We are indebted to Carolyn Collins* for her brilliant creativity in coming up with the title for this public program. The phrase "Changing Places" is meant to convey three things:
1
Places (cities, towns, villages, rural landscapes) in our region have changed, and continue to change, over time. Some instances of these changes include the draining of swamplands to settle cities like Savannah; shifts in agriculture from one crop to another; maritime, rail, highway, and airline transportation connections; the rise of early industries like textiles and sawmills, and newer ones such as chicken processing, automobile assembly, and others; and the rise, in recent decades, of colossal urban areas such as Charlotte NC, Hampton Roads VA, Atlanta GA, Miami FL, and others.
2
One of the ways our region is constantly reshaped is through migration - whether the early arrivals of Africans in servitude, indentured servants, planters, and others; the removal, mainly forced, of Native Americans such as the Cherokee; the Great Migrations of Southerners, Black and White, in the 20th century; or, in more recent times, the arrival of Puerto Ricans and Cubans and other Latinos, of Jamaicans, Haitians and other West Indians, and of Mexicans, among others. Through these various kinds of migration, many people in our region have changed places.
3
Through poetry, story, and song, we can imagine ourselves inside other people's skin - identify with their experiences, their way of looking at the world, their fears and their hopes. It's the sublime gift we're given by the arts and humanities
- connecting with others. Through that process of identifying with others through the spoken or sung word, we change places with our fellow humans of other cultures or times.
*Carolyn worked with the South Atlantic Humanities Center this past Summer as an Associate in residence at Emory University. She is currently in the second year of study towards the MBA at the Yale School of Management. Her career interests are focused on non-profit organizational management.
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