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SUMMARY:An Afternoon with novelists Jeffrey Blount and John Pruitt\, in conversation with Rebecca Dwight Bruff
DESCRIPTION:Friday\, March 28\, 2025 – 2:00-3:30 PM EDT\nPrice: Free\nRegistration: Register at Eventbrite by March 27\nVenue: Penn Center’s Frissell Hall\, 16 Penn Center West\, St. Helena Island \nWebsite: Facebook Event Page \nThe nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center will host an afternoon with novelists Jeffrey Blount (Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way) and John Pruitt (Tell It True)\, in conversation with Rebecca Dwight Bruff (Trouble the Water) on Friday\, March 28\, at 2:00 p.m. \nFree and open to the public\, this special event is presented in partnership with Luxe Lowcountry Travel and will be held at Penn Center’s Frissell Hall\, 16 Penn Center West\, St. Helena Island. Books by all three authors will be available for sale and signing. \nAdvance registration is required by March 27 at: https://blountandpruitt.eventbrite.com \nAbout Jeffrey Blount and Mr. Jimmy from Around the Way \nJeffrey Blount is the award-winning author of three novels. He is also an Emmy award-winning television director and a 2016 inductee to the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame. During a 34-year career at NBC News\, Jeffrey directed a decade of Meet the Press and was the first African-American to direct the Today show. He is an award-winning documentary scriptwriter for films and interactives that are now on display in the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. \nMr. Jimmy from Around the Way is a story about failure\, self-discovery\, empowerment\, and the possibility of redemption. James Henry Ferguson doesn’t belong here. After a highly publicized fall from grace\, James attempts to flee from the chaos in his life. He ends up in a community he had never heard of before\, one that has been neglected and ignored by everyone in rural Ham\, Mississippi. A place of abject poverty\, the neighborhood is commonly referred to as “Around the Way.” Within a place forgotten by the rest of the world\, politics can be a dangerous game. When a troubling discovery is made\, the entire neighborhood is rocked to its core and James is forced to confront his own past in order to help the community have a future. He will have to find the strength to fight for the neighbors he once disregarded and avert a heart-breaking disaster. A self-identified failure is forced to uncover the wisdom of his past in order to recognize that money can’t solve every problem. Full of never-ending twists and turns\, no one can prepare themselves for the surprises in store. Winner of the 2024 National Indie Excellence Award for African American Fiction\, 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards for African American Fiction\, 2024 NYC Big Book Award for General Fiction\, and 2024 American Book Fest Best Book Award for African American Fiction. \n“This tender story is for any of us who have fallen and found the only way up is by reaching out a hand to others.”—Cassandra King\, author of Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy \nAbout John Pruitt and Tell It True \nJohn Pruitt began his journalism career in 1964 as a television reporter-cameraman and eventually rose to top anchor at WSB-TV in Atlanta\, Georgia. For a half-century he covered the civil rights movement\, Georgia politics\, and the major news figures of the day. His reporting has been honored with multiple awards including induction into the Atlanta Press Club and Georgia Association of Broadcasters Halls of Fame. \nIn Tell It True\, An African American serviceman is gunned down on a rural Georgia road in July 1964. This shocking murder ensnares a wide range of characters including the journalists who cover it\, the lawmen who must solve it\, the civil rights leaders who capitalize upon it\, the politicians who exploit it\, and the Atlanta magnate who fears its impact on the New South image he desperately wants to protect. TV news cameraman Gil Matthews and AP reporter Mindy Williams team up to follow the twists and turns of the murder investigation as rural\, state\, and federal lawmen clash\, a civil rights leader fends off a black power challenger\, and voters take sides in a governor’s race pitting virulent racist Roscoe Pike against moderate underdog Harrison Parker. Focusing on the challenges faced by journalists as they covered a societal revolution and brought the dramatic and sometimes violent scenes to TV screens around the world\, Tell It True takes us to a time when the future of the South hung in the balance. \n“Pruitt takes us back to a time where black lives truly didn’t matter in the South\, but it was a time black votes began to matter. The characters in this novel tell the story of the media’s role in changing race relations in the South\, and the behind-the-scenes political alliances that helped to bring change. Pruitt’s meticulous character development and scenery depiction put me right there in the story. Gripping from beginning to end and hard to put down.”—Monica Kaufman Pearson\, journalist and former news anchor \nAbout Rebecca Dwight Bruff \nRebecca Bruff is the author of the award-winning historical novel Trouble the Water and the children’s book Stars of Wonder. Bruff earned her bachelor’s degree in education at Texas A&M and a master’s and doctorate in theology at Southern Methodist University. In 2017\, she was a scholarship recipient for the prestigious Key West Literary Seminar. A frequent presenter at literary events\, she volunteers at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. \n  \n\nThis program and others like this would not be possible without your financial help for which\, as always\, Pat Conroy Literary Center gratefully thanks you.
URL:https://patconroyliterarycenter.org/calendar/an-afternoon-with-novelists-jeffrey-blount-and-john-pruitt/
LOCATION:Penn Center\, 16 Penn Center Circle West\, St. Helena Island\, SC\, 29920\, United States
CATEGORIES:Author Interview
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SUMMARY:8th Annual March Forth
DESCRIPTION:Eighth Annual March Forth to Be Held on March 2 & 3 in Port Royal\, Beaufort\, and St. Helena Island \nThe nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center’s eighth annual March Forth will be held on Saturday\, March 2\, and Sunday\, March 3. This special event commemorates the anniversary of Pat Conroy’s passing on March 4\, 2016\, with programs on major themes of his writing and teaching life\, including social justice\, inclusivity\, conservation\, education\, and storytelling. \nLearn more and register in advance at Eventbrite \nMarch Forth will include appearances by novelist Jeffrey Dale Lofton\, author of Red Clay Suzie (Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize); novelist\, musician\, and educator Brendan Slocumb\, author of Symphony of Secrets and The Violin Conspiracy (A Good Morning America Book Club Selection); naturalist and biographer Patrick Dean\, author of Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World; award-winning nature photographer Kelley Luikey; Spring Island Trust executive director Andy Jones; National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman; and the students of DAYLO. \nMarch Forth is hosted this year by Conroy Center executive director Jonathan Haupt\, Conroy Center board member Ginger Olszewski\, and Lowcountry Weekly publisher and columnist Margaret Evans. \nFree events will be held at the Port Royal Farmers Market and the Conroy Center on Saturday\, March 2. A ticketed all-day event (including a catered lunch by award-winning caterer and cookbook author Debbi Covington) will be held at Penn Center on St. Helena Island on Sunday\, March 3. Books by presenting authors will be available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. \nMarch Forth is presented in collaboration between the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center and Penn Center\, NeverMore Books\, Lowcountry Pride\, the Port Royal Farmers Market\, the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park\, the Rhett House Inn\, MarshSong Cottage\, Catering by Debbi Covington\, and DAYLO (Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization)\, and sponsored in part by the Pulpwood Queens Book Club. \n~SCHEDULE OF EVENTS~\nTEDDY BEAR PICNIC READ-ALOUD and READ WITH A RANGER at the PORT ROYAL FARMERS MARKET on SATURDAY\, MARCH 2\n9:30-Noon. Student volunteers from local chapters of DAYLO will be reading children’s picture books to young readers and their families\, with light snacks provided. DAYLO students will be joined by National Park Service Ranger Katherine Freeman from the Reconstruction Era National Historic Park for a special read-aloud\, Read with a Ranger. This free event will be held near the gazebo at the Port Royal Farmers Market (1615 Ribaut Rd\, Port Royal). No registration needed. \nAN AFTERNOON WITH JEFFREY DALE LOFTON\, AUTHOR OF RED CLAY SUZIE\, at the CONROY CENTER on SATURDAY\, MARCH 2\n2:00-3:30 p.m. Award-winning writer Jeffrey Dale Lofton will discuss his debut novel Red Clay Suzie (Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize) at the Conroy Center (601 Bladen St.\, Beaufort)\, presented in collaboration with Lowcountry Pride. Books will be available for sale and signing through NeverMore Books. Seating is limited for this free event; please register in advance at 843-379-7025. \nTICKETED MARCH FORTH EVENTS at PENN CENTER on SUNDAY\, MARCH 3\n9:30-10:00 a.m. Attendee check-in.\n10:00-11:30 a.m. Birding and nature walk of Penn Center led by naturalist and Spring Island Trust and Lowcountry Institute executive director Andy Jones.\n11:30 to Noon. Catered lunch by Debbi Covington. (Register in advance by February 26 for lunch. Day-of registrations may be possible without lunch.)\nNoon to 1:00 p.m. Novelist\, musician\, and educator Brendan Slocumb\, author of Symphony of Secrets and The Violin Conspiracy (A Good Morning America Book Club Selection) in conversation with Conroy Center Executive Director Jonathan Haupt\, presented with the generous support of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club.\n1:00 to 1:20 p.m. Book signing break with NeverMore Books.\n1:20 to 2:20 p.m. Naturalist and biographer Patrick Dean\, author of Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World\, in conversation with Lowcountry Weekly publisher and columnist Margaret Evans.\n2:20-2:40 p.m. Book signing break with NeverMore Books.\n2:40-3:40 p.m. A special slideshow presentation by award-winning nature photographer\, naturalist\, and educator Kelley Luikey.\n3:40-4:00 p.m. Closing remarks. \n~ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS~\nPatrick Dean writes on the outdoors and the environment. He has worked as a teacher\, a political media director\, and is presently the executive director of a rail-trail nonprofit. An avid trail-runner\, paddler\, and mountain-biker\, he lives with his wife and dogs on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Dean is the author of A Window to Heaven\, about the summit of Denali\, and Nature’s Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World. \n  \nDr. Andy Jones\, executive director of the Spring Island Trust and Lowcountry Institute\, is a lifelong naturalist\, with a passion for the biodiversity of the Southeast. He studied biological sciences at the University of Tennessee\, and completed his PhD on the evolutionary history of Philippine birds at the University of Minnesota. From 2006 until early 2022\, he served curator of ornithology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He has also served as a board member and on the research committee of Black Swamp Bird Observatory\, as a board member of Winous Point Marsh Conservancy\, and as Secretary of the American Ornithological Society. He has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society for his contributions to ornithology. \nJeffrey Dale Lofton is a senior advisor at the Library of Congress in Washington\, D.C. A veteran stage actor turned debut novelist\, he is the author of Red Clay Suzie\, written through his personal lens growing up an outsider figuring out life and love in a conservative family and community in the Deep South. The novel was Longlisted for the Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel Prize). \n  \nKelley Luikey is an award-winning photographer\, educator\, and Master Naturalist. Her photography consistently ranks in the Top 100 Images for national and international competitions such as the National Audobon Society and North American Nature Photographers Association. Her work hangs in private homes and offices across the country\, has appeared in numerous publications–including National Audubon Society magazine and the cover of Garden and Gun magazine. Through her work\, she hopes to inspire others to appreciate and preserve the beauty of the Lowcountry. Luikey resides in Port Royal with her husband and two children. She currently exhibits at Pluff Mudd Art in Bluffton and MacDonald Marketplace in Beaufort. \nBrendan Slocumb is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in music education\, concentrations on Violin and Viola. For the past two decades\, he has been a public and private school music educator from kindergarten through twelfth grade\, teaching general music\, orchestra\, and guitar ensembles. His students were often chosen for district and regional orchestras. In 2005\, Brendan was named Teacher of the Year for Robert E. Lee High School; he has been named to Who’s Who of American teachers\, and is a Nobel Teacher of distinction. Brendan also serves as an educational consultant for the Kennedy Center in Washington\, D.C. He is the author of two novels: The Violin Conspiracy (a selection of the Good Morning America Book Club) and the recently released Symphony of Secrets.
URL:https://patconroyliterarycenter.org/calendar/8th-annual-march-forth/
LOCATION:Penn Center\, 16 Penn Center Circle West\, St. Helena Island\, SC\, 29920\, United States
CATEGORIES:March Forth,Talks and Lectures
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