We are thrilled to host our third Magnolia Speaker Series on June 19th! Join us for Light Out of Darkness: A Juneteenth Conversation with Polly Sheppard and author Margaret Seidler and artist John W. Jones as they discuss their collaboration on "Payne-ful" Business: Charleston's Journey to Truth, recipient of the Phyllis Wheatley Book Award.
Join us for a powerful evening of reflection with Polly Sheppard, a survivor of the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting, as she shares her story and speaks to the enduring significance of Mother Emanuel—and the power of resilience in finding light amid darkness.
Seidler shares her personal mission to uncover and understand her family's genealogical past through extensive research of their sales of thousands of enslaved people. In her book, she explores the complex racial history of Charleston, focusing on the work of historians, journalists, and community members striving to reconcile these truths.
Artist John W. Jones discusses his powerful illustrations that bring to life Seidler’s research of historic newspaper advertisements, revealing the humanity hidden in the stark black and white descriptions of the enslaved offered for sale. The event also features a walking tour of eight (8) of his paintings on display in Magnolia’s restored slave cabins, offering a poignant visual connection to the past. Together, Seidler and Jones hope that by confronting a more complete truth about our history, we can begin to bridge the racial divide that persists in society today.
This event is FREE with advance registration and will be held in the CARRIAGE HOUSE!
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Mrs. Sheppard is the second oldest of thirteen children born to the late Edward and Bessie Daniels. A native of Florence, SC, she attended the public schools of Florence School District One and is a 1963 graduate of Wilson High School. She also completed some of her post-secondary studies in nursing at the Florence One Vocational Center and became a Licensed Practical Nurse. Later, she furthered her education at Florence-Darlington Technical College and the Bronx Community in College of New York.
Before her retirement in 2010, Mrs. Sheppard served as a LPN for 42 years. During her tenure, she was employed at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, SC; Fort Tryon Nursing Home in New York; St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, SC; and the Charleston County Detention Center in Charleston, SC.
Before her retirement in 2010, Mrs. Sheppard served as a LPN for 42 years. During her tenure, she was employed at McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, SC; Fort Tryon Nursing Home in New York; St. Francis Hospital in Charleston, SC; and the Charleston County Detention Center in Charleston, SC.
Margaret Seidler is a retired Organization & Leadership Development consultant, national conference speaker, and author. Her book, Power Surge: Energizing your Leadership Strengths, was published by HRD Press, 2008. Her practice focused on creating higher performance in leaders and in addressing local government and community system complexity.
Margaret was born and raised in Charleston. In the aftermath of the Mother Emanuel massacre, she and former City Police Chief Greg Mullen led the Charleston Illumination Project, a year-long effort, designed to give all parts of the community a voice in strengthening citizen/police relationships. A case study of the Charleston Illumination Project was published in The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox, Oxford University Press, UK, 2017.
Her broader work with the city of Charleston was published in Both/AND Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, Harvard Business Review Press, MA, 2022. Margaret has a BA in Psychology and a Master of Public Administration from the University of South Carolina. She became a certified Polarity Thinking Master in 2009.
John W. Jones is an African American artist who first gained acclaim for his series, Confederate Currency: The Color of Money. Self-taught and drafted into the U.S. Army in 1970, he served in Vietnam, eventually becoming an Army illustrator.
Examining Confederate banknotes, he became interested in the depiction of the slave economy in the American South before and during the American Civil War. Banknotes of the era often depicted slaves as happy workers on the cotton plantations. Jones has said he intended to demonstrate that banknotes served a propaganda purpose in depicting slavery as a natural state of affairs and one on which the Southern states’ economies rested. Jones recreated these scenes in large color paintings, using models and posing them as in the original etched images. He exhibited his paintings next to the banknote with the original etching.
More recently, he has created a series of paintings, “Lowcountry Gullah Series.” He also painted a series featuring the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, a regiment of Black soldiers that fought for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
