About This Event
2025 Historic Mitchelville Film Series: The Labor of Culture Keeping
Dates: Wednesday, October 22 & Thursday, October 23, 2025
Location: USCB Hilton Head Island Campus | 1 Sand Shark Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928
Time: Reception at 5:00 PM | Films to follow
Tickets: $30 for one night | $50 for both nights
Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park invites you to the 2025 edition of its acclaimed Film Series, a two-night cultural event exploring the creative, culinary, and communal labor behind the preservation of African American heritage. Held at the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Hilton Head Island campus, this year’s theme, The Labor of Culture Keeping, celebrates the artists, chefs, farmers, and historians who carry cultural memory across generations.
Each evening will feature an award-winning documentary screening followed by a powerful conversation with nationally recognized tradition bearers. The event will be moderated by public historian and Ph.D. candidate André L. Taylor, whose scholarship on African American foodways and oral histories will frame the dialogue throughout both evenings.
Wednesday, October 22
Traditions in Thread: Culture, Costume, and Community
This evening focuses on the Black Masking tradition of New Orleans, a centuries-old cultural practice blending resistance, identity, and wearable art. The featured film, All on a Mardi Gras Day: Big Chief Demond of the Young Seminole Hunters, explores the work of Big Chief Demond Melancon, a master beader and costume maker whose monumental suits have redefined contemporary African American art. Following the film, Melancon will join André L. Taylor in conversation to discuss how ritual, performance, and history converge in Black Masking as both a personal and communal act of culture keeping.
Thursday, October 23
Feeding the Culture: Farmers, Fire, and Flavor
The second night turns toward foodways, focusing on how farming, cooking, and culinary preservation shape Black identity and memory. The film When Rice Was King traces the rise of Carolina Gold rice in South Carolina and the agricultural expertise brought by enslaved Africans. A post-screening conversation will feature heritage rice farmer Marion “Rollen” Chalmers, Gullah Geechee chef BJ Dennis, and legendary whole hog pitmasters Ed and Ryan Mitchell. The panel, moderated by André L. Taylor, will reflect on how cultural lineage is carried from the field to the kitchen and how Black foodways remain central to community, creativity, and continuity.
About the Emcee
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André L. Taylor is a public historian, lecturer, and Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at William & Mary. With a focus on African American foodways, memory, and oral history, Taylor’s work bridges scholarship and storytelling. His project Black Folk and Our Food documents the traditions, recipes, and relationships that keep Black culinary heritage alive. |
Guest Speakers
Big Chief Demond Melancon |
Marion “Rollen” Chalmers |
|
Internationally acclaimed contemporary artist and Black Masking Indian of the Young Seminole Hunters. He is known for his monumental hand-beaded suits and museum-exhibited works that honor ancestral tradition and cultural resistance. |
Heritage rice farmer from Hardeeville, SC. Chalmers reintroduced Carolina Gold rice to Daufuskie Island after more than a century. |
Chef BJ Dennis |
Ed & Ryan Mitchell |
| Gullah Geechee chef and cultural preservationist known for reviving and sharing ancestral food traditions of the Lowcountry. |
Legendary father-son barbecue duo from Eastern North Carolina. Stewards of whole hog BBQ and co-founders of Mitchell Family BBQ. |
About This Event
2025 Historic Mitchelville Film Series: The Labor of Culture Keeping
Dates: Wednesday, October 22 & Thursday, October 23, 2025
Location: USCB Hilton Head Island Campus | 1 Sand Shark Drive, Hilton Head Island, SC 29928
Time: Reception at 5:00 PM | Films to follow
Tickets: $30 for one night | $50 for both nights
Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park invites you to the 2025 edition of its acclaimed Film Series, a two-night cultural event exploring the creative, culinary, and communal labor behind the preservation of African American heritage. Held at the University of South Carolina Beaufort’s Hilton Head Island campus, this year’s theme, The Labor of Culture Keeping, celebrates the artists, chefs, farmers, and historians who carry cultural memory across generations.
Each evening will feature an award-winning documentary screening followed by a powerful conversation with nationally recognized tradition bearers. The event will be moderated by public historian and Ph.D. candidate André L. Taylor, whose scholarship on African American foodways and oral histories will frame the dialogue throughout both evenings.
Wednesday, October 22
Traditions in Thread: Culture, Costume, and Community
This evening focuses on the Black Masking tradition of New Orleans, a centuries-old cultural practice blending resistance, identity, and wearable art. The featured film, All on a Mardi Gras Day: Big Chief Demond of the Young Seminole Hunters, explores the work of Big Chief Demond Melancon, a master beader and costume maker whose monumental suits have redefined contemporary African American art. Following the film, Melancon will join André L. Taylor in conversation to discuss how ritual, performance, and history converge in Black Masking as both a personal and communal act of culture keeping.
Thursday, October 23
Feeding the Culture: Farmers, Fire, and Flavor
The second night turns toward foodways, focusing on how farming, cooking, and culinary preservation shape Black identity and memory. The film When Rice Was King traces the rise of Carolina Gold rice in South Carolina and the agricultural expertise brought by enslaved Africans. A post-screening conversation will feature heritage rice farmer Marion “Rollen” Chalmers, Gullah Geechee chef BJ Dennis, and legendary whole hog pitmasters Ed and Ryan Mitchell. The panel, moderated by André L. Taylor, will reflect on how cultural lineage is carried from the field to the kitchen and how Black foodways remain central to community, creativity, and continuity.
About the Emcee
|
|
|---|
|
André L. Taylor is a public historian, lecturer, and Ph.D. candidate in American Studies at William & Mary. With a focus on African American foodways, memory, and oral history, Taylor’s work bridges scholarship and storytelling. His project Black Folk and Our Food documents the traditions, recipes, and relationships that keep Black culinary heritage alive. |
Guest Speakers
Big Chief Demond Melancon |
Marion “Rollen” Chalmers |
|
Internationally acclaimed contemporary artist and Black Masking Indian of the Young Seminole Hunters. He is known for his monumental hand-beaded suits and museum-exhibited works that honor ancestral tradition and cultural resistance. |
Heritage rice farmer from Hardeeville, SC. Chalmers reintroduced Carolina Gold rice to Daufuskie Island after more than a century. |
Chef BJ Dennis |
Ed & Ryan Mitchell |
| Gullah Geechee chef and cultural preservationist known for reviving and sharing ancestral food traditions of the Lowcountry. |
Legendary father-son barbecue duo from Eastern North Carolina. Stewards of whole hog BBQ and co-founders of Mitchell Family BBQ. |