Event
Harvesting Heritage: Lowcountry Legacy
This ongoing event series highlights the past and future of creativity, innovation, and artistry in Black foodways throughout South Carolina.
Event Date
Sat., Feb. 8, 2025 | 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Doors open at 6 p.m. | Located at The Penn Center on St. Helena Island
The South Carolina State Museum is proud to host Harvesting Heritage in partnership with Chef Amethyst Ganaway.
On Feb. 8th, as a part of Black History Month, the event series travels to South Carolina's Lowcountry to host Harvesting Heritage at the Penn Center on St. Helena Island.
The program will honor the historic contributions of Black South Carolinians and their descendants in the Lowcountry, a legacy preserved, in part, through Gullah Geechee heritage efforts, culinary revival projects, and land stewardship initiatives. The commitment to nurturing these relationships to food, agriculture, and culture reflects the resilience, innovation, and profound connection to history and place among African Americans in the Lowcountry.
The event will include:
- A discussion moderated by award-winning Chef Amethyst Ganaway, featuring emerging griot Tendaji Bailey, Gullah matriarch Sara Green, acclaimed chef BJ Dennis, and Gullah cultural steward and artist, Victoria Smalls.
The menu for the evening features small plates with:
- Collard green salad with Anson Mills Sea Island Red Peas
- Okra Stew with Rice
- Smoked Shrimp Dip on Crackers
- Mr. Ron’s Gullalicious Pound Cakes
Ticket Options
Includes activities, food and one drink voucher.
Please note: Ticket sales are final and non-refundable.
About Amethyst Ganaway
Born and raised in North Charleston, Amethyst Ganaway has been featured in the New York Times, Food & Wine, Garden & Gun and more. Specializing in Southern and African American foodways and the foodways of the African Disapora, Ganaway also recently headlined the Charleston Wine + Food Festival. She uses her position as a chef and food writer to tell the stories of the region’s history, culture, art, cuisine, and environment.
About Penn Center
Located on beautiful St. Helena Island, at the very heart of Gullah culture, surrounded by glimmering marshes, and nestled beneath the silvery moss-draped limbs of massive live oaks is Penn Center. The campus of the former Penn School, one of the nation’s first schools for formerly enslaved people, is one of the most significant African American institutions in existence. This historic and cultural institution is a National Historic Landmark District and comprises two of the four sites in Reconstruction Era National Park. The mission of Penn Center is to promote and preserve Penn’s true history and culture through its commitment to education, community development and social justice.
About Tendaji Bailey
Tendaji Bailey is a Gullah Geechee native of Port Royal & St Helena Island, SC in Beaufort County. He is a 2015 graduate of Morehouse College and former middle school math teacher and community organizer. He is an artist and the founder of the Gullah Geechee Futures Project. He helps to develop programs and events to educate the public about the rich history and culture of Gullah Geechee communities throughout the coastal southeast and beyond through the Mellon Morehouse Movement, Memory, & Justice Project. He is also the Gullah Geechee educator at the Coastal Discovery Museum providing tours and workshops. He is a Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association of Interpreters. As an emerging artist he transforms into a Griot, a traditional storyteller, by singing, song writing, and curating immersive experiences through his most recent work, “SEEKING|SOARING: Gullah Resilience Songs”.
About BJ Dennis
Born and raised in Charleston, SC, personal chef and caterer Benjamin “BJ” Dennis infuses the flavors and culture of the Lowcountry into his Gullah Geechee cuisine, bringing a new taste to an ever expanding culinary palate of the South. What differentiates Chef BJ’s food from his contemporaries in “southern” cooking is the homage he pays to the Gullah Geechee culture, brought to the Americas by West Africans, and disseminated along the West Indies and the American South. Dennis infuses the techniques of his ancestors, learned from four years of study in St. Thomas, as well as the lessons of his grandparents about eating from the land, to create fresh interpretations of local dishes focusing on in-season, locally sourced vegetables and seafood. Recent trips to Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Barbados, Dominica, U.S. Virgin Islands, Angola, Bahamas and Benin has brought his work full circle. Connecting the people and cultures of the African diaspora through food. Bringing back a true taste of Gullah Geechee culture.
About Sara Reynolds Green
A native of St. Helena Island, Sara Reynolds Green is a mother, master teacher, counselor, chef, farmer, and community activist. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, Green opened Conscious Children’s Center, a daycare facility where she developed her guiding philosophy: “Let children be free to explore and hear their hearts speak.” She returned to the island in 1989, to watch over her mother, protect her family’s land, and continue nurturing children. In 2007, Sara founded Marshview Community Organic Farm, Inc., while serving as a Social Worker and School Counselor for the Beaufort County School District. As CEO of Marshview, Mrs. Green guides students, aged 8-18, managing the farm, fostering practical training, entrepreneurial skills, and career opportunities. Under her tutelage, the students work after school and on weekends to plant seeds, nurture seedlings, weed, maintain, and harvest crops. Each student receives a share of the harvest along with valuable life lessons. In 2009, she married Gullah chef Bill Green and, together, the couple opened the Gullah Grub restaurant and cooking school, which has trained over 300 young chefs and farmers to date. Their work soon expanded to include the SC Coastal Community Development Corporation, which distributes organic produce to the community.
About Victoria A. Smalls
Victoria A. Smalls, a native of St. Helena Island, SC, serves as President & CEO at Smalls Cultural Resources, championing Gullah Geechee communities across the southeastern United States. With a focus on climate, land, and ocean justice, Smalls Cultural Resource is dedicated to preserving Gullah Geechee heritage through history, art, language, and culture.
With two decades of experience, Victoria has held significant positions, including former state Commissioner on the SC African American Heritage Commission, former federal Commissioner on the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission and Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee Corridor National Heritage Area. Her impactful leadership extends to organizations such as Penn Center National Historic Landmark District, International African American Museum, and the National Park Service. Victoria is an art collector, her collection of local, national and international art is titled “Da Wada Brought Us & Kept Us” and has been exhibited throughout the Southeastern US. She is a professional visual artist and creates with oils, acrylics, pastels, and recently began creating mixed-media collages. An alumna of South Carolina State University, Technical College of the Lowcountry, and the University of South Carolina—Beaufort, Victoria’s passion for community advocacy and service has earned her numerous accolades, including the Black History USA Community Advocate Award, recognition as one of the 12 Black Leaders to Know in South Carolina, and selection as a Maven for The Art of Community: Rural SC. She has also been named a Leo Twiggs Arts Diversity Leadership Scholar, a Riley Fellow in Diversity Leadership with The Riley Institute at Furman University, and one of the 50 Most Influential Leaders in Charleston, SC. In 2022, Victoria received The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Medal for her dedicated volunteer service. Most recently, she was among the honorees of the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities in 2024.
We strive to host events that enable all individuals, including those with disabilities, to engage fully. Please let us know if you have any requests that may make your experience with us a better one. Click here to view our accessibility offerings. If ASL interpretation is needed, please email publicprograms@scmuseum.org at least two weeks prior to attending this event.
Event Partner
Harvesting Heritage Event Series
Chef Amethyst Ganaway and the State Museum present a new event series exploring South Carolina foodways.