On behalf of the South Carolina Arts Commission, welcome to Communal Pen: Voices and Votes. We are so happy to be partnering with our sister agency, South Carolina Humanities, and with Museum on Main Street—a department of the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit program, or SITES. The Museum on Main Street program is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Institution and State Humanities Councils nationwide. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress. Every two years, South Carolina Humanities provides support for venues around the state to host a touring exhibit. Based on an exhibition by the National Museum of American History, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America is currently touring South Carolina through January 2023.

Communal Pen: Voices and Votes is offered through the S.C. Arts Commission’s Folklife & Traditional Arts Program. We are able to offer Communal Pen through generous support from South Carolina Humanities.

Before we dive into the writing, let me tell you a little bit more about the Voices and Votes exhibit. Has anyone here seen the exhibit?

From the Museum on Main Street website:

“When American revolutionaries waged a war for independence they took a leap of faith that sent ripple effects across generations. They embraced a radical idea of establishing a government that entrusted the power of the nation not in a monarchy, but in its citizens. That great leap sparked questions that continue to impact Americans: Who has the right to vote? What are the freedoms and responsibilities of citizens? And, whose voices will be heard? Voices and Votes: Democracy in America will be a springboard for discussions about those very questions and how they are reflected in local stories.”

We hope you will have an opportunity to see this powerful exhibit in person. During this Communal Pen workshop, our wonderful facilitator, EboniRamm, will draw from the exhibit and its themes to guide us in exploring our own personal experiences and memories through writing.

This is an especially timely moment for Voices and Votes to be touring South Carolina and the country, as it seems like the very definition of democracy and how we live it is debated daily—in the news, in the lives of our communities. In presenting Communal Pen: Voices and Votes at this time, we are keenly aware of the political, ideological and emotional landscape we are navigating now—as individuals, communities, as a nation, and globally. In a minute, Eboni will be going over our Communal Pen guidelines, which you have already received in your registration email. The guidelines are meant to create a safe space where we can explore potentially deeply charged topics through the lens of our own stories.

In Communal Pen, our focus is on building community through writing. Even as we gather in a time of charged emotions and deeply-held beliefs, we are able to engage in dialogue through our writing. In the context of the challenges we are facing today, it is especially important to come together to build community. We thank you for being here with us today, and we look forward to writing together, and to hearing each other’s stories as we explore these themes.

We are recording today’s session—the SCAC Folklife & Traditional Arts Program documents most of our activities for archival purposes and for the possibility of sharing our work in educational contexts. The spirit of Communal Pen includes confidentiality, and we want you all to feel free to write and share, be open. We will not use this recording without your explicit permission to do so, so you can rest assured that we are like Las Vegas—what happens here, stays here, unless we choose to share.