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iSmash Charleston · James Island
South Carolina’s first rage room turns one. Sledgehammers, vendors, giveaways and a ribbon-cutting on Folly Road, Thursday October 1, 5:30 to 7:30.
After eleven years, there is a date.
The Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation announced on September 15 that the memorial courtyard beside the Calhoun Street church opens to the public on November 14.
Why it matters: since June 2015, people who come to Emanuel AME to grieve or reflect have had nowhere built for it. They have stood on a sidewalk. That changes in November.
The courtyard sits directly adjacent to the church. Two grand marble benches with curving walls encircle a fountain, and the fountain carries the names of the nine people killed during Wednesday night Bible study by a lone gunman hoping to spark a race war.
Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney. Cynthia Graham Hurd. Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton. Tywanza Sanders. Ethel Lee Lance. Susie Jackson. Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor. Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr. Myra Quarles Thompson.
Michael Arad designed it. He is the architect behind the National September 11 Memorial in New York, the two voids set into the towers’ footprints. His work here is built to hold both pain and resilience, with room for private reflection and room for the kind of community conversation about faith and race that Charleston has been having, unevenly, for a decade.
“We have a responsibility to make sure the lives of the Emanuel Nine and the lessons of this tragedy are never forgotten,” Deona Smith, executive director of the Mother Emanuel Memorial Foundation, said in the Post & Courier. “This Memorial gives people a place to remember them, learn their stories and reflect on how each of us can help build a future rooted in understanding, compassion and love.”
The work is not finished. A garden honoring the five survivors is planned for the other side of the church, and roughly $5 million is still needed to cover that garden, grounds maintenance, educational programming and the endowment. Smith gave that figure during a site preview in June.
More detail on the November 14 opening is expected in the coming weeks.
This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you’d like to read that article.
SPONSORED
Kids On Point
College of Charleston mentorship program · Charleston
This Friday, every drink sold at Charleston’s four Dutch Bros locations sends a dollar to Kids On Point, the College of Charleston program putting mentors and after-school seats in front of Lowcountry kids. Order like you normally would on September 18. Details at dutchbros.com/buck-for-kids.
