Co-hosted by the Friends of Aiken County Historical Museum
and Second Baptist Church of Aiken

  In the Communal Pen: Voices and Votes Writing Workshop, we will write to celebrate and explore our connections to place and community, through the lens of our experience of civic life and identity. 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 workshop draws inspiration from the exhibition,
Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, which is touring South Carolina with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES), from April 2022-January 2023. Exhibit themes and images are a springboard for igniting our own stories, giving voice to our shared and individual experience of place and history unfolding.

The workshop will be at the Aiken County Historical Museum located at 433 Newberry St. SW
Aiken, SC 29801

Saturday, August 13,  10:00 am – 2:00 pm

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: Voices and Votes coordinator Laura Marcus Green is Folklife & Traditional Arts Director at the South Carolina Arts Commission, where she provides statewide outreach and project coordination, while managing folklife grant 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: Voices and Votes Virtual Writing Workshop is a partnership with South Carolina Humanities and Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street program. Communal Pen is made possible in South Carolina through generous support from South Carolina Humanities. Communal Pen is offered as a public program in conjunction with the traveling exhibition, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, which is touring South Carolina from April 2022-January 2023. Voices and Votes is part of Museum on Main Street, a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide. It is based on an exhibition by the National Museum of American History. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress. Museum on Main Street (MoMS) provides access to the Smithsonian for small-town America through museum exhibitions, research, educational resources, and programming. Communal Pen: Voices and Votes is developed through the S.C. 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.