FIRST OF TWO Official Program Guide PICCOLO May 28-June 13 PICKS Outdoor Art Exhibition Craft Show Charleston Fanfare at Cannon Park Juried Art Exhibition Wragg Square Sundown Musical Poetry Series Program brings spoken word to Gibbes Museum Charleston-area A special dance companies publication of pair up for outdoor festival performances And more! “Knot” by Joanna Henry CHAMPIONINGCHAMPIONINGCHAMPIONING OUR OUROUR CREATIVE.CREATIVE.CREATIVE. We’re proud to support We’rethose proud to support those who dream of a brighterwho tomorrow dream of a brighter tomorrow MAY 28–JUNEMAY 13, 2021 throughWe’re the performing proudthrough arts. to support the performing those arts. who dream of a brighter tomorrow through the performing arts. NOURISHING COMMUNITIES NOURISHING COMMUNITIES Piccolo Spoleto 2021 Spoleto Piccolo 2 NOURISHING COMMUNITIES Mayor’s Greeting to the Welcome 2021 Piccolo Spoleto Festival, where we proudly advance a legacy spanning 43 years, during which time Charleston’s local arts community has united each spring in the spirit of collaboration and partnership to create the perfect complement to the global aspirations of Spoleto Festival USA. In a typical year, Piccolo Spoleto assembles and public art encounters in unexpected settings. some 500 performing, literary, and visual arts Perhaps most exciting, it is all just a hint of what events, marking 17 days of unbridled creativity is to follow over the course of the summer and as that animates our galleries and theatres, historic the 2021-2022 artistic season comes roaring back houses of worship, sequestered courtyards and here in the Holy City in the months ahead. gardens, and the City’s beloved and beautiful Piccolo Spoleto would not be possible without parks. It is a Charleston tradition that endures the dedication and generosity of artists and arts and grows richer with each new season. enthusiasts throughout our community, and Obviously, the disruption of last year’s I want to acknowledge all of the outstanding cancellations and the uncertainties artists and appreciative audience members who of navigating a global pandemic have will make the 2021 Piccolo Spoleto Festival a made all of us recalibrate and adjust resounding success. I also want to thank the staff to new patterns of socially distant of the City of Charleston Office of Cultural Affairs alternatives, not to mention the and the team of dedicated community volunteers seemingly endless cycle of Zooms and and arts leaders who bring Piccolo Spoleto to life. unmitigated screen fatigue. We also salute the medical professionals, safety We are more humble and we experts, front line workers, and City of Charleston recognize that the “little things” staff who have worked behind the scenes to should not be taken for granted provide protocols and assessments to safeguard moving forward. So, it’s truly the well-being of our audiences and artists alike. wonderful that our Piccolo Spoleto A riotous round of applause to you all! Festival should afford us through I very much hope you will join us in countless small gestures and little celebrating everything that Charleston and bursts of delight the opportunity to Piccolo Spoleto have to offer. I look forward to come together safely and responsibly seeing you at the Festival. and celebrate as a community. The arts are an intrinsic part of Charleston’s collective DNA and they create a nearly sacred space of inspiration where meaningful connection and dialogue can emerge and persist. Many of the 2021 Piccolo Spoleto events will feel familiar, be .com that browsing the artists’ tents at Marion Square, listening to great jazz, or enjoying a poetry reading in a beautiful garden as the evening sun fades. Other offerings will be maiden voyages for the festival, from lyrical, melodious strolls through John J. Tecklenburg our parks to high-spirited pop-up performances Mayor charlestoncitypaper 3 voted best ASSISTED LIVING COMMUNITY, RETIREMENT COMMUNITY, AND IN-HOME HEALTH CARE COMPANY! in Charleston City Paper’s Best Of Charleston Awards! EXCELLENCE IN SENIOR LIVING 1 Bishop Gadsden Way, Charleston • 843-762-3300 BishopGadsden.org INTERESTED IN JOINING OUR TEAM? SEE THE CAREERS SECTION ON OUR WEBSITE! JULY 17 | 7:30PM MAY 28–JUNEMAY 13, 2021 Presented by the Charleston Gaillard Center. Performed at The Citadel. Learn more at gaillardcenter.org. Piccolo Spoleto 2021 Spoleto Piccolo CHLOE MISSELDINE AND JOSE SEBASTIAN IN LA FOLLIA VARIATIONS. 4 PHOTO: TODD ROSENBERG PHOTOGRAPHY. 5 charlestoncitypaper.com Sundown Poetry MCG Photography Piccolo poetry series brings spoken word to Gibbes Museum courtyard By Michael Smallwood vice organization dedicated to highlighting collection, tells the story of her lineage from and advancing the literary work of African- both sides of her family. Highlighted among Throughout the month of June, Piccolo American voices. this work is her grandfather, a medical Spoleto will be presenting a series of poetry The following week on June 7, Lola doctor, who founded the People’s Hospital selections from some of the most renowned Haskins lands in the Lenhardt Garden in 1937, a hospital that served the neglected authors in the Southeast. The two-week to read from her collection of 14 poetry African-American community in her home- engagement will feature live readings show- books. An honorary chancellor of the town. The People’s Hospital was the only casing a new poet each day. These readings, Florida State Poets Association, Haskins hospital for Black people until the deseg- free to the public, will take place in the is a recipient of the Emily Dickinson regation of Newberry County Memorial Lenhardt Garden at the Gibbes Museum in prize from the Poetry Society of America. Hospital in 1952. downtown Charleston. Following Haskins is David B. Axelrod, Ocasio’s readings will include works from It’s an all-star lineup of incredible a three-time Fulbright poet. Axelrod throughout her career as a writer, looking at authors this year. reads on June 8. June 9 belongs to Kwoya her evolution through the years. The poems Al Black, author of Man with Two Fagin Maples, of Charleston. A Cave were born when she was a graduate student Shadows, kicks off the series June 1. Black Canem fellow, her work, Mend, was a at Sarah Lawrence College to when she is a co-founder of Poets Respond to Race finalist for the 2019 Hurston/Wright moved to Charlotte, and cover a great deal Initiative and was Jasper Magazine’s Legacy Award for Poetry. of her life. Provided Literary Artist of the Year in 2017. Valerie June 10 sees Grace C. Ocasio, and the “I am pleased to read in Charleston Nieman follows on June 2. She is a former series ends on June 11 with Ren Ruggiero. knowing that I have Southern roots via Grace Ocasio’s readings will be from National Endowment of the Arts fellow, Ruggiero, of Charleston, is the author of my family, who settled in Newberry, South works that span her career as a writer author of four novels and teacher at North Mermaid Daughter, her first collection of Carolina,” says Ocasio of presenting during Carolina A&T State University. poetry. Her work also appeared in Kakalak the Piccolo Spoleto Festival this year. the last year has had on her reading here. H.R. Spencer will read from The Color 2017, Morbid Curiosity and Arcana: The The Poetry Series, like all of Piccolo, is “Artistically, though, the pandemic showed After Green June 3. Published in 2019, Tarot Poetry Anthology. making its return after missing the 2020 me that I should persist in my endeavor to this collection of contemporary nature Ocasio, a two-time Pushcart Prize festival due to the pandemic. Ocasio’s read- perform my work, no matter the obstacles MAY 28–JUNEMAY 13, 2021 poems reach for larger concerns of climate nominee and Newberry native, will present ings will not have any direct commentary in my way.” and ecological changes. June 4 brings us readings from her books, Hollerin from on COVID itself. Fans of poetry left starved by the pan- Cornelius Eady, Pulitzer Prize nominee This Shack, The Speed of Our Lives, and “The three books I will be presenting demic for direct interaction with readers and National Book Award finalist. Eady is Family Reunion. on were written before the pandemic,” and live sessions will no doubt be ready for the cofounder of Cave Canem, a literary ser- Family Reunion, her second full-length she says when asked about the impact this year’s COVID-safe Piccolo Spoleto. Piccolo Spoleto 2021 Spoleto Piccolo 6 Black Nieman Spencer Eady Haskins Axelrod Maples Ruggiero 7 charlestoncitypaper.com Dance Unbound Ballet Project and Annex Dance Company will join for this year’s Piccolo Spoleto Courtesy Unbound Ballet Project Charleston-area dance companies pair up for outdoor festival performances MAY 28–JUNEMAY 13, 2021 By Michael Smallwood Company on King Street Extension. A bit “We are so lucky that we live in a city where different from the troupe’s usual fare,It we have these outdoor places that people can Piccolo Spoleto 2021 may have a completely different approach and Never Changes is a selection of four dif- come and still enjoy the shape, but that doesn’t mean it is skimping on the quality of the ferent female choreographers who gathered arts and still keep life offerings. Case in point: audiences will get to attend events like the to create a ballet show specifically for the moving the best we can.” new outdoor space. Annex Dance May 31 Hampton Park Dance Program, featuring performances Eight dancers will be featured in an Company, founded in from two of Charleston’s premiere dance companies, absolutely free. abridged version of It Never Changes to the 2010 by artist director Hampton Park program this month.