THIS WEEKEND
Love Respect Unity
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Patriot Hall, 135 Haynsworth Street
Sumter, SC 29150 FREE to the public. |
Love Respect Unity Arts Festival is sponsored by the Sumter County Cultural Commission in partnership with the Millican Foundation, the two-day multi-cultural event filled with art, performances, vendors, speakers, and fun. Get energized by local and SC talent as they present art in every form. Experience live performances and art inspired by the words of civil rights icon, C. T. Vivian, that feature themes of love, peace, and unity.
Event Schedule
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Saturday, March 10
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Art Exhibit Opens, Visit Vendors & Food Truck - Korner Shack 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm Program Begins, Cynthia Hardy, OnPoint Media, Emcee Taylor Burrus and Lily Geddings, Bates Middle School Love/Hate Dichotomy Headline Speaker: Marjory Wentworth, South Carolina Poet Laureate One River One Boat Stephanie Hickmon, Michaela Tindal, Hakeem Drayton, Makayla Pearson, Rebecca Twitty, Arianna Robinson, and LeeAnna Green, Caroline Mack Center for the Arts Senior Company, performance |
Sunday, March 11
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm Program Begins, Cynthia Hardy, Emcee, OnPoint Media Performance: Marcus Amaker, Charleston SC’s first Poet Laureate Headline Speaker: Alana Simmons, Activist and founder of the Hate Won’t Win Movement Unity Choir, Directed by Herbert Johnson, performance (Combined choirs from Lakewood High School, Sumter County Civic Chorale, First Baptist Church, and Morris College.) Air Force Band - Rhythm in Blue, Featured performance |
Speaker & Performer Information
Saturday, March 10
Featured Speaker: MARJORY WENTWORTH’s poems have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize six times. Her books of poetry include Noticing Eden, Despite Gravity, The Endless Repetition of an Ordinary Miracle and New and Selected Poems. She is the co-writer with Juan Mendez of Taking a Stand, The Evolution of Human Rights, co-editor with Kwame Dawes of Seeking, Poetry and Prose inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green, and the author of the prizewinning children’s story Shackles. Her most recent collaborations include We Are Charleston, Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, with Herb Frazier and Dr. Bernard Powers and the New York Times best seller and winner of the 2018 Coretta Scott King Award Out of Wonder, Poems Celebrating Poets with Kwame Alexander and Chris Colderley. Ms. Wentworth teaches at The Art Institute of Charleston. She serves on the Editorial Board of the University of South Carolina’s Palmetto Poetry Series, and she is the poetry editor for Charleston Currents. Her work is included in the South Carolina Poetry Archives at Furman University, and she is the Poet Laureate of South Carolina.
Featured Speaker: MARJORY WENTWORTH’s poems have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize six times. Her books of poetry include Noticing Eden, Despite Gravity, The Endless Repetition of an Ordinary Miracle and New and Selected Poems. She is the co-writer with Juan Mendez of Taking a Stand, The Evolution of Human Rights, co-editor with Kwame Dawes of Seeking, Poetry and Prose inspired by the Art of Jonathan Green, and the author of the prizewinning children’s story Shackles. Her most recent collaborations include We Are Charleston, Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel, with Herb Frazier and Dr. Bernard Powers and the New York Times best seller and winner of the 2018 Coretta Scott King Award Out of Wonder, Poems Celebrating Poets with Kwame Alexander and Chris Colderley. Ms. Wentworth teaches at The Art Institute of Charleston. She serves on the Editorial Board of the University of South Carolina’s Palmetto Poetry Series, and she is the poetry editor for Charleston Currents. Her work is included in the South Carolina Poetry Archives at Furman University, and she is the Poet Laureate of South Carolina.
Sunday, March 11
Featured Speaker: Alana Simmons is the founder of the Hate Won't Win Movement which was started in light of the church massacre that took place at “Mother” Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC on June 17th, 2015. That night, a bible study was held where a white stranger visited and was invited into a predominately black church. The members there invited this stranger into their bible study and he in turn he shot and killed nine people. In the bond hearing of the shooter, Alana Simmons, the granddaughter of Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr. (one of the victims), said these words; “It is my understanding that the purpose of this shooting was to initiate a race war. And although my grandfather and the other victims die at the hands of hate, they lived in love and they preached love, and their legacies will be love. This display of forgiveness by the families and their plea for mercy on your soul is a true testament to how they lived and so hate wont win.”
Featured Speaker: Alana Simmons is the founder of the Hate Won't Win Movement which was started in light of the church massacre that took place at “Mother” Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC on June 17th, 2015. That night, a bible study was held where a white stranger visited and was invited into a predominately black church. The members there invited this stranger into their bible study and he in turn he shot and killed nine people. In the bond hearing of the shooter, Alana Simmons, the granddaughter of Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr. (one of the victims), said these words; “It is my understanding that the purpose of this shooting was to initiate a race war. And although my grandfather and the other victims die at the hands of hate, they lived in love and they preached love, and their legacies will be love. This display of forgiveness by the families and their plea for mercy on your soul is a true testament to how they lived and so hate wont win.”
Sunday Performer Spotlight: Marcus Amaker is Charleston, South Carolina’s first Poet Laureate. Amaker’s poems have been featured on TEDxCharleston, PBS Newshour, the A&E network, the Huffington Post, Alaska Beyond Magazine and many local media outlets. He’s created more than 20 electronic music albums, more than 100 websites and one poetry festival. Charleston Business Magazine named him one of Charleston’s 50 Most influential People.
Featured Performance: Rhythm in Blue Air Force Band, Sunday March 11
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We are proud to welcome the Rhythm in Blue band as a part of the LRU Festival. Their mission is to communicate the Air Force core values, tell the Air Force story, instill patriotism in audiences across the world and foster and sustain the welfare and morale of service members. They provide live musical support for approximately 300-plus events annually, and have produced more than 55 critically-acclaimed compact disc recordings. The ensemble has received numerous military awards to include eight Air Force Outstanding Unit awards, five Air Force Organizational Excellence awards and three Colonel George S. Howard Citations of Musical Excellence for Military Concert Bands awards. They will end the festival with great music sure to inspire, uplift, and unite.
LRU Festival Emcee: Cynthia Hardy, OnPoint! Media
Cynthia Pryor Hardy is a communications executive who currently owns and hosts the market’s #1 weekly radio news talk show. The show, On Point with Cynthia Hardy is heard every Sunday evening at 6:00 on WWDM 101.3—and covers 80% of South Carolina. In addition, she is a regular guest commentator on Awareness, WIS-TV’s weekly public affairs show Sunday mornings on NBC.
Cynthia's journalistic insight is often sought by media outlets on the national level. She has appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. She makes frequent appearances on NPR's News and Notes.
Cynthia's journalistic insight is often sought by media outlets on the national level. She has appeared on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, and NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. She makes frequent appearances on NPR's News and Notes.
About the Sumter County Cultural Commission & AJBM Foundation
The Sumter County Cultural Center offers Sumter residents a place to experience creative and diverse cultural opportunities. Home to the Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter Little Theatre, Patriot Hall, Sumter Community Concert Band, Sumter Civic Chorale, and the Sumter Community Jazz Band—the historic building and its offerings are unique treasures for our community. The Sumter County Cultural Commission (SCCC) was created by a city/county ordinance in 1974. Comprised of community volunteers dedicated to bringing people together through the arts, SCCC also finds innovative ways to support arts-related endeavors in Sumter County.
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The Dr. Arthenia Jackson Bates Millican Foundation (AJBM) was established in 2008 to preserve the legacy and literary works of Dr. Arthenia Jackson Bates Millican and to give back. Dr. Millican (1920 – 2012) was an internationally known poet, educator, novelist and humanist of rural beginnings who called Sumter, South Carolina home. A focal point of the Foundation’s contributions is to promote literary and cultural arts locally, nationally and globally.
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To make a donation to the Love Respect Unity Arts Festival, please call 803.436.2260 or
mail to: Sumter County Cultural Commission, 135 Haynsworth Street, Sumter, SC 29150
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