LibraryVoicesSC

A Conversation with Tim Conroy - Episode 62

Dr. Curtis Rogers discusses poetry and more with poet Tim Conroy. Tim is a former special education teacher, school administrator, and vice president of the South Carolina Autism Society. His poetry and short fiction have been published in literary journals, magazines, and compilations, including Fall Lines, Auntie Bellum, and Marked by the Water. A founding board member of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, established in his brother’s honor, Tim lives and writes in Columbia, South Carolina and is the author of Theologies of Terrain.

Links:

• Website: http://timconroypoet.com/
• Pat Conroy Literary Center: http://patconroyliterarycenter.org/

Lee Snelgrove and One Columbia for Arts and History - Episode 60

Dr. Curtis Rogers discusses the local arts scene and One Columbia with Lee Snelgrove. Lee is the Executive Director of One Columbia for Arts and History. Since taking the position, he's overseen the establishment of a process for commissioning public art and the installation of 30 new pieces, the establishment of the position of a City Poet Laureate, the development of a strategic plan for the Congaree Vista’s formal cultural district designation, and has been a leader of multi-organizational city-wide events including the Commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Burning of Columbia and the Total Solar Eclipse Weekend in August 2017. He is currently overseeing the coordination of 21 new public art projects.

Links:

• One Columbia: https://www.onecolumbiasc.com/
• Amplify Columbia: https://amplifycolumbia.com/ 

 

South Carolina History through Poetry with Kimberly Simms - Episode 50

Dr. Curtis Rogers discusses South Carolina cotton mill history through the poetry of author Kimberly J. Simms. Kimberly is graduate of Furman and Clemson Universities and her work has appeared in over 30 literary journals including the Asheville Poetry Review and the Broad River Review. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and her work is included in the South Carolina Poetry Archives at Furman University. She is the proud founder of Wits End Poetry, a non-profit now celebrating 15 years of creating South Carolina poetry events and educational outreach. Kimberly is also a recent participant in our Speaker @ the Center program in March of 2018.

Simms' book, Lindy Lee: Songs on Mill Hill, brings to life the social fault lines of textile mills in the rural South Carolina Piedmont — themes of child labor, the changing roles of women, of a fading away of life where isolation is juxtaposed against a strong sense of community. Part history, part poetry — this collection is peppered with the poignant, rarely seen photography of Lewis Hine (1874 – 1940). With Lindy Lee, Simms finds the vast and profound in the smallest of domestic spaces. In the words of William Wright (2016 Georgia Author of the Year), she celebrates and records in vivid imagery “the joys and hardships of a charged, mythic, and sweat-soaked place.”

Links:

• Author website: http://www.kimberlysimms.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KimberlyJSimms 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/kimberlyjsimms

  

 

Poetry and More with Lucinda and Xavier Clark - Episode 49

Dr. Curtis Rogers discusses poetry and the book, View from the Middle of the Road: Where the Greenest Grass Grows, with Lucinda J. Clark. Clark was born in Philadelphia and earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in the great city of New Orleans from Dillard and Tulane Universities. She returned to Philadelphia and started Phoenix Rising Art gallery. She began working with writers in 2002 and formed the company PRA Publishing. She is also a founding member of the Poetry Matters Project in Augusta Georgia and completed her legal studies with British American University School of Law in 2003. The two were also joined by her son Xavier, who is a mortgage banker but works along side his mother on writing and poetry projects.

Links:

• Poetry Matters Project: http://blog.poetrymattersproject.org/
• PMP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/poetrymattersproject/

 

The Power of Poetry with Glenis Redmond - Episode 48

Dr. Curtis Rogers discusses poetry and more with Glenis Redmond. Glenis travels nationally and internationally reading and teaching poetry so much that she has earned the title, Road Warrior Poet. She has posts as the Poet-in-Residence at The Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville, South Carolina, and also at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. During February 2016, at the request of U.S. State Department for their Speaker's Bureau, Glenis traveled to Muscat, Oman, to teach a series of poetry workshops and perform poetry for Black History Month. In 2014-16, she served as the Mentor Poet for the National Student Poet's Program to prepare students to read at the Library of Congress, the Department of Education, and for First Lady Michelle Obama at The White House. Glenis is a Cave Canem Fellow, a North Carolina Literary Fellowship Recipient, and a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist. She also helped create the first Writer-in-Residence at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock, North Carolina.  Her essay, “Poetry as a Mirror,” was a runner-up for the 2018 Bechtel Prize, a competition given annually by Teachers & Writers Collaborative in NYC. Tayari Jones was the judge. Glenis believes that poetry is a healer, and she can be found in the trenches across the world applying pressure to those in need, one poem at a time.  

Links:

• Main website: http://www.glenisredmond.com/
• Peace Center/Peace Voices: https://www.peacecenter.org/community-engagement/peacevoices