Resources That Inspired and Influenced Us
Akua Page:
The book Hoodoo Medicine: Gullah Herbal Remedies by Dr. Faith Mitchell (1978, revised 2011) has inspired by interpretive work.
Ladd G. Colston:
I have served on numerous community boards throughout my professional career. One of the more significant ones was serving on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad (HTURR) Byway Commission which helped to create and establish the HTURR National Historical Park & Byway and the National Park Service Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center. This experience inspires me to investigate and promote interpretive work on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) Peninsula.
Erica Veal:
The documentary film Family Across the Sea inspires me to make connections with my audience about the African cultural survivals that live on in mainland North America’s Gullah Geechee/African American culture.
Jocelyn Patterson:
Just living in Charleston, South Carolina, inspires my interpretive work.
Ty Collins:
FOLI (there is no movement without rhythm) by Thomas Roebers and Floris Leeuwenberg!
“Life has a rhythm, it's constantly moving.
The word for rhythm ( used by the Malinke tribes ) is FOLI.
It is a word that encompasses so much more than drumming, dancing or sound.
It's found in every part of daily life.
In this film you not only hear and feel rhythm but you see it.
It's an extraordinary blend of image and sound that
feeds the senses and reminds us all
how essential it is.”
The documentary film short FOLI is the best description and example of life’s rhythm among African peoples worldwide. With origins in the language of eastern-central Guinea, FOLI literally means a discussion. This insight connects with the African enslaved population who worked on plantations owned by the Middletons. The African rhythms of labor are the same. The “work song” was the “discussion” even if it was not understood by the slave owner. FOLI explains the origin of Gullah Culture. My practice in public history interpretation is informed by connecting with the African continuum. We are African wherever we are, as we continue movement in rhythm and cultural memory.
