It’s been a truly lovely week for the Jasper Project, and I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to so many individuals who contributed to our current state of grace.
On Thursday, the Jasper Project was honored by being awarded the Governor’s Award for the Humanities at the 32nd Annual South Carolina Awards in the Humanities Luncheon and Ceremony at the Pastides Alumni Center in Columbia’s Vista. It was an incredible joy to accept this award on behalf of the Jasper Project’s Board of Directors, past and present. Thank you to Jon Tuttle, Ed Madden, Kirkland Smith, and Wilma Ruth King for your faith in us and for recommending the Jasper Project for this incredible honor.
The following explanation of our selection for this award was shared by SC Humanities:
After 25 years of serving as an adjunct instructor of Gender Studies and freelance writer for national magazines, in 2011, Cindi Boiter founded Jasper Magazine, a publication devoted strictly to arts in the South Carolina Midlands. As the magazine grew into a touchstone for a number of multidisciplinary arts projects commemorating events in SC’s cultural history, as well as projects like the journal Fall Lines – a literary convergence and the 2nd Act Film Project, the organization became a 501c3 in 2015. With a robust working board of directors, The Jasper Project has continued to create and facilitate innovative projects that meet the needs of state and local artists of all disciplines, such as Syzygy, the Supper Table, and Sheltered, while offering artists support, promotion, and the validation to say, “I am an artist!” The Jasper Project is a true grassroots organization with no paid employees and little overhead. Both Boiter and the board of directors serve the extended community of SC artists as a labor of love. Boiter is a six-time recipient of the SC Fiction Project, winner of the Piccolo Fiction Project, the Porter Fleming Award for fiction, the 2014 Recipient of the SC Governor’s Award for the Arts (formerly the Verner Award), and the 2018 recipient of Richland Library’s Lucy Hampton Bostick Award. She is the cofounder, with her husband Dr. Bob Jolley, of Muddy Ford Press, has written or edited more than ten books and is the editor of Jasper Magazine and co-editor of Fall Lines – a literary convergence.
As the above clearly demonstrates, the strength of the Jasper Project comes from our hardworking board of directors – a group of individuals who have internalized the ideal of service to one’s community. This same cadre of artists and arts lovers were on deck Friday night when we released the fall 2023 issue of Jasper Magazine at the Ernest A. Finney, Jr. Cultural Arts Center.
We are incredibly appreciative of the hospitality of our host Professor Nikky Finney, the author of On Wings Made of Gauze; Rice; The World Is Round; and Head Off & Split, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011. Her newest collection of poems, Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, was released in 2020. Finney is Carolina Distinguished Professor at USC in Columbia where she is also Director of the Ernest A. Finney Jr. Cultural Arts Center. Despite her distinguished career and accolades, Professor Finney demonstrated a hands-on philosophy and practice Friday night when she joined our team of board members, interns, and volunteers in set-up and break-down for the event, lugging tables and chairs and even digging through trash to prepare recycling more properly for the center.
Thank you, Professor Finney, for your hospitality and generosity of spirit. It is good to be on the same team.
Other thanks are also in order.
Thank you to performers Lang Owen, TiffanyJ, and Ezymoonstones, and to Black Nerd Mafia for facilitating much of the performance.
Thank you to visual artists Anthony Lewis, Jordan Sheridan, Malik Greene, Benji Hicks , and Jean Lomasto for sharing your art with us.
Thank you to board members extraordinaire Bert Easter, Keith Tolen, Kimber Carpenter, Loli Munoz, Wade Sellers, Emily Moffitt, Christina Xan, and Rebekah Rice for set-up and break-down at the event, and to intern Liz Stalker for all her help, too. Thank you to Kristine Cobb and Al Black for being on deck as well as to Jon Tuttle, Libby Campbell, and Laura Garner Hine for being with us in spirit. Working with these loving and kind individuals is one of the greatest joys of my life. Their dedication to something larger than themselves restores my faith in humanity every time I have the pleasure of their company.
Thank you to our guild members and organizations who help sponsor the publication of Jasper Magazine with their ads among the pages. This includes, Columbia Museum of Art, the Koger Center for the Arts. Columbia Arts Academy, Harbison Theatre, the Palmetto Opera, and the University of South Carolina’s Department of Theatre and Dance. Please remember these important institutions as you select how you will spend your arts and culture time and dollars.
Thank you to the contributors to this issue of Jasper Magazine, especially art director Brian Harmon, music editor Kevin Oliver, poetry editor Ed Madden, theatre editor Libby Campbell, and film editor Wade Sellers.
Thank you to the artists whose stories are included within the pages of this issue of Jasper Magazine. There are too many to list here as, at 76 pages, this is our largest issue to date.
Finally, thank you all for your kind support of the Jasper Project. If you aren’t already, please consider becoming a member of the Jasper Project Guild. We would love to have you as a member of the Jasper family.
All the best,
Cindi Boiter
executive director, the Jasper Project
(Apologies to anyone whose contribution I failed to mention — please know that you are appreciated.)