10,000 expected at this popular Sea Island celebration that includes a fish fry and parade
10,000 people are expected to attend this weekend’s three day Heritage Days event which celebrates the history of Penn Center and Sea Island culture. A parade and fish fry are always popular. There’s also interesting talks planned including a discussion of a well-known St. Helena Island man who became a celebrated folk artist after he began using sheets of metal and even refrigerator doors as his canvass for colorful creations that showed Gullah Geechee life and people.
Song, food, performers and seminars and other events are scheduled to kick off Thursday and conclude Saturday. The public is welcome.
The celebration, which began in 1981, is a successor to the Harvest Days, which was held yearly from the early 1900s until 1948, when Penn School closed.
“This is a celebration of Gullah Geechee culture, but it’s open to everybody,” said Robert Adams, Penn Center’s executive director.
Penn Center was the first school for enslaved people in the South and remained a school for 86 years before transitioning in 1953 to Penn Community Services, Inc. Its current mission is to promote and preserve Penn’s history and the Sea Island culture through education, community development and social justice.
The annual Heritage Days was launched because so many individuals and institutions of the Sea Islands have been touched by the activities of Penn School and later Penn Center.
The 10,000 who are expected to attend over the three days will include local residents, of course, but many people with ties to Penn Center or the Frogmore area will make the trip home from across the country, Adams said. There’s a large population of people with Sea Island roots living in New York and Washington, D.C. Adams noted.
“This is also a big event destination for a lot of folks across the country,” Adams said.
The Old School Fish Fry, Oyster Roast and Crab Crack is from 6-10 p.m. Friday, which is also “Soul Music Night.”
The parade is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at the St. Helena Island Elementary School on Sea Island Parkway. The parade route turns onto Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and proceeds to Penn Center. Sea Island Parkway will be closed from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. The parade will feature floats and marching bands and more than 60 organizations.
At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, artists were scheduled to speak about artist Sam Doyle. Penn Center has had a collection of Doyle’s art work on exhibit since September. Doyle, who died in 1985, was a folk artist and he went to school at Penn Center.
Doyle’s canvass, Adams said, was “anything he could paint or do art on. We have piece of art here on a refrigerator door. His yard would just be filled with art that he would set up in arrangements.”
Doyle called it his “Outdoor World-Wide-International Gallery.” The self-taught artist used corrugated roof tin, plywood and even paint cans in his works.
A discussion called “Tied to the Land” also is planned from 2-4:30 p.m without admission charge.
See a full list of events at penncenter.com and click on community/heritage.
Most of the events are at Penn Center at 16 Penn Center Circle.
This story was originally published November 9, 2023 at 12:40 PM.
