Recently, American Legacy Magazine published that we are recipients of its first Annual Heritage Awards. We were listed amongst a list of very impressive individuals and groups and we are so honored to have been chosen for this. Thank you, Mr. Reynolds and the American Legacy Magazine!
We are performing on Sunday, May 1 at 4pm, Memorial Stadium, Savannah. This is for the Shrine Festival. Look at all the bands and groups who are playing! Come buy your day pass or better yet, support the Shrine Fest and get a 4-day pass! It's for a good cause. We hope to see you out there.
The McIntosh County Shouters were featured on HBO's Unchained Memories. Below is a clip from that documentary.
The American Legacy Magazine notified the McIntosh County Shouters that we are the recipients of its first Heritage Awards. Other recipients include American Airlines, Kareem Abdul Jabaar, and more. This special issue will be distributed in the first quarter of 2011. For more information about these awards, please go to American Legacy Magazine's website. Thank you, American Legacy Magazine, for giving this award to our group in honor of our continuing the legacy of our ancestors.
Story reported by Dawn Baker, WTOC News Anchor
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TOWNSEND, GA (WTOC) – The McIntosh County Shouters are being honored with a big award.
Since 1980, The McIntosh County Shouters have been entertaining people around the country with their traditional African dance known as the "ring shout". A narrator begins the performance by introducing the various members of the group: the stickman, who keeps cadence and maintains the rhythm of the shouts; the bassers and clappers, whose voices and clapping contribute to the layers of the songs that are "shouted"; and finally, the "shouters", the women who shuffle their feet in a counterclockwise movement while singing the various "shouts". The narrator plays an important role throughout the performance by explaining the songs and shouts.
While they have brought many smiles to our faces as we clapped our hands and tapped our feet along to beat, they've been making quite an impression on some people in high places. The McIntosh County Shouters are being honored with the 2010 Georgia Governor's Award in the Humanities. It recognizes individuals and organizations who are doing exemplary work in the humanities and encourages them to serve as models for others across the state. They'll actually get the award in Atlanta on May 11th. "We are honored to be recognized in our home state for sharing the legacy that has been passed down to us," said Shouter Carletha Sullivan. "The Governor's Award in the Humanities is a great honor. Our ancestors would be very proud."
Educating children about the Gullah Geechee culture is a very important priority to the McIntosh County Shouters. "We love to perform at schools because we are reaching out to the very youngest generation that way," explained fellow Shouter Venus McIver, "It is by educating children about our culture that we can keep our heritage alive."
The accolades don't stop with this prestigious honor from the state. The McIntosh County Shouters have also been invited to the nation's capitol in December. They'll perform at The Kennedy Center on December 1st and at The Library of Congress on December 2nd.
If you would like any more information about the shouters or how you can help them make their trip to Washington, D.C., log on to their website www.mcintoshcountyshouters.com or call 912-399-2466.
In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor on its most Endangered Site list</h3>
<p>The Gullah Geechee culture is threatened because of all the development on the southeastern coast and islands. The continued existence of this culture can only last as long as there is true support behind this community of people. For those interested in preserving history, this is an important part of the fabric of American history. It is feared that the Gullah Geechee culture and history will be relegated to museums and history books in the not-so-distant future without your support. The McIntosh County Shouters are the last of the active practitioners of the authentic ring shout. With your support, we will be able to continue to keep the threads of this historical form of early American music alive. </p>
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<p>"Extending for hundreds of miles between Cape Fear and the St. Johns River, this stretch of coastline is home to one of America's most distinctive cultures: the Gullah or Geechee people, descendants of slaves who have stoutly maintained lifeways, crafts, traditions - even a language - whose origins can be traced back over the centuries to their homelands in West Africa. Until fairly recently, the coastal region of islands, marshes, placid rivers and oak-shaded roads had seen relatively little change - but now change is widespread, often overwhelming and sometimes devastating. Unless something is done to halt the destruction, Gullah/Geechee culture will be relegated to museums and history books, and our nation's unique cultural mosaic will lose one of its richest and most colorful pieces.
The article below was published in the Southern Living Magazine in June 2000.
Article from Post & Courier, Charleston, SC
Shout tradition lives in exhibit at Avery Center
Published on 05/18/95
BY MARY ANN COOK
The Post and Courier
More than a century ago, on the South Carolina and Georgia sea islands, African-American slaves began a ritual that has been passed down through generations.
The tradition called Shout is a dance-like worship and celebration that can now be seen only in Mount Calvary Church in McIntosh County, Ga., or through the drawings and photographs of artists Art and Margo Rosenbaum on display at the Avery Research Center at the College of Charleston.
The exhibit depicts the Shout through charcoal drawings by Rosenbaum and photographs by his wife. Both catch the shouters in movement and worship, and are like a peek through a window of the Mount Calvary Church on the longest Shout night of all, Watch Night.
On Watch Night, or New Year's Eve, participants of the Shout stay up all night combining movements, calls and response singing and the rhythmic pounding of a broom handle on the floor to bring in the new year and Shout out the old one.
A conglomeration of African traditions, Gullah dialect, Christianity and American folk music, the Shout derived from West African rituals brought to the sea island by slaves by way of the Caribbean. The songs tell Biblical stories and the lyrics are acted out by the Shouters, who when moved to dance, shuffle their feet, move counter-clockwise in a circle and gesture.
One popular song, "Pickin' Up Leaves," is a conversation between God and Eve about Adam picking up leaves to cover his nakedness. In the Rosenbaums' art renderings, the shouters are seen bending over and using their skirts to store their make-believe leaves. Their faces are detailed and many participants are in midclap. The lead singer or "songster," is seated, his mouth open and belting out lyrics; the percussionist, or "sticker," is beating a broom stick because slaves were not allowed to have drums; and the shouters are slowly circling, and moving in time to the songster and chorus.
Because dancing was considered a secular tradition, and was not permitted in church, the shouters determined that by not crossing their feet, and keeping them close to the floor, they were not really dancing. Thus they were free to shout in their place of worship after the service had ended.
To the outsider, or slave master, shouting seemed a harmless form of worship and entertainment. Many of the lyrics of Shout songs, however, are coded with the slaves' laments about their oppression and hopes for freedom. Thus the Shout served many purposes, possibly accounting for its endurance through time.
To the Rosenbaums, Shout is an art form worthy of attention and documentation. They are working on a book about The McIntosh County Shouters, which will be illustrated with their own photographs and drawings.
Meanwhile, the last practitioners of the oldest African-American tradition on this continent, the McIntosh County Shouters, are preserving and passing on the Shout to their children. They perform this usually private ritual for the community at folk-music concerts and will give a presentation at the Olympics, according to Curtis Franks, director of museum education and exhibits with the Avery Research Center.
The exhibit, on loan from the University of Georgia, will run through the end of this month, and is like a walk back in time. Thanks to the McIntosh County Shouters, anyone can take that journey and appreciate what made the African-American slaves Shout!
Georgia group not afraid to SHOUT!
Published on 06/06/98
BY ROBERT BEHRE The Post and Courier
The McIntosh County Shouters' performance in this year's Spoleto Festival USA will give new exposure to a black religious and artistic tradition that dates back more than 250 years.
Anyone interested who doesn't already have tickets should plan to attend the Shouters' concert at 1 p.m. today. Their Sunday performance is sold out.
Selling out a performance at an international arts festival shows how far the group has come since 1980, when they first began performing the shout outside the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in the Bolden, Ga. (also known as Briar Patch), community, halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville.
"We became a group in 1980, but this is something that has happened in the community for eons," says Bettye Ector, who serves as the group's narrator. "It's not something that just happened."
The tradition dates back to the early 18th century. Ector says it normally occurred after Watch Night services on New Year's Eve. The black congregation would remain in the church after the formal service ended, push the benches or pews back to the wall and commence to shouting.
"I was reading some material the other day that said the reason they do it in the winter is because it's so energetic they have to do it when the weather is cooler," Ector says. Fortunately, the Avery Research Center, in which they will perform, is air conditioned.
The shout is a mixture of music and dance.
"It's not actually dancing. I guess you could consider it a holy dance. You cannot cross your feet. They don't raise their feet high off the floor. No two ladies do it alike," Ector says.
The 10-member group includes several performers with distinct roles. Lawrence McIver, 82, leads the song, while Freddie Palmer and Harold Evans serve as "Bassers," who sign and clap. Benjamin Reed is the "Stickman," who taps the wooden floor with a wooden stick.
"The stickman is really important. We were having a half-rehearsal yesterday. If he doesn't get the rhythm just right, (there are problems). Everything depends on his timing," Ector says.
The Shouters include five women - Venus McIver, Vertie McIver, Alberta Sallins, Carletha Ellison Sullivan and Odessa Young - in long dresses and head wraps.
Ector serves as the narrator. "Slaves songs are done in Gullah, so much of what they say is not normally understood. I try to provide some sort of explanation or lead in to the song so people can understand."
But Ector's narration also has a more subtle - but equally important - purpose.
"It's also designed to give them a rest because it's very, very energetic. The people in the group are 42 to 82 (years old). I have to do something to keep from getting exhausted," she says.
The songs also occasionally contained coded messages that slaves knew about but wanted to keep away from their master. "One example is `Move Daniel.' In `Move Daniel,' they're getting ready for a party and Daniel is prepared to steal the meat. They tell how to go from getting caught," Ector says.
The McIntosh County Shouters perform only sporadically, so the group's 10 members are either retired or have second jobs. Ector serves as an assistant professor of business and technology at Coastal George Community College.
The tradition was recently documented by author Art Rosenbaum of University of Georgia in the book, "Shout Because We're Free."
"The only thing I really want to emphasize is that even though the shout was characteristic of this area many years ago, the only place it's practiced is in this one community - Briar Patch. This has been documented," Ector says.
And while the tradition has dwindled away from other areas, possibly because people didn't want to remain in church that long, the shout is expected to remain alive and well in rural McIntosh County, if nowhere else.
"Everybody in the community gets actively involved and they literally know how to do it," she says. "It's not something you teach somebody. It's instinctive."
