Described by scholar W.E.B. DuBois as the “leading portrait painter of the race,” Charleston native and prolific artist Edwin “Teddy” Augustus Harleston paved the way for artists of color in the South. Joined by his wife and photographer, Elise, the two not only planted the foundations for a Harlem Renaissance-esque artistic movement in the South, but also passionately participated in the Civil Rights movement. Award-winning writer, historian and filmmaker Charles Kaufmann joins us for a two-day symposium to illuminate the work and lives of two profoundly impactful artists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the enduring love for their craft, and one another, that kept them going in times of strife. During the evening program, Charles will be joined by a panel representing the array of organizations which collaborated in the crafting of the documentary, including Elizabeth Chew, Chief Executive Officer of the South Carolina Historical Society. The soundtrack of the film features choral and piano music by the Charlestonian composer and educator Harl Fleming, who happens to be Edwin’s nephew and an important component of the Harleston’s story, compounding the overall character development and further ties to the music of the Charleston Renaissance.
EVENING PROGRAM ONLY (Thursday, May 8th) $35 // Admission to the lecture on Thursday, 6:00 PM–7:00 PM
TWO-DAY SYMPOSIUM (Thursday, March 7 & Friday, March 8) – $55 // Admission to Thursday’s lecture, plus the extended session on Friday from 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM, which will include the two-hour screening of Tenacity and small-group discussion with Charles Kaufmann and a boxed lunch.
Tenacity Trailer: The Story of Edwin and Elise Harleston here!
This program is in partnership with the South Carolina Historical Society.
About Charles Kaufmann
Charles Kaufmann is an award-winning writer, historian, filmmaker, composer and the founding director of The Longfellow Chorus, a professional non-profit performing arts organization in Portland, Maine. He has given lecture-screenings of his feature-length documentary “Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and His Music in America, 1900–1912,” at Oberlin Conservatory; Boston University African-American Studies; Yale-Norfolk Festival; SUNY Buffalo; Georgetown University; Colour of Music Black Classical Musicians Festival, Charlestown, South Carolina; and Pasadena City College. His short documentary, “That’s None of My Business,” about the attempt on November 1, 1963, by two youthful civil rights activists to desegregate a concert by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Jackson, Mississippi, was premiered in January 2022 in-theatre at Music for Galway (a music festival in Ireland), and screened in March 2022 at the Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, Mississippi, and in November 2022 at the North Dakota Human Rights Film Festival, Fargo, North Dakota. Twice a finalist at the prestigious Ithaca Choral Composition Contest, his choral setting of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Snow-Flakes,” won the second prize in 2007. He is currently working on a feature documentary about the life and work of a young artist from Pittsburgh, Frederick Demmler, who was killed in Belgium near the end of the First World War, “This Collapse of All Things: The Short Life of Frederick A. Demmler, Artist.” In May 2023, he presented his paper, “The Super-Honeymoon of Fred Demmler and Alexander James,” as part of the panel of the Henry James Society at the 34th Annual Conference of The American Literature Association in Boston. His short piece of creative nonfiction, “An Elegy for Your Cat,” nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize, appears in The Citron Review and in the anthology Citron 10: Celebrating 10 Years of the Short Form. Other short stories can be found on East of the Web and in “Bound Off Short Story Podcast: Issue 4.” He was a fiction finalist in the 2009 Aesthetica Creative Works Competition with his short piece of fiction, “She,” which was published in print in Aesthetica Creative Works Annual. His feature drama screenplay “A Possession for All Time” (2022) has been recognized multiple times at international screenplay competitions, twice as award winner, twice as finalist, once as semi-finalist, four times as quarter-finalist, and four times as honorable mention.
About Elizabeth Chew
Dr. Elizabeth Chew became CEO of the South Carolina Historical Society in January 2024. A historian, curator, and educator, she has worked at museums and historic sites since 1985. Prior to arriving in Charleston, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Curator at James Madison’s Montpelier in Orange, Virginia and as Curator at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville. An art historian, she worked in curatorial positions at The Phillips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C, and Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, N.C. Elizabeth received a BA in art history from Yale University, an MA from the University of London, and Ph.D. from UNC- Chapel Hill.
Prior to the program, we invite our Fellows Members to enjoy a Happy Hour from 5:00 – 6:00pm, downstairs in the Dr. Suzan D. Boyd Fellows Club Lounge.
