Friday, November 03, 10:30 am–12:30 pm
Directors Suite
This live event will not be recorded.
Chair: Laura Marcus Green (South Carolina Arts Commission)
10:30 am
“It’s your quilting time:” Advancing Creativity as We Age
Amy E. Skillman (Goucher College)
10:50 am
Creative Aging and Sweetgrass Basket Makers in South Carolina
Minuette Floyd (University of South Carolina)
11:10 am
Preserving Iu-Mien Refugee Ritual and Literacy Traditions
Jeffery L. MacDonald (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, retired)
11:30 am
Circles in the Squares: Memory and Creativity Across Generations, Cultures, and Sectors
Laura Marcus Green (South Carolina Arts Commission)
11:50 am
open discussion time
“We grow in value as we age.” So says comedian Margaret Cho. Our later years are often considered a time of loss, decline, and disconnection. While these phenomena factor into many people’s experience, aging may bring a season of evolving, maturation, and new perspectives. Our cultural roots, creativity, and learned skills accompany us on our pathway through life, sometimes a continuous thread, or perhaps a return or discovery later in life. Presenting examples from diverse communities, this panel draws upon field research, auto-ethnography, and community-based public folklore to explore creativity and cultural connection as resources for navigating our later years.