A festival intended to preserve and celebrate an important part of African American history is happening soon in Atlantic Beach.
Gullah Geechee culture is an essential part of Black history and a festival to celebrate it is happening from June 23 to June 25.
Not everyone who is African American is Gullah, said Zenobia Harper, community outreach coordinator for the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at Coastal Carolina.
“Often times, people associate the Gullah Geechee culture with the northern, farther end of the corridor but the corridor actually goes from North Carolina all the way down to Florida,” Harper said. “The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of those enslaved Africans that were trafficked to this area for the purposes primarily of rice cultivation.”
Harper said that the festival happening in Atlantic Beach is so important to the identity of the area because of how segregated Atlantic Beach was from the rest of the grand strand.
“People would have to travel from miles around to come to Atlantic Beach in order to enjoy the beach,” she said. “It was a place for Black leisure.”
The Gullah Geechee Culture & Nature Festival is made possible through the town of Atlantic Beach collaborating with the federal Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.
There will be culturally rich performances, poetry readings, arts and more at the festival.
The town is seeking sponsors and donations for the event. These can be made online at and questions can be sent to sponsors@atlanticbeachscgullahgeechee.org.
“We need everyone here to play your part in this in order for the story to be told and it’s best if it’s told free,” Patricia Mallett, cochair on the festival committee said at Monday’s town council meeting.
“When we came to America, most of us were slaves, our families, so you could not be allowed to read or write and then you had to figure out a way to communicate,” she said. “This is what we have the Gullah Geechee festival for. And we are so blessed to have it here in this town.”
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