A big discussion on a weekend like Memorial Day weekend in a tourism-happy town with two major festivals going on and gas at almost $4 a gallon is: Where is everybody from? Are the crowds made up of tourists from the usual far-off place like Ohio or are they from a bit closer, say North Carolina or Georgia? Or did everybody from around heyah just stay put?

An Afternoon of Porgy and Bess

Today, I took in An Afternoon of Porgy and Bess. The program, which played to a capacity crowd, featured selections from the Heyward/Gershwin opera by soprano D’Jaris Whipper-Lewis and tenor/baritone Richard Blakeney. Robert Rosen provided a excellent overview of the history surrounding the work with his A Short History of George Gershwin in Charleston.

Both Whipper-Lewis and Blakeney, accompanied by Chamber Music Charleston thrilled with their beautiful renditions of Summertime, Oh, I Plenty O’ Nuttin, and It Ain’t Necessarily So. I found Whipper-Lewis’s Strawberry Woman especially beautiful.

If you can, do catch this gorgeous program of history and music time next around. It’s a lovely way to spend an hour.

Seeking A Landscape

Next, I headed to the Gibbs to see the exhibitLandscape of Slavery: The Plantation in American Art.

Dan’s post about race and art got me thinking about my own skittishness on the subject of slavery and plantation life. My maternal grandparents were sharecroppers in Marlboro County, SC, and my mother would tell my siblings and me how she picked and chopped cotton for $2.00 a day, how she hated it, and what she did to avoid it.

She also told us about how my grandfather picked 1000 lbs of cotton in one day, and how proud he was of that. I thought about how difficult that must have been and how determined he was to excel at something. For my grandparents, “smart” implied more industriousness than intelligence, and my grandfather was known as especially smart.

As I toured the exhibit which, had art ranging from the pastoral to the provocative, I thought a lot about my mother, grandparents and other sharecroppers and slaves who worked those fields with the hope of a better life.

I thought the exhibit well done and thoughtful. Some of the works, a photo of the charred remains of a lynched man and a photo of a slave woman stripped to the waist were a bit jarring, but it’s all part of a journey that our country is still traveling.

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Jack’s here! Our resident Jazz expert Jack McCray pops up for the first time on today’s podcast, to give us his insight into the music scene this year. With Geoff and Janet.

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically. There’s also our guide to podcasting here.

We’ve now got a Twitter feed in the left sidebar of SpoletoToday. What the heck is that, you say? Well, it means you can follow along as we are around town talking about the shows, the sights and where we’re going to hang out between shows. No need to sign-up for a thing, although if you like Twitter and want to know more, go to  our Online Tools page for a how-to guide.

If you’re planning to be downtown, check the Twitter feed on SpoletoToday, because we’ll be inviting you to join us for coffee and other beverages at local establishments. We’ll also try to let you know as soon as we do if any shows are sold out. It’s an easy way to get instant updates on what’s happening.

More photos from yesterday’s Reggae Block Dance.

The headliner, Slice International kept the party going despite some early technical difficulties. It was my first block dance, and I enjoyed the music, dancing, and people spotting.

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