“Protecting natural land and preserving it for everyone. We focus on our commonalities to improve the health and heritage of our collective families. Creating cross cultural exchange thru the universal languages of music and food and common interest and nature time.”
WE ARE HONORED TO BE PART OF THE PRESERVE THE GULLAH TASK FORCE TEAM
ADDRESSING ISSUES AND IN SUPPORT OF PRESERVE THE GULLAH.
preserving land & culture on johns island
Local Pulse is the communications arm of initiative Circa 11:11 and of the Gullah CVB
Circa = Community Initiated Rightful Construction Agenda + Gullah CVB connecting true community support through the hospitality industry
this johns i project was stolen from the culture by mayor tecklenberg in spring of 2022:
Preserve the soul of johns island for true Community in the HEART of the Maybank Hwy Development Corridor
There is a smell and a feeling of the palpable wisdom of Johns Island that is embedded in the hearts of all Charlestonians. As we experience the mass development of Johns Island, we know that now, in this time and space, we are creating a shimmer of hope that prevails to help preserve and educate people about this Johns Island way of life.
By creating a nature preserve and farm-to-community service, we as a community can protect this sacred tapestry within our culture. Through joining together to create a hub for this sacred knowledge, as well as a producing a gathering center to teach and learn the ways of our elders and their invaluable secrets of island survival, the cultivated traditions they have called home for more than a century is safe from being forgotten.
We are in desperate need of community space that represents the very best Johns Island has to offer.
Not so long ago, Johns Island was a place where you could take a walk, know your neighbors and access water and locally grown food.
HERE'S OUR COMMITMENT. WE WILL:
PROVIDE a nature preserve and community/event center that focuses on history, health, families, music and nature.
PROTECT this endangered habitat for animals, people and our collective future.
FOCUS on the true farming, migrant and Gullah culture, storytelling and learning the rich history of this sea island.
ENSURE our farmers keep their produce moving and that the wisdom holders and young entrepreneurs spread the living history of our elders into the future by creating circular economy opportunities.
LAND & WATER RIGHTS ON JOHNS ISLAND
Johns Island is a key Sea Island that is home to Gullah culture, farming and migrant culture, and has since Charleston colonization been a staple location in providing food for Charleston citizens. But this island is loosing it's culture and resources fast as it is literally drowning due to out of town for profit developers who are not investing in the culture or life of long time residents.
SIGN OUR PETTITION HERE: Petition · Mayor Tecklenberg: Stop Tecklenberg's Takeover/Annexation on Johns Island, Instead Support Community Project · Change.org
DID YOU KNOW THAT 81% OF CHARLESTON CITY'S GROWTH DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN PLACED ON JOHNS ISLAND? DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE PUBLIC ACCESS TO WATER ON JOHNS ISLAND WHICH IS UNDER THE LIMEHOUSE BRIDGE?
Our strong migrant, farming and Gullah/Geechee cultures have always relied on local water sources as all people have, but times they are a changing, and now water access is only available to some rather than most. We are stepping up to change this and ask that you join us. This 26 acre property is located in the very center of Maybank Hwy and has 14 acres of beautiful fresh spring water ponds. We intend to purchase this property so that we can restore access to water for the public in a central location. This place will become a nature preserve and community/event center that focuses on our heritage, health, families, music and environment. We will provide necessary insurances, boats, kayaks, life jackets and growing facilities to accommodate the public need much like a park, but with the added benefit of creating a circular economy with the community. Workshops, environmental education classes, after school programs, herbal remedies, farm stands, and a heritage market are all opportunities we invite our community to engage and come create in at this space. We want our part of town to develop and grow with the locals truly at the heart of development interests rather than being steam rolled by the developers. We are of, by, and for the community that we live in. In an effort to be a true solution center where country meets the city, we will focus on what commonalities we have, while protecting a green space that is zoned industrial in the heart of the development corridor. Future plans include walk and skate trails, archery, gardening, outdoor theater, markets, food trucks, and workshop opportunities. Investing in our community is what we are doing together. Having a community source of fresh water, is important for our future. We attain to be a role model to growing areas, that we can have our growth and preserve a beautiful way of life for thriving communities too.
Not so long ago, Johns Island was a place where you could take a walk, know your neighbors and access water and locally grown food.
Community leaders working together for circular economy that benefits the whole = 4 every 1
JOIN US TO CREATE A LOCAL FARM MARKET AND HISTORIC CULTURAL PRESERVATION
Our efforts include a farm produce and local goods store/co-op, as well as children's programs, cultural-historic education, music events and prevention from further flooding and other solution offerings to Johns Islanders. We will create a community center gathering space and expansion of all programs with greater opportunity for circular economy as well.
This mission thru CIRCA 11:11 will provide:
Public Access Nature Preserve/Park
1) walking trails in a protected and endangered habitat of Old Growth Long Leaf Pine
2) there are only 3 parks in SC that feature the Long Leaf Pine
3) connective trail from residential to commerce areas of central Johns Island
4) public park amenities, such as picnic areas, bike rental stations and play space
Connection to Culture & History
1) monuments of local heroes + lessons of cultural stories
2) living history experiences in multi-cultural setting
Farm Store = There’s a food desert in the farmland = we need local produce for local sustaining and health
1) local market highlighting local produce and goods
2) centralized location for access to local food and household staples
Nature Programs = addressing our childhood and adult needs for quiet, natural play and non-developed space
1) natural world confidence through fort building, archery, kayaking etc.
2) wild and free time in nature with friends
3) in cooperation with Growing Spirit Outdoor Programs
Music Education and Experiences = music lessons and listening/dancing for all ages family fun
1) small stage for musicians and regular gathering events
2) regular meeting space for children’s jam groups and artistic expression
3) in cooperation with Awendaw Green
Land Development Needs = The city keeps building without proper infrastructure and flood plans
1) this high forested land is the best protection against flooding for local home owners
2) with endangered forests we will protect a colony of Red-Cockaded Woodpeckers
3) a balanced farm co-op and park in the center of the island keeps the feel of John’s Island alive
What we’ve been really focused on ?
Critical Community Needs on Johns Island
History - Indigenous. Farming and Migrant Culture. Gullah Geechee Culture.
Became a route to Kiawah and Kiawah interests. Became the City of Charleston’s Annexed Parcel for New Housing. Starved of proper road updates to ensure more housing through interstate connections. Community constantly has to fight against development because of serious flood damage and concerns from misuse and improper planning and gentrification. Lost public access to water, community center, and the character of the island through developer interests over the interests of the whole.
The Positive Spin - Since we growing so fast, let’s do something to shape it in the right direction!
As a rapidly growing community with deep heritage and a high population of diverse cultures, we need places to connect and explore what draws us all together. As urban sprawl meets our rural areas, we need common ground to celebrate our heritage and work on what our communities are becoming together. So many are drawn to this place because of its proximity, heritage and quality of life contributions to a wonderful nearby city. As we expand, the current culture is concerned and willing to reach out to new comers with our local heritage so as to enmesh their involvement with the rural life of the sea islands. So much beauty is possible to come from this openness and excitement to living together. Local Pulse aims to reach to all walks of life with the common interest threads that meet our needs with solutions and mutual benefit. We begin by being an advocate for grass roots events in our community. We continue to develop relationships with local entrepreneurs, multi generational farmers, holders of the love of culture and knowledgeable persons sharing for the benefit of the whole. Please enjoy these events and build community with us!
Mentor - Mr. Bill Saunders:
Mr. Bill Saunders is our hero and these initiatives are here to honor his family and legacy 4 every 1. To learn more about his life and life’s work: https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0027_saunders_transcript/
LAND PLANS DEVELOPED
CIRCA 1111 development arm = Community Initiated Rightful Construction Agenda - developing space as the community initiates!
The community needs gathering space where we focus on our cultures, our commonalities, and transform our society out of the current socio-economic separations, by creating cross cultural exchange thru the universal languages of music and food and common interest.
Everyone deserves access to food and water.
CIRCA 11:11 = Community Initiated Rightful Construction Agenda is designed to make solution centered offerings to the community based on what the community has initiated. That is the agenda. Solutions we are working on currently through this proposed development and even outside this development.
CIRCA 11:11 & Local Pulse JI
Our Mission, “Creating the Hub”
Johns Island has become one of the last preservative homes for sacred cultures indigenous to Charleston, SC. Not many people realize that the term “Gullah” refers to not only the farmers and makers that proliferated from slave culture, but also many Mexican/Spanish elder societies native to the island, as well as indigenous Native American Indian people long before people from Africa were stolen and enslaved for the Colonization of America. Today, the culture is hanging on by a thread of a tapestry that is rapidly being destroyed by the mass development of Johns Island.
In these times, our farmers have taught us the value of preservation and shown us the miracles that spawn from precious seeds of knowledge. Just like in nature we find diamonds embedded into dark masses of coal, we feel like now in this time and space, there is also a shimmer of hope that prevails to help preserve and educate people about this way of life. By creating a nature preserve and farm-to-community service, we as a community can protect this sacred tapestry within our culture. Through joining together to create a hub for this sacred knowledge, as well as a producing a gathering center to teach and learn the ways of our elders and their invaluable secrets of island survival, the cultivated traditions they have called home for more than a century is safe from being forgotten.
The Center for History
At a time when the African American International Museum is breaking ground and causing much controversy for its lack of representation and inquiry within the Gullah community, it is important to understand Living History. The elders and story holders here know directly the history and yet are largely being left out of the essential matters of this huge undertaking. The experience of Living History is time in service together, to our elders and in listening and learning ways. It is more than monuments and artifacts, it is moments as monuments with the living history makers, mentors and passers of knowledge through experience.
The lessons involve a multi-cultural diaspora which is part of recognizing where we are today and where we have come from to get to this point. This version of real. How we build upon what each of us have created individually, through our pockets of societal collective as well as the overall whole. Great leaders of the civil rights era are still living on Johns Island today. People who have stood up for equality and morality and dignity for all their lives, and still see the work that needs to be done. Learning from our elders is absolutely essential to understanding where we are today and what it’s going to take to co-create our future.
Take a moment to reflect on how much in the world has changed in the past 80 years. Cars were a new thing, in this short time span we have gone from storytelling, making music fireside and radio, to constant connection to the internet and entertainment. Travel and food and discrimination and equal rights, everything has dramatically changed. When we really experience our elder’s wisdom and listen to their stories, that shared experience teaches us more and more as we carry them with us in our hearts and into the world. From the Gullah, the Edisto, the Kiawah, the Hispanic and the Country lovers, the span of time is alive on this island, and we intend to keep learning, even from the last breath we take. Especially within indigenousness, there are keys to the connections that bring all of history into our daily understanding of healing, strength and joy.
The Co-Op
On the Sea Islands, folks still talk about who the food on the table is from. Which family provided such delicious edibles and how things are going for them. Farmers are the backbone of any society, and they are the true soul of Johns Island. The cultivation is written all over their hands and faces. Not so long ago, everyone on Johns Island was in some way part of a system of growing food, that how we eat. But conditioning to convenience is so thick, that even when we drive right past the farm, most people don’t stop to bring home the local food meant to feed their natural bodies.
This land purchase coincidentally sets in the middle of a food dessert in the farmland. When the food is just down the road but so few are accessing it, and the local grocers carry food outsourced from somewhere else, this Co-Op will bring the soul of Johns Island back to the Heart center of its community. Situated among the largest new housing developments and surrounded by passer byers that can now easily access and enjoy a glimpse of preserved culture and native history as well as fresh farm goods rounded out with the necessities. The general store predominantly sells local makers products and crafts, cottage country foods, local meat, milk, eggs and produce from surrounding farms, as well as toilet paper and household basics.
Center for Education and Spiritual enhancement
A huge inspiration for this project has been creating space for children to play outside freely. Often when new friends come to Growing Spirit Nature Curriculum for the first time, they are smacked across the face with a smile that runs through their veins. The smell of spring water and pine, the sounds of woodpeckers and children happily sounding off in the woods with only sticks and their imaginations. The depth of realness of what it is to be a child and run freely with friends and jump in clean clear water that you can see fish and turtles in. The connection to the natural joy in nature, as a fellow creature in the world, brings a consciousness that literally builds our neurons in a healthy way.
Like the leaves that fall from the Angel Oak tree by the new budding of leaves coming in, we need to directly experience the seasons, plants and unconditioned air for the medicine that they truly are to our existence. We are shaped by our experiences in every way, what and how we learn to process and are guided through learning to express and listen. It is experience that creates wisdom as well as emotional intelligence which can allow our spiritual growth to be felt so tangibly. Many parents say their kids are more confident and creative and generally happier with less once they have had some guided and free time in this nature play program.
The sky is the limit for what we can do together. Local Pulse is us creating together. What we are doing. Within the mission of Preserve. Diversify. Sustain. We attain to be a role model to growing rural communities, proving that you can have your growth and preserve a beautiful way of life too.
CIRCA 1111 is us remembering that all our actions effect every one. Circa = take me back - or - around the time - when we all knew that what we did effected every one - 4 every 1 = 1111
CIRCA also stands for Community Initiated Rightful Construction Agenda. We are making it our agenda to rightfully follow what the community has initiated through constructing a space for a farm co-op and community center within a nature preserve that gives access to water and lessons about how to preserve land and culture. We listen to our historic elders and take council with them. We are connected to a non-denominational Indigenous Temple to celebrate the creation that we all share together in this life on earth. We gather in service to each other by being of service to the community at large and to the land and water of which we live. All of life is connected and creating connections through service is our devotion practice.
THANKS FOR ALL YOU DO AND EVERY OUNCE OF SUPPORT!!