This film is part of the Creating Place project. View the full multimedia collection here.
“conNECKted’s” first collective questions were: Partnership with whom? Prosperity for whom?
From there, as the field of our questioning leads us unmistakably from housing to education, to violence, to climate, back to justice, we realized that such connectivity of issues were not drawing a vicious circle but an ever-widening path to action. It is the process “conNECKted” went through, during its intense history, which made it obvious that, although our goal is to promote social and economic justice for all in Charleston, nothing would change without a bridge built between the past of a society deeply divided around race, class, geography, education, justice and a future founded on equal rights, equal opportunities, equal respect.
For more on “conNECKted”: http://jemagwga.com/connneckted-in-progress/ and www.conNECKtedTOO.org.
Charleston Rhizome Collective members, L-R: Pamella Gibbs, Gwylene Gallimard, Debra Holt, Jean-Marie Mauclet, La’Sheia Oubre. Photo: Donna Cooper Hurt.
The Charleston Rhizome Collective is an art in/with community group, where education, art, and activism intersect. By design we are grassroots, interracial, and inter-generational. We are diverse in race, age, income, talent, education, professional occupation, and this is reflected in the activities and projects we initiate. Many of us were born and raised in Charleston; others are first generation immigrants. Our projects like the recent “conNECKted: Imaginings for Truth & Reconciliation” (2015-17) challenged processes of collaboration in the visual arts and equitable community involvement. Our collective and members of the collective have received project funding from the NEA, We Shall Overcome Fund, Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs, Puffin Foundation, SC Arts Commission, Coastal Community Foundation, Alternate ROOTS, and ArtPlace America.
The film was developed by the Charleston Rhizome Collective and edited by Jason Gourdine with Gwylene Gallimard.