Black Chamber hosting An Evening With Cassandra Gillens
The Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce is hosting An Evening With Cassandra Gillens from 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 11 at the Black Chamber building at 711 Bladen Street.
Step into a world of vibrant colors, cultural narratives, and profound emotions. This event is a unique opportunity to experience Gillens’ soul-stirring artistry and to connect with our rich cultural heritage.
According to her website, Gillens is a self-taught artist. She uses the hues of paint to bring to life the traditions of the past and her love for people and culture of the American South. Her work is inspired by the stories she has heard from her grandmother; a native born of Beaufort, S.C., as well as the area where Gillens spent much of her childhood.
Learn more about Gillens at CassandraGillensArts.com.
Conroy Center hosting Catherine Walker
The Pat Conroy Center will host an evening with visiting Australian fantasy novelist Catherine M. Walker, author of the Being of Dreams and Emergence series. Free and open to the public, this author visit will be held on Monday, Nov. 13, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Conroy Center, 601 Bladen Street, Beaufort.
Books will be available for sale and signing. Register in advance at 843-379-7025.
Walker describes the first three novels in her Being of Dreams series – Shattering Dreams, Path of the Broken, and Elder Born — as an epic fantasy in which the characters are cursed to become either heroes or monsters. Walker’s second series, Emergence, has three novels planned, with the first two, Unwanted and Sacrifice, now available. Walker describes this series as a fantastic world torn by conflict, in which the Unwanted fight for survival. Readers who enjoy perilous magic, royal intrigue, and tales of betrayal and friendship will find much to savor in these volumes.
In addition to discussing her novels, Walker will also share insights into being a self-published international author and her own journey to publication.
Conroy Center hosting Patricia Foster two nights
The Pat Conroy Center will host an evening with award-winning writer Patricia Foster, author of Written in the Sky: Lessons of a Southern Daughter, on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 5 p.m., at the Conroy Center. Books will be available for sale and signing. Please reserve your seat in advance at 843-379-7025.
Foster will also lead a writing workshop – Strong Currents: Writing About Place – the following evening, Thursday, Nov. 16, from 5 to 7 p.m. Learn more and register in advance at https://bit.ly/473uo2N.
In Written in the Sky: Lessons of a Southern Daughter, Foster provides a double portrait of her family and her native region. A book of deeply personal essays, Foster interrogates the legacy of racial tension in the South and the way race, class, gender, and white privilege are entwined in her family story.
Interviewing girls at Booker T. Washington High School in Tuskegee, Ala.,, visiting the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala.,, and exploring Africatown in Plateau, Ala., Foster reflects on the racial scars and crossroads in her southern past as a way to reckon with the intimate places of her region’s wounding and grief.
In this story of the South, a sense of place emerges not only from family histories and cultural traditions but also from wrestling with a culture’s irreconcilable ideas; the hard push to determine what matters. For Foster, what matters are the shadow stories beneath our mythologies, the complicated and radiant narratives that must be excavated and reckoned with.
– From staff reports
