RICHLAND LIBRARY AWARDED NEA GRANT TO ENHANCE ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCY PROGRAM
Jasper is delighted to share some good news about one of our frequent partners in the arts—Richland Library—and invite our followers to take advantage of this career and community-changing opportunity!
Richland Library is the recipient of a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts under the Grants for Arts Projects category. The funding will specifically support Richland Library’s Artist-in-Residence Program, furthering its mission to foster cultural and artistic exchange within the community.
“These projects exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “So many aspects of our communities such as cultural vitality, health and well-being, infrastructure, and the economy are advanced and improved through investments in art and design, and this funding at the local, state, and regional levels demonstrates the National Endowment for the Arts’ commitment to ensuring people across the country benefit.”
Since its inception in 2015, Richland Library’s Artist-in-Residence Program has aimed to connect the community with local working artists, providing a platform for creative and educational opportunities. The program is designed to support cultural and artistic exchange by giving artists, performers, and makers of all disciplines the freedom to work in their own studio space, share their artistic processes, and engage with the community through a variety of programs.
Richland Library is now accepting applications for the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 residency periods. Interested artists are encouraged to apply by June 6th, 2024. For more information about the Artist-in-Residence Program and application details, please visit https://www.richlandlibrary.com/services/become-artist-residence.
For questions or media interviews, please contact Tacara Young at 803-351-5616 or tyoung@richlandlibrary.com.
Announcing Fall Lines Vol. X Winners and Launch Date
May 19th 2:30 pm Richland Library
The Jasper Project is delighted to announce the winners of our Fall Lines Volume X poetry and prose prizes, our newest prize for a South Carolina writer of color, and the date of the Fall Lines Volume X book launch and reading.
Please join Jasper on Sunday May 19th at 2:30 pm in the auditorium of Richland Library as we welcome the 10th volume of Fall Lines – a literary convergence to the world. Previously announced accepted contributors are invited to read from their published work and copies of Fall Lines will be available for further distribution throughout the state. Contributors and guests are invited to attend.
Congratulations to the following prize winners.
Alyssa Stewart, winner of the Combahee River Prize for a SC Writer of Color for her poem “a black boy dreams of water” sponsored by the SC Academy of Authors.
Liz Newall, winner of the Broad River Prize for Prose for her short fiction “Red Hill Fans” sponsored by the Richland Library Friends and Foundation.
Brian Slusher, winner of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry for his poem “Improv 101” also sponsored by the Richland Library Friends and Foundation.
This year’s judges were Jennifer Bartell Boykin, poet laureate for the city of Columbia, SC (Combahee River Prize), Ed Madden, Fall Lines co-editor and former poet laureate for the city of Columbia SC (Saluda River Prize), and Cindi Boiter, co-editor of Fall Lines and Jasper Magazine (Broad River Prize).
In writing about “a black boy dreams of water” by Alyssa Stewart, Boykin says, “It is not a coincidence that the winner of the Combahee River Prize is a poem overflowing with water. Water can be healing. Water can be dangerous. But what is water to a Black boy? What is the role of water in the Black psyche? In “a black boy dreams of water” Alyssa Stewart explores these questions and more. She pens a well-crafted poem in which the Black boy experiences water in a pool, in a pond, a river, a broken fire hydrant and infuses them with memories of the Atlantic Ocean and the Middle Passage. Boykin continues, “There is joy in the water that ‘has the power / to make his auntie’s hair curl’ and danger in water that can ‘turn hardened men into narcs.’ This poem deals with the legacy of water and Blackness, the not knowing how to swim (‘we do not go in’) and water as a path to freedom. It’s a call and response that beckons us to dream with this Black boy and to dream of/in water.”
Ed Madden, who is the Jasper Project’s literary editor, having selected poetry contributors to Fall Lines since our begging, writes about adjudicating the Saluda River Prize for Poetry. “While I love the meditative language of Randy Spencer’s "Reading Ann's Poem..." and the unemotional attention to the things we do in Worthy Evans’ "Blues Song...," and the humor of Debra Daniel’s "Studies in Reproduction"—all that to say this is a tough decision—I decided on Brian Slusher’s "Improv 101" as the winner of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry this year. While there is so much to love in all of the finalist poems, this poem has such a playfulness that almost-but-not-quite distracts from its serious lessons, every instruction for improv comedy also resonating with so many other possibilities. Say yes and.... Why don't we just let it go?” Madden continues, “The wild pacing of the poem suggests the wild pacing of improv--as if to suggest that poetry itself is a kind of improvisation. (And isn't it?) And that last double simile is so so delightful.”
For Boiter, it was an honor, though also a challenge, to read and adjudicate this volume’s prose submissions. “As a prose and creative non-fiction writer myself, I find that I always learn something from reading the widely varied contributions to Fall Lines. In Suzanne Kamata’s ‘Community Building,’ for example, I vicariously learned about the awkward enthusiasm of actively participating in a culture foreign to one’s own. As a person who had once felt so out of touch with the portion of my peer group that valued conformity, Evelyn Berry’s “The Home Party” reminded me of the darker days of my early thirties and the frustration and shame of trying to fit in among people for whom I had no admiration and little respect. I think many readers will commiserate with the satisfying sense of personal growth I felt, and Berry’s main character begins to feel, at having extracted oneself from the kind of dangerous women Berry writes about and ensconced oneself in a community of forward-thinking artists and progressives. But it was in Liz Newall’s ‘Red Hill Fans’ that I was most carried away by the storytelling and the plot twists that have always inspired me both as a writer and a reader. For that reason, and more, I selected Newell’s ‘Red Hill Fans’ as the winner of the Broad River Prize for Prose.”
The Jasper Project wants to thank Richland Library, Lee Snelgrove, One Columbia for Arts and Culture, Xavier Blake, the South Carolina Academy of Authors, Wilmot Irving, Mary Beth Evans, Ed Madden, and Jennifer Bartell Boykin.
Congratulations to Liz Newell, Alyssa Stewart, Brian Slusher, and all the accepted contributors to this historic issue of Fall Lines – a literary convergence.
Mark your calendars!
Sunday May 19th 2:30 pm
Richland Library
1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC
OVERDUE: CURATED FOR THE CREATIVE SET FOR FRIDAY, MARCH 15th - in connection with The Jasper Project's BIG TINY GALLERY featuring 20+ Jasper Artists!
Join Richland Library for This FREE, After-Hours Program
WHAT: Overdue
WHEN: March 15 | 7-11 p.m.
WHERE: Richland Library Main(1431 Assembly St., 29201)
WHO: Adults, ages 18 & olderExperience a night of creativity and entertainment at Richland Library's Overdue: Curated for the Creative event on Friday, March 15, from 7 - 11 p.m. at Richland Library Main (1431 Assembly St., 29201). Join Richland Library after hours for interactive activities like block printed stickers, zine making with Eden Prime, and more! Be entertained with live music performances by Dear Blanca, Niecy Blues, and Katera. Enjoy delicious food from Dae's Delicious Dogs and drinks from the cash bar by Transmission Arcade. This free event, open to those ages 18 and up, promises an evening of artistic exploration and community engagement.
Attendees of Overdue will have the first opportunity to view Richland Library's newest exhibit, Jasper Presents: A Big Tiny Gallery. The Big Tiny Gallery is a collection of small artworks created by a collection of local artists previously showcased in The Jasper Project’s online exhibition series. Over the years, Jasper's Tiny Gallery series has allowed artists to show a selection of smaller pieces offered at affordable prices. The exhibit will be on view in the gallery from March 15 - April 26th. A closing reception for the gallery is scheduled for April 19, 2024.
A complete list of activities, musicians and partners is available online.
This event is sponsored in part by the Richland Library Friends and Foundation.
For questions, please contact Tacara Young at 803-351-5616 or tyoung@richlandlibrary.com.
Jasper Collabs with Richland Library for A BIG TINY GALLERY Art Exhibition March 15th through ARTISTA VISTA
The Jasper Project is delighted to join forces with Richland Library for A BIG TINY GALLERY, an art exhibition inspired by the Jasper Project’s Tiny Gallery series which originated in the Jasper studio at Tapp’s Arts Center in October 2018 and transitioned to an online only project early during the Covid pandemic. A BIG TINY GALLERY will feature a selection of previous Jasper Project Tiny Gallery artists who were invited to show and sell physically smaller pieces of art at affordable price points that would ostensibly be more attractive to beginning art collectors and other artists. No art measures more than 25 inches in any direction or is priced over $250.
The exhibition will open on Friday March 15th from 7 – 11 pm during Richland Library’s OVERDUE: Curated for the Creative event, with a closing reception on Friday, April 19th from 6:30 – 8:30 as part of Richland Library’s celebration of Artista Vista. Both events are free and open to the public.
Visual artist and Jasper Project board of directors member, Keith Tolen, is managing this project, working with Ashley Warthen, who is a librarian and arts coordinator at Richland Library.
Artist - Renee Rouillier
Participating artists include Tennyson Corley, Ginny Merritt, Chilly Waters (Richard Hill), Regina Langston, Benji Hicks, Ron Hagell, Christopher Lane, Keith Tolen, Lucas Sams, Lindsay Radford Wiggins, Thomas Washington, K. Wayne Thornley, Jeffrey Miller, Kathryn Van Aernum, Mary Ann Haven, Fred Townsend, Adam Corbett, Crush Rush, Vanessa DeVore, Pascal Bilgis, Michael Krajewski, and Sean Rayford.
Artist - Sean Rayford
The Jasper Project will oversee sales of art via QR codes, scannable with a smart phone anytime the library is open. Proceeds go directly to the publication of Jasper Magazine.
The Jasper Project is an all-volunteer organization with no paid employees and a working board of directors who manage a number of multidisciplinary projects ranging from the Second Act Film Project to Fall Lines literary journal, the Play Right series, and many more one-off adventures. For more information please visit JasperProject.org.
Opening Friday March 15th from 7 – 11 pm during Richland Library’s OVERDUE: Curated for the Creative
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Closing Reception on Friday, April 19th from 6:30 – 8:30 during ARTISTA VISTA
Richland Library Hosts Award Winning Graphic Novelist ANDREW AYDIN - author of the 3-volume MARCH about John Lewis (and more!) as guest of artist-in-residence CHUCK BROWN
Richland Library is hosting an evening of intellectual engagement as AiR Chuck Brown, Richland Library's newest Artist-in-Residence, conducts an insightful and captivating interview with award-winning author and American comics writer Andrew Aydin. This special event, "A Comic Conversation with Andrew Aydin," promises to delve deep into comic creation, writing, the civil rights movement, and more.
Date: Friday, Jan. 19
Time: 7:30 - 9 p.m.
Location: Richland Library Main
AiR Chuck Brown, renowned for his significant contributions to the comic book industry, will sit down with Andrew Aydin, the Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Georgia congressman John Lewis. Aydin is best known as the co-author, with Lewis, of the groundbreaking autobiographical graphic novel trilogy March, which debuted in 2013 by Top Shelf Productions.
Andrew Aydin, a Turkish-American creator, boasts an impressive array of accolades, including being a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a National Book Award winner, a Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Honoree, and a three-time Eisner award winner. Co-authoring MARCH with Rep. Lewis, Aydin made history with the first comic's work to win the National Book Award.
Chuck Brown, an Eisner, and multiple Ringo award-winning writer, brings his wealth of experience to the stage. Known for his work on iconic characters like The Punisher, Wolverine, and Black Panther for Marvel, as well as Superman, Black Manta, and Aquaman for DC comics, Brown is a creative force in the comic book world. His creation, Bitter Root, is being adapted into a live-action film by Legendary Pictures.
Attendees will have a unique opportunity to witness a conversation between two influential figures in the comic book industry. Before the event, Aydin will lead a creative writing workshop on the essential parts of a comic story.
The workshop, geared toward young adults interested in graphic novel creation, will be held at Richland Library Main at 3 p.m.
Congratulations to the Accepted Contributors to Fall Lines - a literary convergence, volume X
On behalf of the Jasper Project, we’re delighted to announce that the following literary art was selected for inclusion in Fall Lines Volume X, releasing in spring 2024. These contributions were selected from several hundred poetry and prose submissions, and we couldn’t be happier to include them in this milestone tenth volume of Fall Lines – a literary convergence.
In early 2024 we will announce via the same website where and when we will hold our annual Fall Lines reading and awards ceremony, as well as the winners of the Saluda River Prize for Poetry, the Broad River Prize for Prose, and the Combahee River Prize in Poetry and Prose for a South Carolina Writer of Color.
Until then, congratulations and thank you for sharing your talents with the Jasper Project and allowing us to share them with the world.
Paul Toliver Brown – Digging to China
Allen Stevenson -- Shep’s Story
Bryan Gentry – Some People Never Change
Ruth Nicholson – The Red and Blue Box
Suzanne Kamata – Community Building
Evelyn Berry – Home Party
Randy Spencer – Next Day Now
Liz Newell – Red Hill Fans
Debra Daniel – Eve Purchases an Apple Watch
Shannon Ivey – As I Went Down to the River to Pray
Eric Morris – Straight Down Shadows
Lonetta Thompson – The Differences
Napoleon Wells – The Court of Thieves
Tshaka Campbell – Pews
Ann-Chadwell Humphries – Urban Eagle
Jacquelyn Markham – The persistence of limited memory & Storage
Brian Slusher – *Improv 101 & What else for you darlin?
Worthy Evans – *Blue Song for Bringing the Body Home & Blues Song for Never Having What I am Relative to Everybody Else
Rhy Robidoux –*Whereas
Nadine Ellsworth-Moran – *Nasturtium grows lush
Susan Craig – Migration & Treating our mother's last living friend
Heather Emerson – Divorce & Ceilings
Joshua Dunn – Clearing House
Candice Kelsey – Chainsaws & Renewable Energy
Terri McCord – Following a Blast
Randy Spencer – *Reading Ann’s Poem & In Passing
Debra Daniel – *Studies in Reproduction
Loli Munoz – Liminal
Frances Pearce – Strawberries
Ann Herlong-Bodman – One More
Jo Angela Edwins – A Neighbor Calls a Cool June Evening a Miracle
Kristine Hartvigsen – What I’ll pack for the apocalypse & Inagaddadavida
Al Black –*Meditations on the Lawh-i-Aqdas & Midnight Call to Prayer
Tim Conroy – Journeys
Jessica Hylton – Space
Amanda Warren – Divination Road
Danielle Ann Verwers—How was your day
Libby Bernardin – Ode to the Santee Delta & Ramble of thought as I read an article in the New York Times
Ellen Blickman --The Mystery of Pomegranates
Allison Cooke – Whippoorwill Elegy
Julie Ann Cook -- Into blue
Bryan Gentry – Hail, Fuse
Kelley Lannigan – Aubade
Gilbert Allen -- T**** IS PRESIDENT
Jane Zenger – Choices
Anna Ialacci – Ruined
Nicholas Drake – The Space Beside Her
Graham Duncan -- Exceptionalism
(* indicates finalists for the Saluda River Prize for Poetry)
Fall Lines - a literary convergence is made possible through a partnership between the Jasper Project, One Columbia for Arts and Culture, Richland Library, and the Friends of Richland Library.
A Small Part of the Change – An Interview with Columbia Operatic Laboratory
By Emily Moffitt
Pictured from left to right COLab members, Christopher Lopez-Moore, Jennifer Mitchell, Jerryana Birch-Bibiloni, Joseph Birch, and Bradley Fuller
July welcomed a new Artist in Residence at the Richland Library—or rather, 5 of them! Columbia Operatic Laboratory (COLab) is a 501(c)(3) organization that started in 2015, initially created as a project through Spark, a music leadership initiative at the University of South Carolina’s School of Music. The group will serve as Artist-in-Residence at the Library from July to December; this is the group’s first artist residency. We spoke to board members Joseph Birch, Jerryana Birch-Bibiloni and Jennifer Mitchell about their goals for the rest of the year, what they will offer and life at the library.
The first couple weeks were dedicated to getting acclimated to life at the library, but COLab immediately felt welcome among the staff. The board noted that many of the librarians held an appreciation for opera. “It is encouraging to know that there’s already a love for the art form held here,” Birch-Bibiloni said. “We really want to connect with the other departments here and have a lot of big ideas on how to achieve that.” Their rehearsals make the guests walking around the second level stop in their tracks and tilt their head towards their meeting room, and strangers stop by their office hours to ask questions about their passion for opera. The board has taken this as an extremely good omen, giving them the platform to prove that opera is in fact, the complete opposite of a boring art form.
As part of the expectations for Artists in Residence, the group has created a curriculum of free workshops that caters to all the age groups that the library aims to work with. Mitchell will host a prop making workshop in the children’s area where kids will get to create their own props inspired by The Pirates of Penzance, which they will get to take home with them. For both younger audiences and parents, Mitchell states that she is extremely excited about their group story time event in November. “We’re hosting an aria and story time event where we read stories to young kids and listen to arias that correlate with the content of the story,” Mitchell said. “This provides early exposure to the world of opera for the young audiences while also helping defeat the stigma around the genre for adults, too.” COLab continues to look for more vocalists to support and welcome to their family, and they have an open audition day as part of their library schedule on August 28. “We always want to make sure that we have a safe and welcoming space for all of our performers,” Birch-Bibiloni said. “We hope that this invitation to audition expands our reach to audiences we do not always connect to as well.”
The desire to disperse the stigmas surrounding opera and to foster support for the library motivates COLab to make the absolute most of their residency. Mitchell has made note of the immense number of “statement questions” they have received and takes the opportunity to reiterate that all one needs to get into opera or to learn how to sing, is to simply want to learn. “We get a lot of questions asking about how we got into the field, and people are always surprised to hear just how much work is involved with opera outside of just singing and performing. Singing is not just a skill that someone is born with; if you want to be able to sing, you can absolutely learn how to do it!” The drive that the COLab board harbors to help develop the cultural landscape of Columbia is palpable; Birch made a poignant point about COLab in relation to the greater city limits: “COLab is a very communal project and mission for a misunderstood art form. We’re a small part of the change it always goes through and sharing it through a direct line of communication to the cultural scene of Columbia is meaningful. It is also an opportunity to marry the missions of both us and the Richland Library, which we have always been big supporters of as a system.” There are many moving parts behind an opera and putting one together. COLab has managed this challenge with aplomb as they continue to perform at venues of all kinds around Columbia, from churches to local dive bars, with the same effervescence and care. Their end-of-year performance of The Pirates of Penzance is a big production of theirs that the board decided to bring back, and it also functions as a sing-along for the audience to participate in. The production has always focused on community, but with their library residency in full swing, the board is able to make it even more community oriented from the beginning, incorporating rehearsals and opportunities to learn the lyrics into their outreach curriculum. COLab is filled with hard workers and catalysts for cultural change, and it’s a beautiful thing to witness.
The full schedule of COLab’s educational events can be found on their Facebook page as well as the Richland Library’s calendar of events. Their next event is an informational session where audiences can learn more about COLab’s mission on August 24, from 6-7 p.m. They will also have a percent day at Sweetwater’s Coffee and Tea on Park Street on August 25. There is a plethora of educational resources available on behalf of the Richland Library and COLab about the art of opera for any interested audiences, including a “summer reading list” of books related to the field available for checking out.
SC Academy of Authors Sponsors Jasper's Combahee Prize for a SC Writer of Color in this year's Fall Lines
The Jasper Project is delighted to announce that the South Carolina Academy of Authors will be the sponsor of the 2023 Combahee Prize for a SC writer of color in this year’s Fall Lines – a literary convergence journal.
Founded in 1986, the South Carolina Academy of Authors (SCAA) is a nonprofit organization which recognizes distinguished South Carolina writers, living and deceased, through induction into the Academy. It also supports developing writers with its Coker Fellowships and Student Prizes in Poetry and Short Fiction.
"The SCAA is very pleased to join with The Jasper Project in supporting the Combahee River Prize,” says Marybeth Evans, chairman of its Board of Governors. “The Academy is dedicated to nurturing and supporting South Carolina’s literary talent. It deeply values the multicultural diversity displayed in the work of all the extraordinary writers in our state."
The SC Academy of Authors joins the Friends of Richland Library in sponsoring these three prizes: the Broad River Prize for Prose, the Saluda River Prize for Poetry, and the Combahee River Prize for a SC Writer of Color in Poetry or Prose. Each prize offers $250 cash and publication in Fall Lines - a literary convergence, volume X.
The deadline for submitting your work for consideration in this year’s Fall Lines - a literary convergence is July 31, 2023.
Submit to Fall Lines volume X here.
Just An Exhibition: Marie Boyd’s Quilled Art and Illustrations from Her Debut Picture Book Just A Worm on Display at Richland Library Main Branch
Marie Boyd’s exhibition at the Richland Library Main Branch, called A Quilled Garden, opened May 12th, 2023, and is on display until June 2nd, 2023. This exhibit includes original images and illustrations from her first picture book, Just a Worm, which was published March 14th by Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Quilling is a style of collage art that uses strips of paper which are cut, folded, and or rolled, looped, crimped, curled, and coiled to create intricate patterns and designs. Kirkus Reviews called the quilled designs in Boyd’s book “stunning.”
Kirkus Reviews is not the only one to recognize Boyd’s prowess as an illustrator and children’s author, however; she has also been interviewed on The Sunday Show on MSNBC, and last month, she read Just a Worm to children at the White House Easter Egg Roll.
Just a Worm tells the story of Worm, who has been referred to as “just a worm” by two young children. Worm then embarks on a journey through the garden to prove that they are a whole lot more than that. They meet several other creatures along their journey, all of which bring about Worm’s own discovery of self-worth.
Cover Art from Just a Worm
Needless to say, we are very proud to boast that Marie Boyd is from our very own city of Columbia, SC. In addition to writing and quilling, Boyd is a professor of law at the University of South Carolina. She lives in Columbia with her husband, Jaime Harrison, and their two children.
This exhibition was made possible by the South Carolina Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a generous award from the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund. The exhibition is located at 1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201.
If you wish to learn more about Marie Boyd, or wish to view more samples of her work, you can visit her website. To listen to a “meet-the-author” recording with Boyd, visit the Teaching Books site.
Richland Library Accepting Applications for Artist in Residence
Applications Being Accepted For Fall 2023
and Spring 2024 Residency
In an effort to connect the community with local artists and to provide creative and cultural opportunities, Richland Library is accepting applications for our Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 Artist-in-Residence.
The Fall residency will run from July 14 through December 15, 2023, and the Spring residency will run from January 5, 2024, through June 14, 2024.
Responsibilities consist of:
deliver art-making tutorials
lead studio tours
host creative workshops
hold artist meet-ups
serve as a liaison between artists and Richland Library
The residency also includes an online gallery exhibit of the artist's work on the library's website as well as a monthly stipend.
We encourage interested artists to apply. The deadline is Friday, June 9. Applications and additional information are available here.
Initially developed in September 2016, the concept behind Richland Library's artist-in-residence is to connect the community with local, working artists and to provide creative and educational opportunities to local residents in a way that supports cultural and artistic exchange.
For media inquiries, please contact Anika Thomas via 803-530-4621 or athomas@richlandlibrary.com
About Richland Library
Awarded the National Medal in 2017 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Richland Library is a vibrant, contemporary organization that provides resources and information that advance the Midlands. Offering state-of-the-art technology, a variety of literary and cultural programs and 13 bustling facilities located throughout the county, Richland Library provides a truly customizable, modern library experience for residents and visitors alike.
Philip Mullen at Richland Library Main Branch
Join Philip Mullen and Jasper for an exciting Artist-led Tour on Friday, April 28th at 2 pm at Richland Library!
In advance of the release of the Spring 2023 print issue of Jasper Magazine, in which we feature an article on Philip Mullen, Jasper is excited to help share the news that Professor Mullen will be installing a new collection of his work at the Main Branch of the Richland Library at 1431 Assembly Street.
Mullen’s new exhibition, most of which is drawn from his private collection, will consist of 15 new pieces, 14 of which have never been shown in Columbia before.
On Wednesday March 29th from 6 - 7 pm, Mullen will conduct an artist’s talk which is open to the public and will include a look-back at the last 30 years of his work.
But on Friday, April 28th at 2 pm, you are invited to join the Jasper Project for our own tour of the exhibit led by the artist, Philip Mullen, himself!
Meet Artist Mullen and Jasper Project Board Member and singular Artist herself, Ginny Merett, in the lobby of the Main Branch of the Richland Library at 2 pm to begin the tour. The event should last between 45-60 minutes. For more information check out the event on social media.
Tuesday, March 21 – Saturday, May 6
Richland Library, 1431 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC
Jasper Presents Fall Lines - a literary convergence Volume IX at Richland Library
Join the Jasper Project on Saturday, March 25 from 2 - 5 pm for the release of Fall Lines - a literary convergence Volume IX at the Main Branch of the Richland Library on Assembly Street.
Poetry and prose accepted for publication in this year’s Fall Lines journal include the following
Fruit – Gil Allen
The turning – Ken Autry
The last battle in Alabama – Ken Autry
Bachman's Warbler – Ken Autry
Bird – Libby Bernardin
with spoiled fruit – Evelyn Berry
Dear Raphael – Al Black
Porcelain doll – Al Black
If I were a man – Cindi Boiter
Prudent – Cindi Boiter
Seamstress – Carolina Bowden
Signs that say what you want them to say (not signs that say what someone else wants you to say) – Lucia Brown
Before we turn on the table saw – Lucia Brown
walking a half-marathon through your hometown – Lucia Brown
Members of the backyard church – Tim Conroy
Nasty Bites – Tim Conroy
How to cut up a chicken – Susan Craig
Touching Wyse's Ferry Bridge – Susan Craig
The Older Poet Yearns to Carpe the Diem – Debra Daniels
Dream Three – Heather Dearmon
Bring Me Something – Heather Dearmon
Across the River - Marlanda DeKine
talking to themselves - Marlanda DeKine
For my cat, every Sunday afternoon – Graham Duncan
Ghosts in Poems – Jo Angela Edwins
Stricken – Jo Angela Edwins
Nana Lencha – Vera Gomez
You don't know what you don't know – Vera Gomez
Coattails – Kristine Hartvigsen
River – Kristine Hartvigsen
A Quiet Love – Jammie Huynh
A ghazal to my father – Jammie Huynh
Bad Idea Boyfriend, or White Jesus – Shannon Ivey
D. – Suzanne Kamata
Red Bird / Blue Bird – Bentz Kirby
Hunter's Chapel Road – Len Laurin
I love you 3000 – Len Lawson
Crown – Terri McCord
Space – Terri McCord
For a 20% Tip – Rosalie McCracken
"Yes, please" – Melanie McGhee
Cycles – Joseph Mills
Office hours – Joseph Mills
Those of us with bushy white beards – Joseph Mills
So long, Greenie – Eric Morris
Chopin all over her – Eric Morris
Old photos (for Ahmaud Arbery) – Yvette Murray
Thundering shadows – Frances Pearce
Gone to the birds – Glenis Redmond
"Praise how the ordinary turns sacred" – Glenis Redmond
Strangers in a Strange Field – Aida Rogers
Pre-Columbia Intersections – Lawrence Rhu
Meaningless – Michael Rubin
Small things I notice – Randy Spencer
Next Day Now - Randy Spencer
Above the poplars – Arthur Turfa
For the Love of Mz. Joe – Ceille Welch
The Broad River Prize for Prose this year goes to Tim Conroy for his short fiction, Nasty Bites and the Saluda River Prize for Poetry goes to Jo Angela Edwins for her poem, Stricken.
Carla Damron was the adjudicator for the prose prize and Lisa Hammond judged the poetry prize.
Both contributors and the public are invited to attend. Contributors are also invited to read from their included works during the event in the order in which it is published.
Thank you to Carla Damron, Lisa Hammond, Richland Library, the Friends of Richland Library, One Columbia, and Muddy Ford Press for their support of this project.
CALL FOR ARTS at Richland Library
Richland Library is seeking submissions for our Spring Pop Up Art Shows. The exhibition series will be held March through May 2023.
Pop-up Art Shows are intended to highlight the work of local BIPOC, LBGTQ+ or otherwise underserved artists and their unique personal ties to the specific communities where the libraries are located. They are looking for work that speaks to the community's roots, culture and citizenry.
Up to 2 artists will be selected to exhibit on each of the following dates:
Saturday, March 11 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Richland Library Wheatley
Thursday, April 6 from 6 - 9 p.m. at Boyd Plaza *This will be a Special Exhibition in partnership with the First Thursday on Main event.
Saturday, May 20 from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m. at Richland Library Blythewood
The application deadlines are Wednesday, March 1 to exhibit at Richland Library Wheatley, First Thursday on Main and Saturday, April 15 to exhibit at Richland Library Blythewood.
If you're interested in sharing your work samples, please review the submission guidelines and complete the application by clicking here.
Conceived and co-organized by local visual artist Jeff Rivers, this project seeks to expand the social and economic participation of underserved artists and communities.
Learn more about Jeff by clicking here.
For questions, please contact Kimberlei Davis at 803-351-5616 or kdavis@richlandlibrary.com.
Jasper's Nightstand features Carla Damron's newest novel, The Orchid Tattoo, in an author-led discussion at Richland Library
The Jasper Project is excited to welcome Columbia-based author Carla Damron to discuss her newest novel, The Orchid Tattoo, at Richland Library on Sunday February 26th at 3 pm.
From The Southern Literary Review, September 2022 --
The pages of Carla Damron’s The Orchid Tattoo (Koehler Books, 2022) whiz by so fast, so easily, I have to say it is one of the best nail-biters I’ve read in a while. Not only that, this well-crafted thriller features a smart, likeable hospital social worker—Georgia Thayer—as protagonist. She is pitted against a human trafficking ring. In short, The Orchid Tattoo is a great read with a social message.
The opening shows Georgia, better known as George, in action interviewing a crazed patient in a Columbia, South Carolina, hospital. When the patient claims she hears the voice of a demon, George understands better than most. She, too, hears voices that years of therapy and medication have helped her to control.
If that’s not enough action and high stakes for the opening chapter, George’s brother-in-law David calls with bad news. Her sister Peyton is missing. Her absence is incomprehensible. She would not just abandon her beloved daughter Lindsay. She would not stop going to her grad school classes. And she would not leave without her cell phone. The race is on to find Peyton.
Some chapters are told from the viewpoint of a fifteen-year-old Kitten, who is trying to escape from Roman. He is a thug who runs prostitutes out of a run-down trailer. Some chapters are narrated by other women under the traffickers’ control. Damron does an excellent job of portraying those trapped by the trafficking ring without ever stooping to condescension or losing sight of their humanity. The girls and women are fragile yet strong, vulnerable yet tough, afraid yet brave. The American at the head of the operation calls himself Jefe—pronounced hef-fay. He has become extremely wealthy from human trafficking. While some of his prostitutes work in tawdry bars, others entertain an entirely different class of clients at Jefe’s exotic Orchid Estate. CEOs. Senators. Governors. But no matter where these women and young girls work, the threat of violence hangs over them constantly. Any mistake or attempt to escape leads to a vicious beating. Or death.
Since the police don’t approach Peyton’s disappearance with enough urgency and intensity to suit George, she launches her own investigation. She learns her sister had a secret project for one of her classes. Why would she keep it secret from her husband, her sister, even her classmates? What was she up to? Did her research for this project lead to her disappearance? The more George investigates, the more she feels she can’t trust anyone except Elias, a Black gay bar owner who is her closest friend. They bonded while in group therapy.
As the novel progresses, the stakes raise for all the characters, propelling us forward relentlessly. Some surprising twists add to the novel’s breathless climactic moments.
Like her protagonist Georgia, Carla Damron is a mental health professional. She holds a Masters in Social Work (USC) and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Queens University. In 2000, she was given the “Outstanding Mental Health Professional of the Year” award by the state chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. She is a South Carolina native and lives outside of Columbia. Her novels include The Stone Necklace (winner of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association Star Award), Death in Zooville, Keeping Silent, and Spider Blue. Her books explore social issues like addiction, homelessness, and mental illness. Her short stories have appeared in Fall Lines, Six Minute Magazine, Melusine, In Posse Review, and other journals.
Suicide by Sunlight’s Black Vampirism Kicks Off Monstrous Feminine Film Series Curated by Julia (Liz) Elliott
South Carolina professor and writer Julia Elliott has curated female-monster themed film series before, and in her newest series, Family Trouble: Parenthood, Gender, and the Monstrous-Feminine, she is making us question what it means to be a mother in society and what happens when these mothers don’t “fit.”
The series is kicking off with short film Suicide by Sunlight, which is showing at the Columbia Museum of Art this Thursday at 6:30pm. The feature length films, Titane and Under the Shadow, will show on the 23rd and 27th, respectively, at Richland Library.
In addition to being a founding member of and vocalist for the alt-band Grey Egg, Julia (Liz) Elliott’s writing has appeared in Tin House, The Georgia Review, Conjunctions, The New York Times, Granta online, and other publications. She has won a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, and her stories have been anthologized in Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses and The Best American Short Stories. Her debut story collection, The Wilds, was chosen by Kirkus, BuzzFeed, Book Riot, and Electric Literature as one of the Best Books of 2014 and was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Her first novel, The New and Improved Romie Futch, arrived in October 2015. She teaches English and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
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JASPER: What made you want to do a series on the monstrous feminine? How long have you been interested in it?
ELLIOTT: I’ve been obsessed with monsters ever since my grandmother, who was from the South Carolina Lowcountry, informed me that the Boo Hag (a species of succubus that can cause sleep paralysis) sometimes “rode her” at night, robbing her of precious sleep and energy. As a six-year-old, I was both fascinated and horrified by her story. Watching The Exorcist on television at age eleven only intensified my obsession. In addition to the grotesque that characterizes Southern Gothic, I often incorporate more overt forms of monstrosity into my fiction, like feminist body horror and new renditions of monsters from folk tales and mythology.
JASPER: And you’re teaching a course on these themes, right?
ELLIOTT: As a professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies at Palmetto College Columbia, UofSC, I use the concept of the monstrous-feminine as a unifying theme for my section of WGST 112, Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, which “explores the cultural, sociological, political, anthropological, and psychological significance of female monsters—ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, aliens, and more. Using feminist theory as an analytical tool and interdisciplinary methodology, we examine ways that visions of female monstrosity reflect historical attitudes toward women and girls” (quoting my syllabus). This introductory class inspired me to design a service-learning Honors class that focuses exclusively on female monsters in horror films: Monstrous Mothers, Diabolical Daughters, and Femme Fatales: Gender and Monstrosity in Horror Films.
JASPER: How did you move from writing and teaching to curating this film series?
ELLIOTT: As I state in my SCHC 485 course description, my class “revisits classic male-gaze depictions of the monstrous-feminine, explores progressive male-directed images of female monstrosity, and showcases the diversity and richness of recent horror films by women directors like Jennifer Kent (The Babadook, 2014), Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, 2014), Stewart Thorndike (Lyle, 2014), and Julia Ducournau (Raw, 2017, Titane 2021).” In 2018 and 2019, I co-curated two female-monster-themed October film series for Nickelodeon Theater, and my students from SCHC 485 produced marketing and presentational materials for both the Nick and campus marketing campaigns. After the Nick closed due to COVID and terminated the positions of my collaborators, I curated two campus film series, one virtual and one at the Russell House Theater. This year, I curated a community series that will screen at the Columbia Museum of Art and Richland Library Main. 2022’s theme is Family Trouble: Parenthood, Gender, and the Monstrous-Feminine.
“In the wake of fourth-wave feminism…, female directors have revolutionized the horror genre by presenting more complex depictions of both the monstrous-feminine and female horror heroines. Feminist body horror, subversive monstrosity, and more nuanced explorations of female sexuality and motherhood have emerged to shake up the status quo.”
JASPER: How did you choose CMA and Richland Library?
ELLIOTT: I’ve worked with the CMA on quite a few projects over the years—podcasts, fiction readings, tours, and lectures. In the spring of 2022, Drew Baron, Senior Media Producer, asked me to produce five “tap tour” recordings analyzing horror film posters for the It’s Alive! exhibition. For the same exhibition, Wilson Bame, Manager of Engagement, invited me to serve on a panel about women in horror, with filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu as a special guest. I was beyond stoked, but, alas, COVID arrived, and the panel was cancelled. Knowing that Wilson was a fan of Jusu’s work, I approached him about screening Suicide by Sunlight as part of a community horror series, and he suggested featuring it as part of First Thursday, a festive kickoff event. I then reached out to Lee Snelgrove, Arts and Culture Manager at Richland Library, who worked to set up the library screenings.
JASPER: Can you tell me about the work your students have done to help?
ELLIOTT: My students have produced marketing and promotional materials for this series, including most of the text for the CMA and library event pages. Each year, my students write the series description, design a series poster and other promotional fliers, write film descriptions, choose critic’s quotes, design program notes to distribute at screenings, and creatively introduce their films to live audiences. They also write film analyses (which were published on the Nick’s blog in 2018 and 2019, but which now appear on the SCHC webpage). Both the CMA and library event links above will lead you to series and film descriptions written by my students, as well as posters they designed and quotes and images they selected. If you take a look at the Cool Courses SCHC feature on my class, there is info on the service-learning element as well as a link to last year’s series, which features student work (the link to the 2022 series should go live on October 6).
JASPER: Diving into the series, can you talk more about the “monstruous-feminine”? How do you feel portrayals of woman as literally monstrous challenge or potentially even shore up the figurative monstrous?
ELLIOTT: The term “monstrous-feminine” originates from feminist theory that seeks not only to highlight the ways nonconforming and threatening women are often deemed monstrous by patriarchal narratives, but also to underscore the power of female monsters. Drawing on the psychoanalytical theory of French feminist Julia Kristeva, Barbara Creed published her groundbreaking book The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis in 1993. Due to its historical context, this book focuses mostly on male-directed classics like Alien, The Exorcist, and Carrie. As I state in my SCHC 485 course description, “In the wake of fourth-wave feminism…, female directors have revolutionized the horror genre by presenting more complex depictions of both the monstrous-feminine and female horror heroines. Feminist body horror, subversive monstrosity, and more nuanced explorations of female sexuality and motherhood have emerged to shake up the status quo.”
JASPER: How did you curate Suicide by Sunlight, Titane, and Under the Shadow? Why these three films, specifically?
ELLIOTT: In keeping with this year’s theme, Family Trouble: Parenthood, Gender, and the Monstrous-Feminine, each of these films deploy female monstrosity to challenge the sanctity of the nuclear family and redefine not only the roles of women within the family, but the concept of family itself. Suicide by Sunlight depicts a day-walking Black female vampire struggling to harmonize her identities as mother, nurse, and vampire. Titane, a French feminist techno-body-horror spectacle, violently explodes conventional notions of family, gender, and humanity, reaching an unexpectedly moving conclusion. Under the Shadow, a Persian-language psychological thriller, features a contemporary evocation of the ancient mythological djinn to explore the tensions between a mother and daughter isolated in a Tehran apartment complex during the Iran-Iraq war.
“While Gothic vampires like Carmilla and Dracula embodied antisemitic and homophobic fears of racial and sexual outsiders bent on corrupting the “purity” of English society, modern and postmodern vampires often present seductive hyper-white aristocrats with European backgrounds and a whiff of parasitic imperialism and white supremacy.”
JASPER: Tell me more about Suicide by Sunlight. How is (Black) motherhood made “monstrous” and how does this film amplify it?
ELLIOTT: While Gothic vampires like Carmilla and Dracula embodied antisemitic and homophobic fears of racial and sexual outsiders bent on corrupting the “purity” of English society, modern and postmodern vampires often present seductive hyper-white aristocrats with European backgrounds and a whiff of parasitic imperialism and white supremacy. In the 1970s, two notable films introduced Aftrocentric themes to vampire mythology: Blacula and Ganja and Hess. In Suicide by Sunlight, Sierra Leonean-American Filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu features a Black female vampire struggling to harmonize her professional, maternal, and vampiric identities. While the melanin in her skin gives her the power to day-walk, an advantage that her white vampiric counterparts lack, she must still contend with a society that unfairly judges and disenfranchises Black mothers. Jusu brilliantly uses the monstrous-feminine not only to revisit the racial politics of vampirism, but also to show how society demonizes and fails Black mothers.
JASPER: Why do you think it’s important for our particular community in the specific time we’re dwelling in to view these films?
ELLIOTT: Perhaps more than any other genre, horror films feature the anxieties and obsessions of particular time periods, often in messy and unresolved ways that help viewers contend with their own shifting worldviews and the blurry boundary between the “human” and the “monstrous.” As J. Halberstam famously stated, “monsters are meaning machines.” Horror films evoke the ineffable, the unmentionable, and the taboo in ways that help people confront and redefine their own monsters.
Mark Your Calendars - Future Poetry Events with The Jasper Project and Al Black
For the poetry lovers and art appreciators in the Columbia area, Jasper’s own Al Black will host a plethora of live events for poets and readers to be a part of. Each of the events have their own schedules, allowing for plenty of opportunities to fit everyone’s schedules.
Mind Gravy Poetry is a weekly event that meets on Wednesdays from 7-9 PM at Cool Beans Coffee Company. The event includes music and poetry features, followed by open mic time, allowing for new voices to let their creativity and written word be heard.
For monthly meetups and activities, the first Tuesday of every month holds Simple Gifts, from 7-9 PM at the Friends Meeting House. The meetup includes music and poetry features and concludes with an open mic session. On the last Tuesdays of every month is the Jasper Poetry Salon, from 7-9 PM. It occurs at 1013 Duke Avenue and encourages poets of all experience levels to come and share their writings and appreciation for the art form. On the last Sunday of each month is Front Porch Swing, an outdoor event with live music; don’t forget your lawn chairs and coolers! Front Porch Swing also takes place at 1013 Duke Avenue, from 2-4 PM. These monthly events are sure to provide anything you’re looking for in the realm of Columbia’s poetry scene.
Words, Words, Words is a quarterly event hosted on a random Saturday in January, April, July and October from 2-4 PM at the Richland Library Southeast Branch on Garners Ferry Road. This event features a published poet with an original music introduction; the featured poet is often from out of town, providing a great surprise factor for those interested in attending each of the meetings for Words, Words, Words. The next event will be in October, and we’ll update when we know more.
Black often organizes and hosts ekphrastic poetry events that feature galleries and artists from the Southeast—showcasing the appreciation of the combination of the written word and visual accompaniment.
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.
Writer Carla Damron is More Than a Writer and a Social Worker - She Uses Her Art to Shine a Light on Some of Our Greatest Social Woes Including Homelessness and Human Trafficking
“I didn’t realize” were words I often heard in my work. They applied to me, too, back when everything I knew about human trafficking came from episodes of Law and Order. My first awakening occurred when asked to be a guest lecturer at a local college. I mentioned the beginnings of our anti-human trafficking advocacy when a student raised her hand and said, “You mean, like that girl they found in the trailer a few miles from here?”
Carla Damron, author of The Stone Necklace and the upcoming The Orchid Tattoo
I first met Carla Damron when I was working with the Richland Library and One Columbia to grow the One Book/One Community program in Columbia, SC. My personal goal for that project was to always choose a South Carolina writer for our community to read and I had lots of reasons why.
First, I believe it’s important for communities to recognize and support the truly talented among us in any way we can. But second, it’s incredibly important for us to see our friends and neighbors who accomplish major goals and be encouraged by them. Ride their mojo and use it to your own advantage!
The book we chose for our community to read, in conjunction with The State news which published the manuscript in part, was Carla’s 2016 novel, The Stone Necklace, set in Columbia, SC and published by the University of South Carolina Press’s Story River series, curated by the late Pat Conroy.
(I’m not sure what happened to the One Book/One community project since I’m not involved anymore, and neither is the Jasper Project. But, as an aside, I’d love to see it come back to Columbia and I’d love to see it adhere to the loose protocol developed by the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library when the project was initiated in 1998. Hit me up if you’d like to work on getting this beautiful community project back up and running and are willing to work on it yourself. It’s a relatively easy project if you have a few volunteer hours in your pocket that you are willing to share.)
I’ve written about Carla Damron a number of times since we first met, and we’ve worked on projects together. She is quite a specimen of humanity in her goals and priorities, and I’m fortunate to call her my friend, writing sister, and fellow Columbian.
Today I want to direct you to two (more) outstanding contributions to our culture that Carla has so generously shared with us.
The first example is a recent essay Carla wrote on the issue of human trafficking and posted on her website. The title is “I Didn’t Realize — The Story Behind the Orchid Tattoo.” You should know that the Orchid Tattoo is the title of Carla’s upcoming novel, releasing on September 6th, 2022 from Koehler Books. This essay is linked above.
But secondly, Carla shared a piece of prose writing that I was delighted to share in the most recent issue of Fall Lines - a literary convergence. For your reading pleasure we present, “Breaking the Surface.”
Breaking the Surface
by Carla Damron
The olive green 1967 Mercury Marquis station wagon bulged with suitcases, bedding, groceries, floats, and our family. My father drove, my mother beside him, a Virginia Slim squeezed between two pink-nailed fingers. Crammed in the back seat: my teenage sister Susan, engrossed in a Nancy Drew novel, me, age nine, in the middle, and my eight-year-old satanic younger brother Freddy to my right. It felt like the drive to Surfside Beach took centuries, though really it took less than three hours. I smiled as we passed the bright blue billboard with the cartoon dolphins leaping into the air. It advertised the best store on earth, known for its pet fiddler crabs and mammoth shark’s teeth that could be purchased for less than my allowance. Every vacation to Surfside included a day at the Myrtle Beach pavilion and a visit to the beloved “Gay Dolphin.”
Freddy squirmed like the worm that he was, a bony elbow catching me in the ribs. “Quit elbowing me. Mom, Freddy’s elbowing me again,” I complained, for all the good it did me. I had a permanent concave space under the right side of my ribs.
“She’s hogging up too much space with her fat butt,” Satan said.
“Y’all behave. We’re almost there.” Mom let out a loud sigh as she flicked on the radio.
“You said that a half hour ago.” Susan peeked up from her book, eyebrows arched in criticism.
Mom tipped the ashes of her cigarette out the partly opened window. Smoke circled the inside of the car and found its way into my nose. I coughed.
“Here comes a VW,” Dad said.
I struck first, a quick-knuckled punch on my brother’s arm. “Punch buggy! No take-backs!”
“MOM!” he bellowed, as if I’d hacked him with a machete.
“Arnold, seriously?” Mom tsked Dad. “Why do you encourage them?”
I spotted Dad’s sly smile in the rearview mirror.
“I’m going swimming as soon as we get there,” I said.
“Not until we get everything unloaded. And that means all of you helping.” Mom flicked the cigarette out the car, a pale torpedo barely missing the back window.
I settled back in my seat, gaze fixed out the window, and counted speed limit signs. How many until Surfside? Twenty? A hundred? I had reached number seventeen when another smell filtered through the windows: the unmistakable odor that meant Georgetown.
“I smell an egg fart! It’s probably her!” Freddy elbowed me again.
“I wish they’d do something about the paper mills,” Mom said, like she did every time we came. I didn’t care about the stink. Because if I closed my eyes, the Sulphur odor faded, and the distinct fragrance of salt, tanning lotion, and sea air filled my mind. I almost tasted my ocean.
***
Finally, blessedly, we pulled up to the yellow wooden beach house perched on stilts. The checkerboard linoleum-floored kitchen had the basics: single sink, stove, refrigerator, and oven. Susan helped Mom unload the groceries, while Dad did the heavy lifting and Freddy and I fought over bedrooms—simple rooms, with no air conditioning, and generic paintings of seashells over white-washed dressers.
Mom tasked me with putting linens on the beds while my brother stocked the bathroom with soap, toilet paper, and towels. We both moved with lightning speed so we could scurry into our swimsuits and flip-flops and head down to the beach. Dad halted us at the screened porch.
“Nobody swims until your mom or I are ready. So plant your fannies in those chairs and wait.”
Wait. The hardest word for a kid, and one we heard many times a day. I pushed back and forth in the squeaky rocker as I stared out at sea-oats rippling above sand dunes. The quiet pounding of waves and squawk of seagulls called to me, but I had to WAIT.
Inside, voices swelled in an argument about missing extra towels. “Really, Arnold. I ask you do to ONE thing,” Mom said.
“One thing? Who loaded the wagon? Who gassed it up? Who DROVE us here?” Dad didn’t yell, but sort of laughed it out, like Mom was being ridiculous, a tone that might infuriate her and further delay hitting the beach.
Freddy and I both stopped rocking. No response from her. Good.
Finally, the rest of my family emerged, Susan in her new bikini, Mom in a black one-piece and floppy hat, and Dad in trunks and an unbuttoned shirt, with an embarrassing stripe of white stuff over his nose which was prone to sunburn. We jumped from our chairs and banged through the screen door, all a-bundle with towels, chairs, rafts, suntan lotion, playing cards, plastic buckets, and a thermos of Kool-Aid. Another container peeked out of Dad’s pocket: silver, small, and shiny, something he rarely went without.
The narrow board walk carried us over the last sand dune and I saw it: a blue-green expanse, white froth in stuttered lines across it. The sky a bold blue that stretched forever. Freddy and I dumped our belongings, kicked off our flip-flops, and dashed to the water. Susan remained with our parents, stretching herself on the blanket and slicking on suntan oil.
Waves crashed over me, surprisingly cold. At our salty feet, the undertow signaled a waning tide. It didn’t matter. Satan splashed me, and I splashed back, and we laughed and dove into a cresting wave.
When we emerged, sputtering, soaked, and sandy, Dad met us ankle-deep in water. He handed us an inflated raft. “Take turns with this one until the other one’s ready,” he said.
Take turns, he said, like sharing was remotely possible. Freddy grabbed the raft, held it over his head, and trudged out to where the waves were breaking. When a big one surged, he hurled himself on top of the canvas float and rode it to shore like a cowboy on a bucking stallion. “YEEESSSS!” he yelled, as he climbed off.
“My turn,” I said.
“In a minute!” He sneered at me and hurried back to where the waves were cresting, no easy feat with the smaller waves slapping against him.
Another spectacular ride, and my jealousy erupted. When would I get a turn? When Dad finished blowing up the other raft? I glanced at the beach to find him engrossed in a card game with Susan, as though my uninflated float had no importance AT ALL.
“MY TURN!” I bellowed.
Freddy wagged the float at me, and I would have jumped on his head and dunked him if he’d been close enough.
His third ride was a letdown, a smallish wave that fizzled a few feet from where he started. He stood up and shook sand from his swim trunks.
“Ha!” I laughed at him.
He tossed the raft at me. “See if you can do better.”
I would do better. I tugged the raft out beyond the foamy sea caps, determined to find the biggest, most powerful wave which I’d ride like a rodeo champion. As the first few rolled under me, I looked further out, and saw it. A giant, magnificent wave rolling in.
I hopped aboard the raft and paddled as hard as I could, hoping to be just ahead of where it broke. I timed it perfectly. It peaked, white froth exploding against the backs of my legs.
The raft took off like a Thoroughbred. I held on with all my might, holding my breath against the salty water splashing my face. Maybe my family watched this courageous ride, but I all I saw was the roiling foam.
My mount betrayed me. The raft swiveled, the back end pushing forward so that I was lying parallel to the wave. I stroked against the current, desperate to straighten, but it flipped over.
The force of the water pulled me under. I had no air in my lungs. My feet felt for the bottom, but instead felt the unmistakable tug of undertow pulling me out to sea.
I sank as low as I could, touched sand, and pushed, my hands pointed above me. For just a second, my face felt air and I sucked in a deep, frantic breath before another wave pounded me down.
Underwater again, I did my best to swim in what I hoped was the direction of shore. The undertow was a hungry force. My arms and legs ached against its power, but I kept on. When I bobbed up for another gulp of air, another wave knocked me under. And once again, I swam.
When I surfaced again, I saw the shore. Almost there, but not quite, and I felt so tired. A hand gripped my arm. I almost fought it, but I had no fight left in me, and the hand pulled and guided me until I stood on sand, safe, chest-deep in water.
“The float came in without you,” Freddy said, releasing my arm.
I nodded, unable to speak, as my air-deprived lungs sucked in breath.
On the blanket on the beach, my mom thumbed through a magazine. My sister dealt cards to Dad, who sipped from his little container.
“Maybe we should go up?” Freddy asked.
I shook my head. I trudged through the water to the shallowest part and dropped, my heels sinking into the wet sand. My brother sat beside me. The abandoned raft rested on the beach behind us. Three pelicans flew by, skimming the surface of the water.
“Hey, look!” Freddy said.
I tried to see what he was pointing to in the endless green water. It was less friendly than before. “What?”
“Wait just a second. There!” He grabbed my hand and aimed it towards the descending sun.
Two gray lumps emerged, breaching the surface and arcing high above the water before submerging again. Two dolphin.
“Whoa,” I whispered, not wanting to my voice to scare them away. They erupted twice more, magic silver beings in a synchronized water ballet, before vanishing into the horizon.
“Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?” I asked.
Freddy didn’t answer.
Voices cut through the sea air from behind us: an argument between Mom and Dad about dinner arrangements. I let the pounding of the waves drown them out. For the next six days, I had the sand, my ocean, and one of two inflated rafts.
I would keep steady vigil, in case the dolphins came back.
~~~~~
Carla Damron is a social worker, advocate, and author of the novel The Stone Necklace, the recipient of the 2017 WFWA Star Award for Best Novel. Damron also authored the Caleb Knowles mysteries as well as numerous essays, and short stories. Damron’s careers of social worker and writer are hopelessly intertwined; all of her novels explore social justice. Currently Damron volunteers with Mutual Aid Midlands, League of Women Voters, and is the president of a local Sisters-in-Crime chapter. She works for Communities in Schools and Rutgers University.
http://carladamron.com/
Fall Lines - a literary convergence vols. VII & VIII Releases Sunday Jan. 23 with a 2 pm Reading at Drayton Hall
Attention Fall Lines Contributors and Readers: If you are unable to attend the reading and release of Fall Lines on Sunday, please visit the Jasper Project Facebook Page where the event will be live streamed.
After too many Covid-related postponements, the Jasper Project is delighted to release the combined Volume VII and VIII issues of Fall Lines- a literary convergence on Sunday, January 23rd at Drayton Hall on the campus of the University of South Carolina. The event will begin at 2 pm.
Strict Covid protocols will be in place. Masks are mandatory except when reading. Only vaccinated contributors and guests are invited to attend.
Contributors to the 2020 and 2021 issues of Fall Lines are invited to choose one piece of their own poetry or prose from the dual-volume journal to read to the public.
Drayton Hall is located at 1214 College Street. Street parking is available. The public is invited to attend.
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The Jasper Project shines a light of appreciation Columbia-based photographer Crush Rush, whose powerful portrait of a Black Lives Matter demonstration graces our cover.
from the One Columbia site above …
Crush Rush is a photographer/photojournalist living and working in Columbia, South Carolina. His photographic eye is keen on identifying and capturing the critical finite moments of ever moving human emotion and the natural world. Rush is self taught but was extremely lucky in his opportunity to work and play along with some of Columbia’s greatest photo makers which helped him hone his skills and gain a deeper appreciation for the craft.
Known as a social chameleon, Rush constantly engages different types of people from different walks of life to find a common denominator in the grand scheme of things, which he feels allows for him to draw inspiration from very non traditional sources.
Artist Statement:
I feel like the best display of emotion is one that can be felt or portrayed with no words involved. My camera grants me the ability to take a person back to a moment in time by simply showing them a picture. I almost feel as if I have the power to steal grains from the sands of time. For me the love of editing is just as exciting as making the photo and I strive everyday to be a better storyteller.
Crush Rush - artist Easel Cathedral