Article Promotion ? Sweetgrass Baskets Of Charleston South Carolina

by Wymetto Barnard

The Sweetgrass Cultural Humanities Holiday provides an excellent chance to exploit tasty food and entertainment and a massive spread of the Charleston areas signature memento, all the while enjoying coastal Carolinas near-perfect late-spring weather. But the event, held each year in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, also could be a learning experience, an opportunity to dig deep into the history of a people and a skill they have practiced for more than three centuries on two continents.

The holiday functions as a venue to teach locals as well as travellers about the heritage of the Gullah- Geechee people, their culture and practices, according to Sweetgrass Cultural Humanities Festival Project Director Thomasena Stokes-Marshall. We also have gospel songs, entertainment, and folklore. arts and crafts, Also naturally, the biggest display of sweetgrass baskets in the south. Charleston real estate has always benefited from the new traffic that come into the region.

For those who tire of eating, playing games, listening to music and having a look at baskets, the festival offers another engaging option. 2 films will be shown: Grass Roots: The Iconic Art of the Lowcountry Basket, and Bin Yah: There is No Place Like Home. Grass Roots follows Mount Pleasant basket makers as they harvest sweetgrass, weave their baskets and discuss the meaning of their work.

Bin Yah is a documentary film that considers how development and growth have threatened historical African-American communities in Mount Pleasant. In the words of local African-American residents, the film explores the culture, the history, the importance of land and the idea of home, giving a voice to those who infrequently have an opportunity to be heard.

The festival is booked from noon to 8 p.m. Sat., but the festivities essentially get underway Fri. at 6 p.m. In the Cooper River Room at the Visitors Center. The Real Taste of Gullah Cuisine, in its second year, will include the creations of a few of the areas top cooks, including Kevin Mitchell, an instructor at the the culinary Institute of Charleston at Trident Tech. The evenings activities include a strange fashion show featuring hats, evening purses and table vases made of sweetgrass. Musical entertainment will be provided by vocalist Zandrina Dunning, violinist Daniel D, Devon Gary on the saxophone and poet Samara Simmons. To complete the evening, internationally famous artist Jonathan Green, whose studio is on Daniel Island in nearby Berkeley County, will talk on Gullah culture.

A very important part of that account has to do with sweetgrass baskets.Through oral history, the method can be traced from West Africa to the plantations in the South to current day Carolinas. Though baskets were made to carry food and materials during and following the era of slavery, they weren?t sold for money till well into the 20th century. As the tale goes, according to an article penned by J.V. Coakley, Ida Jefferson setup the first sweetgrass stand for baskets on Road 17 in the 1930s after her job loss as a day worker. The route had been completed recently and tourists had begun to use it to travel from the North. Her speedy success grew challengers from other local basket professionals. Today, dozens of workmen promote their sweetgrass baskets along the stretch of Road 17 that runs thru Mount Pleasant.

About the Author:

Wymetto Barnard is a Charleston local with sources for Charleston MLS publications for your house in Charleston. Come visit our pristine beaches and wonderful landmarks. Charleston is a great place to live. For more articles visit ArticleDistribution.Org

Filed under: Arts & Entertainment

Source: http://articlepromotion.org/blog/?p=84940

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