Celebrating Memories, Stories, and Traditions of Place

Hosted by McCormick County Chamber of Commerce/Hickory Knob State Park

In the Communal Pen: Water/Ways workshop, we will write to celebrate and explore our connections to place and community. Often, it is in our written words that memory lives. The writing process can itself help us to awaken and preserve thoughts and traditions, offering insight, understanding and respect to present and future generations.

This two-part workshop draws inspiration from the Smithsonian exhibit, Water/Ways, which is touring South Carolina with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street Traveling Exhibition Service from June 2020-April 2021. Exhibit themes and images are a springboard for igniting our own stories, giving voice to our shared and individual experience of place.

The virtual two-part workshop will be hosted on Zoom. 
The workshop takes place over two sessions, with Part 2 building on Part 1.

                Who We Are

Eboni Ramm

Workshop Facilitator

Deeply rooted in South Carolina, Communal Pen Writing Workshop creator and facilitator, EboniRamm fell in love with the arts at a very young age and was encouraged throughout her youth to express herself. Today, an accomplished poet and jazz singer, she invites audiences of all ages to share her passion for combining these art forms, highlighting her belief in the powerful influence of jazz on the American literary experience and aesthetic. She has taught her unique Jazz Poetry Salon at residencies with the Richland County Public Library, Arts Access South Carolina, Youth Corps, Fairfield Middle School, McKissick Museum, and ColaJazz’s partnership with Jazz at Lincoln Center, among others. Other selected accomplishments include her publication, Within His Star: The Story of Levi Pearson, celebrating Eboni’s ancestor who added strength to the unprecedented Brown vs. The Board of Education case, and the release of her poetry CD, Passion, and her jazz CD, The Look of Love. Learn more about Eboni at www.Eboniramm.com.

Laura Marcus Green

Workshop Coordinator

Communal Pen: Crossroads coordinator Laura Marcus Green is Program Specialist for Community Arts & Folklife at the South Carolina Arts Commission, where she provides statewide outreach and project coordination through the Art of Community: Rural SC initiative and other projects, while managing folklife grant and award programs. She holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University and an M.A. in Folklore/Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. Selected prior positions include Folklife & Traditional Arts Program Director at McKissick Museum, Community Engagement Coordinator for the Museum of International Folk Art’s Gallery of Conscience, and work as a folklife fieldworker and researcher, writer, curator and consultant for various arts and culture agencies nationwide. Having attended, coordinated, and facilitated diverse workshops, she is a devoted believer in the power of community writing.

Communal Pen Sponsors

The Communal Pen: Water/Ways Writing Workshop is offered by the South Carolina Arts Commission, in partnership with South Carolina Humanities, McCormick County Chamber of Commerce and Hickory Knob State Park. Communal Pen is a public program in conjunction with the traveling Smithsonian exhibition, Water/Ways, which is touring South Carolina from June 2020-April 2021 through the Museum on Main Street (MoMS) program of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. MoMS provides access to the Smithsonian for small-town America through museum exhibitions, research, educational resources, and programming. Communal Pen: Water/Ways is developed through the SC Arts Commission’s place-based initiative, The Art of Community: Rural SC initiative, which uses arts and culture to address community challenges and celebrate local assets. The writing workshop is coordinated through the SC Arts Commission’s Community Arts Development and Folklife & Traditional Arts programs, with generous support from South Carolina Humanities.