Tag Archives: Blake Plateau

Gullah/Geechee Musical Environmental Journeys

Whenever I have an opportunity to stand on the shoreline of the Gullah/Geechee Nation my spirit gets renewed. It is not only the warm Sea Island breeze laced in salt with its unique smell, it is also the rustle in the trees and the sway of the salt marsh that a dancer like me finds kinship with. I can hear an ancestral choir singing to a polyrhythmic beat that tends to be punctuated by the rhythms of crashing waves or the ripples in the river. Tenk GAWD fa de Sea Islands!

Continue reading

Healin de Wata and Healin We: Victory and Vision of the Gullah/Geechee

In 2024, the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s leaders advanced the Gullah/Geechee Nation Sustainability Plan by successfully and effectively focusing on various mechanisms by which to protect the waters surrounding the Sea Islands and running through the region. This included focusing on the Savannah River, the Port Royal Sound, the St. Helena Sound, Ribault River and the Salkehatchie Rivers as well as the Atlantic Ocean in particular.

Continue reading

Saving a Southern Treasure: Protect the Blake Plateau

The Blake Plateau is a cultural, spiritual, historical, and ecological treasure. It serves as the final leg of the Middle Passage, the seafaring route by which our ancestors—as enslaved West and Central Africans—were transported to America. It should be recognized as the ancestral graveyard of our enslaved relatives who did not survive its crossing.

Continue reading