playing this 250lb Yamaha cp60 keyboard that required 2-4 people to move so it was a quite a chore to get it up to a second story. We passed out tambourines. It was so hot. There was this guy reading poetry as the opener and he was incredible, absolutely slayed, one of the coolest opening acts ever at a show. I think his name was Connor. The energy of a house show is already something different because it feels personal and special and no one else is here but us and it’s always very “all hands-on deck” we’re in this together audience and band and crew alike … but that normal vibe was on absolute overdrive by the time we played this night.   

We played something called Dead Tree Festival another time that was a house show of equally ineffable and palpable anticipation that you could cut with a knife, but the show was shut down by the police 3 songs in. The floor was also beginning to “smile” under the weight of the humanity standing on it.  

JASPER: Who are some of your favorite local artists and why? 

HATFIELD: Well this is hard to answer because I don’t know if I should answer with latelies or evers. I will go with lately: I fell in love with Gamine like 1 minute and 12 seconds into their inaugural set at GrungeProm we played together last year, just an instant classic Columbia band waiting to happen; it’s like the Cure meets Nirvana and shoegaze; it is not a criticism to say I love that they feel like a work in progress happening before your eyes being born from stone they are personally carving themselves out of, but they could immortalize any moment in the process of that progress and it would be great.  

Rex Darling vocalist Catherine (Hunsinger) is just effortless and has such stellar tone under constant control and sounds like it can go anywhere she wants, beautiful voice.  

Stagbriar are deep long running friends of mine, and their song “Open Floor Plan” is a crown jewel of theirs to me, I love the way it uses this simple rotating bassline polyrhythmically against their duo harmonies. 

Dear Blanca boys will always have a special place in my heart, not the least of which because Dylan Dickerson, their leading man, has been so helpful and encouraging via his role at Comfort Monk promoting my latest release Phantom Limbs.

Death Ray Robin, Desiree Richardson’s solo project is another favorite new person for me. I saw her perform also at GrungeProm last year for the first time and oh wow, is she gifted or what? I knew immediately a fellow meticulous producer who knows exactly what they want from a song they made, and has a tight control of vision and execution to boot, but she not only crafts beats and chord progressions and soundscapes from scratch but there was a moment she abandoned the mic entirely, because she didn’t need it whatsoever and turned her set over to the opera within and it was as mesmerizing to watch her balance it all as it was to hear.  

And last but certainly not least my friend Alyssa Stewart, whose project Local Honey opened my Phantom Limbs Album Release last October. Columbia has rarely seen as erudite a songwriter and poet, who also developed a live set that sounded like a seasoned professional after only a couple of public performances. With many years of stage performance and classical vocal performance training, there’s certainly a foundation to explain such ease but it’s such a different experience becoming vulnerable with your own songwriting in front of perfect strangers. And she met the moment of her first outing at New Brookland Tavern with such aplomb, ease, and whimsy, knowing that nerves could best her at moment was impossible. I couldn’t have been more impressed nor have gushed more to her afterwards. I really hope everyone gets to hear her and see her perform her original music in this region and beyond. If she wants it, she’s got a cool music future. 

Oh and p.s. I’m happy People Person is a thing again in Columbia. 

JASPER: What do you think about Columbia's art/music scene and how has it changed over the years? 

HATFIELD: I think Covid brought a lot of communal art experience to such a halt that it altered the reality of the return to normal. It actually feels like there are 5 or 6 music scenes happening all at once right now. I think some folks are playing catch up, but some folks are trying to start things for the first time that they didn’t have a chance to start for two years. It’s a bit difficult to keep up with the sheer volume of scene activity happening. A lot of my peers from before Covid hit haven’t been as active since, and it’s been tricky getting back at it even for Numbtongue. So I think what I’m seeing is almost too much of a good thing? It’s hard to call it bad but I think Columbia has grown performance opportunities given the types of venues that host music downtown has diversified and you still have the old haunts that host music. Places are selling out for shows and it’s kinda crazy overdrive some weeks. It has actually gotten way harder if not impossible to avoid booking a date that doesn’t conflict with someone else’s show lately. Which I suppose is a good problem to have. I think it just snuck up on me.

So I think there’s a fair amount of activity that is siloed and invisible across a few music scenes right now. I do think there seem to be more opportunities now than ever to seek a performance, but it does create the challenge of being able to do anything unique enough as an independent local to make a statement or draw. But as far as cultural growth, I am completely enamored with Columbia’s local non-chain business developments from Noma bistro, Transmission Arcade, Curiosity Coffee, The Warmouth, All Good Books, etc. That’s just the start of a very long list of new businesses over near where I live in town. Downtown Columbia at least seems more vibrant and diverse than ever. So despite the sense of rarity shows might have held in the past, there’s some rare air were all living in still trying to move past Covid and it feels like everyone is trying to get as much done as possible before the world tried to end again. I don’t know maybe I’m making a mountain out of a mole hill. It seems great?

JASPER: What advice do you have for other artists?

HATFIELD: Never stop. If you’re an artist, keep creating. If you’re an aspiring artist, keep creating. You or the world will only be the better for it. Create, oh creator, and thus be recreated.

JASPER: Any other things you want folks to know 

HATFIELD: Stream my new record Phantom Limbs, it’s available everywhere. 

You can see Numbtoungue this Sunday, April 23rd at New Brookland Tavern with Secret Guest, Summer of Snakes, and Gamine at 6pm. Also make sure to wish Bobby a happy Birthday!

Facebook Event

Evelyn Berry, South Carolina Poet and Author 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow

“At our time when the lives and future of queer people seem to be precariously endangered, I want to share stories of how we have survived, how we will continue to survive.”

Evelyn Berry

Congratulations to Evelyn Berry (she/her) for being awarded a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow. A trans author from Aiken, South Carolina, she is best known for her poetry. She published the chapbook Buggery (Bateau Press, 2020) which received the 2019/2020 BOOM Chapbook Prize from Bateau Press and has the upcoming poetry collection GRIEF SLUT due to be released in 2024 (Sundress Publications). In 2022 she received the Dr. Linda Veldheer Memorial Prize and was awarded the 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose in the Jasper Project’s Fall Lines literary journal, and the 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors.

Other pieces of her work can be viewed in GASHER, Beloit Poetry Journal, Raleigh Review, Gigantic Sequins, Anti-Heroin Chic, petrichor, beestung, Taco Bell Quarterly, Underblong, and elsewhere.

Thirty-six fellows, including Berry, were selected through an anonymous review process, and judged on artistic excellence for the award. NEA’s Director of Literacy Arts Amy Stolls explains, “their poetry explodes with originality in form and content, offering powerful reflections of the pain and joy of our modern times.” (www.arts.gov, January 12, 2023). They received funding through this award to advance their literary careers. Berry describes this award as “a life-changing achievement

Berry’s desire, through this award, is to continue to “write poetry and prose that make visual the lives of transgender people in the American South, an often-hostile place I call home.” She states that receiving the $25,000 award allows “for the purchase a working automobile, to better afford healthcare, and to afford rent in a time of escalating inflation” which gives her more time to write. (www.arts.gov, January 12, 2023)

Berry wants to access archives and research to better understand the “legacies of queer communities in South Carolina.” In her personal statement to the National Endowment for Arts, Berry says, “At our time when the lives and future of queer people seem to be precariously endangered, I want to share stories of how we have survived, how we will continue to survive.” She continues to describe the importance and life changing effects of writing for herself and others, “Queer stories and poems have helped reflect myself back to me, have helped me imagine a future in which I was still alive. Trans people have always belonged in the South, and we will always belong here.” (www.arts.gov, January 12, 2023)

Visit www.evelynberrywriter.com to read about her literary work and accomplishments, and about her work as museum educational specialist and freelance editor in Columbia.

To view the complete Evelyn Berry release from the National Endowment of the Arts visit www.arts.gov/impact/literary-arts/creative-writing-fellows/evelyn-berry

To view bios and artist statements from all the 2023 recipients and past Creative Writing Fellows visit www.arts.gov.

— Ginny Merett

Jasper Talks with femme x About Story Slam -- in the Flesh -- September 14th

Looking for something in Columbia to itch that performing arts scratch, but with more of an edge and authenticity to it? femme x, a notable social gathering and coworking space in Columbia will be bringing back in person Story Slams, with the support and collaboration of the #whatshesaidproject. We talked to Nell Fuller, co-founder and managing partner of femme x, about the story slam and what audiences can expect from attending one of these recurring nights. 

Jasper: Have you partnered with the #whatshesaidproject before?

Fuller: Although we hadn’t partnered before, I have long admired the #whatshesaidproject and remember Shannon Ivey (founder of the #whatshesaidproject) winning a giveaway when we first opened. When Shannon and her business partner, Katie Zenger, pitched their Inspired Speaking Curriculum, it was a natural fit for our growing community of women, many growing their own companies and refining their storytelling skill sets. We saw an exciting need for a storytelling platform, particularly in a space that centers women. This story slam is a mix of seasoned and new storytellers, some of whom are in our Fall Inspired Speaking cohort. I am over the moon to collaborate with Ivey!

Jasper: What should audience members expect from the Story Slam? Does everyone in the audience have to participate, or can you attend to listen and offer love/support?

Fuller: Audience members can expect around 10 local storytellers to tell a 5–8-minute personal story connecting to the theme “In the Flesh.” Unless there’s rain, we will have it outside in the courtyard and all are welcome to attend and enjoy the community. The bar at femme will be open for drinks and snacks. 

Jasper: How does the Story Slam align with the aims and goals of femme x?

Fuller: Story Slams (and Shannon Ivey’s work in personal storytelling) aim to give women the opportunity and experience of crafting a personal story and then sharing it with a warm audience. These opportunities are rare, and femme x is a community that is aware of this and how it negatively impacts women and their quality of life. 

Jasper: Do you plan to have reoccurring Story Slams, or other live events with #whatshesaidproject?

Fuller: Yes! We will continue Story Slams on the second Wednesday of each month. The bar will open at 6 PM and the stories will start at 7 PM.

Jasper: Are there any other collectives like femme x in Columbia?

Fuller: Columbia has so much to offer, including a growing network of cowork spaces for entrepreneurs and creatives! NoMa Warehouse and SOCO both offer incredibly innovative, community-centered spaces. It’s been so energizing to come out of COVID and see the entrepreneurial community growing and thriving as we make space for one another to contribute to the larger ecosystem.

Fuller described femme x as a “social club and cowork space dedicated to changing the traditional systems of capital distribution.” The collective aims to nurture and create a safe, accessible, and empowering space for entrepreneurial women through “social events, peer engagement and programming tailored to their unique needs.” If you are interested in checking out their membership options, visit their website. 

The Story Slam is $5 for femme members and $15 for non members. You can register for the event online.

What's up with Lee?

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We’ve had so many people ask us, “Where’s Lee? and “What’s up with Lee?” that we thought it might be best to go straight to the horse’s mouth and ask Lee Snelgrove, the former executive director of One Columbia for Arts and Culture, exactly what he’s up to so he can make sure everyone has the details straight.

So, without further ado, here’s What’s Up with Lee?

Lee Snelgrove, What exactly is your new job?

I'm the Arts and Culture Manager at Richland Library. 

What kind of things will you be doing?

This is a newly created position that was part of the development of an Events and Experience department of the Library, so I have the opportunity to figure out what exactly the role will be. I expect to focus on developing the arts and cultural programming the library presents, but I'll also be handling some other non-arts programming for adults. I plan to work with each of the 13 library locations to identify ways to tailor programming for adults by identifying the types of activities in which the community is interested and working directly with area residents to create new programming that best serves them. I also plan to foster new partnerships with artists and arts organizations. And, just as I have been for the last several years, I'll be focused on ensuring increased access to arts and cultural opportunities for all residents across the City of Columbia and Richland County. 

Are you still connected to One Columbia?

For a short time, I'll be serving One Columbia as an interim Public Art Administrator to ensure that the public art projects that were already in the works will continue and to help transfer knowledge to other staff that will be responsible for carrying on the organization's efforts in regards to public art. 

Who will be the new Lee?

No one is expected to be a "new Lee." The OC board will be working over the next few months to identify the organization's needs and hone a job description for a new Executive Director before they start a broad search for someone to fill the position. The organization has changed tremendously since its inception and the growth of One Columbia's role will require someone with different experience and training than I had when I started. 

And, how do you like it so far?

I'm really enjoying being part of such a great team. As most people know, Richland Library staff are smart, passionate folks that care deeply about providing services and programming to everyone in Richland County. I'm excited to learn from them and to work with library staff and customers to figure out new ways for every Richland County resident to engage with arts and culture. Already I'm getting to work on some very fun things, like helping to coordinate the Small Talk with George Clinton on June 8 at the Township Auditorium and an event organized by Jasper's own Al Black called Ukweli: Midlands Writers and Poets Explore Racism on June 25.  

Lee Snelgrove Leaving ED Post at One Columbia

From our Friends at One Columbia:

One Columbia for Arts and Culture, the nonprofit arts agency for the City of Columbia, has hired Margie Johnson Reese — an arts management professional with 35 years of experience who has led arts projects in Dallas, Los Angeles and West Africa — as interim executive director. 

Reese will serve in an interim capacity beginning April 1. She replaces founding executive director Lee Snelgrove, who has accepted the position of arts and culture manager at Richland Library, where he will lead efforts to raise the visibility of the arts throughout the library system and Richland County. 

“It has been an honor to work with Columbia’s many talented artists and arts organizations in increasing the vibrancy and broad recognition of the city’s cultural community,” said Snelgrove, who has led One Columbia since 2013. “One Columbia is stronger than ever, and I’m excited to see a new leader build on the progress that we’ve made over the last ten years.” 

During his time as executive director, Snelgrove established One Columbia as a vital resource for the city and for the local arts community, particularly in the area of public art projects. Over the past decade, the organization facilitated 60 public art projects, created a poet laureate position for the city, established the 1013 Co-Op cultural space in North Columbia, developed the Amplify cultural plan and launched the Stephen G. Morrison Visionary Award. 

One Columbia’s efforts were recognized recently with the 2022 Governor’s Award for the Arts, the highest statewide honor for achievement in the arts. 

“We are forever grateful for the progress made under Lee’s leadership,” said Kristin Morris, One Columbia board president. “He has been an important voice in the local arts community, and the city is better off for the tireless leadership he has shown.” 

As interim director, Reese will bring steady leadership to the organization and assist in its search for a permanent director. She brings a deep understanding of the mission of One Columbia, having already worked with the organization in developing its Amplify plan, which calls for a citywide policy to set priorities and guidelines for public funding of the arts.  

“It’s been my joy to work with Lee and the artists and arts groups in Columbia for the past several years,” Reese said. “I’m honored to have been asked by the board to provide guidance during this period of transition to help keep the momentum moving forward.” 

With One Columbia’s success so far — and numerous projects in development — the organization is positioned to play a key role in the next phase of growth in the city’s cultural sector, advancing policies that strengthen arts organizations, boost tourism, support local artists, encourage investment and promote equity.

THE BEAT - Review: Katera - Fear Doesn’t Live Here

By Kyle Petersen

Although Fear Doesn’t Live Here is technically Columbia R&B singer/songwriter Katera’s debut album, she’s long been one of the most intriguing voices in our music scene. Many of the songs on this record have been available online and in her set list for years, so there’s a way in which this record feels like a culmination of sorts, the conclusive exclamation point on the gradually building recognition of Katera as one of the great artistic talents in our city. 

A gospel-trained singer who taught herself guitar in order to burnish her performance and songwriting talents, Katera presents herself as a true student of both the pop-rock and R&B traditions, excelling at brisk, lithely constructed tunes. The lead-in intro “Hate Me Now” has her confidently riding a hook-filled, loping beat that builds gracefully into the sumptuous R&B groove of “Refund (I Don’t Love You),” a pocket-heavy performance which in turn is framed against the throbbing acoustic pop-rock strums and triumphant chorus of “DNA.”  

That opening salvo establishes both the songwriting range and the polished studio techniques that Fear utilizes. As a guitarist and arranger, Katera leans towards punched-up versions of the warm tones of neo-soul and the casually athletic vocal multi-tracks of early 2000s contemporary R&B. It’s a potent blend, and one that could carry the record of a lesser songwriter, really. 

But Katera excels as a songwriter first and foremost, with a distinct sense of character and charisma that, in addition to her technical skills, really fosters her album’s identity. Tracks like “Single” and “No Phone Calls” present a humbly confident twist on women’s empowerment anthems, toying with the romantic themes of the genre while offering a distinct perspective. This is perhaps most evident on “Rush,” the pulsating centerpiece of the record which gracefully pulls back against a breathless melody and giddy chord progression as Katera and featured rapper H3RO articulate the desire to slow down a relationship as a couple feels tempted to succumb to urgent longing.  

There are lighter and more playful moments here too (“Superhero” and “In Love with the DJ”), but it is her distinctive spin on R&B romance that makes Katera’s first album such a triumph. Most debut records are usually about the promise of the artist, but this one is truly more a demonstration of a fully realized vision.

Jasper Poetry Editor ED MADDEN Wins SC GOVERNORS AWARD FOR THE ARTS!

Congratulations Ed!

We’re delighted to report that Jasper Magazine’s own ED MADDEN is one of the recipients of the 2022 SC Governor’s Award for the Arts!

Ed has been Jasper Magazine’s POETRY EDITOR since the founding of the magazine in 2011. He has served as a major advisor to the Jasper Project as well as co-editor of Fall Lines - a literary convergence since its inception. Ed also serves as the poetry editor for our JASPER WRITES column in ONLINE JASPER.

Ed, who won in the Individual category, shares the spotlight with Darion McCloud, winner of the 2019 Jasper Project Theatre Artist of the Year, who won in the Artist category, and Carrie Ann Power who won in the Arts in Education category. One Columbia for Arts and Culture, the organization that grabbed and ran with the proposal that a City Poet Laureate position be created and that Ed Madden be seriously considered for the post, also won in the organization category.

Ed’s bio reads, “ED MADDEN (Individual Category) is a poet, activist, and a professor of English, with a focus on Irish literature, at the University of South Carolina. There, he is also director of the women’s and gender studies program. His academic areas of specialization include Irish culture; British and Irish poetry; LGBTQ literature, sexuality studies, and history of sexuality; and creative writing and poetry. In 2015, Madden was named Columbia’s first poet laureate, a post he maintains today. Madden has been a South Carolina Academy of Authors Fellow in poetry twice and was South Carolina Arts Commission Prose Fellow in 2011. He has been writer-in-residence at the Riverbanks Botanical Garden and at Fort Moultrie in Charleston as part of the state’s African American Heritage Corridor project. He also works with the South Carolina Poetry Initiative and was 2006 artist-in-residence for South Carolina State Parks. His numerous publishing and editing credits include four of his own: Nest, Ark, and Signals and the chapbook My Father’s House, runner-up for the 2011 Robin Becker Chapbook Prize.”

While we are super proud of the accomplishments listed above we’re most proud of the talents and energy that Ed shares with the community on a voluntary basis, such as the work he contributes to the Jasper Project and as the Poet Laureate of of Columbia. It’s a lovely thing to honor a person or organization for doing well the work they are commissioned to do, and it is encouraging to those individuals and organizations to continue to do well the job they are paid to do. But when someone like Ed, who is already inordinately busy directing a university academic program, maintaining and growing his art, maintaining and growing his homelife, and more, chooses to take on more responsibilities because he believes his gifts should be shared FREELY with his community — then THAT is something to celebrate.

Cheers to our friend and colleague Ed Madden, as well as to the other honorees of this year’s SC Governor’s Awards for the Arts. And thank you for making our home a better place!