Finding Her Art & Soul in Glass | Bella’s Featured Artist Stacy O’Sullivan
From a young age, Stacy O’Sullivan had all the right tools to become an artist. “I grew up in Laguna Beach in southern California. It’s an art town and was really in full bloom when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s,” she recalls with a smile. Her father was a water-colorist and she felt fortunate to live in “a little bedroom community full of artists” and have a dad who encouraged their creativity by making sure Stacy and her siblings “always had access to clay, paint, and pens and ink — whatever we wanted to try.” Her interest in glass art came about in an unusual way […]
Growing Up Black in an Earlier Aiken | Longtime residents recall black proprietorships
Bill McGhee, 83, smiles as he reminisces about his childhood days in Aiken. “In the 1940s the alley was a playground for us. Bobby Brooks, whose family owned Jackson Brooks Funeral Home [now located on Fairfield Street with a second location in New Ellenton], and I were best friends and we loved to play marbles there.” He describes the shooters, the large metal marbles they called steelies, and all the different colors they collected. “The alley was ideal for playing marbles because it was dirt,” he says, adding, “Later on, when I moved to Philadelphia, I missed playing marbles. You can’t play marbles on pavement because they just keep going.” […]
So I Sang | The women and songs in the life of country singer Darius Rucker aka “Hootie”
Music is what feelings sound like. Unknown His brothers never seemed to grow tired of tormenting him about his taste in music. Tired of hearing him defend himself, his mother came through the door in time to pick up where he left off. She scolded the siblings to leave him alone as she slumped into her chair — she was lucky no one was in it. With 18 people living in the three bedroom house at times, there was little space to claim as your own. His mom looked tired from working extra hours as a nurse at Medical University of South Carolina. The boy knew they were far from […]
Knights of the Heart Table | Aiken’s 2020 Heart Show
It all started with a fashion show. A fashion show and a dream of lowering the risk of heart disease for all Americans. After losing her mother to heart disease, Aiken’s Eleanor Bookstaver was determined to make a difference. Bookstaver founded the Aiken Women’s Heart Board in 1968 with the goal of raising funds for the American Heart Association. After calling on the Aiken community for support, Bookstaver made a bold move. She contacted an acquaintance for help. That acquaintance just happened to be First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. Mrs. Eisenhower enthusiastically agreed to be a founding member of the board. The new Aiken Women’s Heart Board held its first benefit, […]
Bella Fella | La ballade de Kelvin Jenkins
acte un Once upon a time, let’s say 1985, back when kids still played outside, A boy named Kelvin Jenkins could be seen ‘round town, out for a bike ride. South Boundary was his preferred path; how he wished to someday live on that road. So he vowed to own a house under those sleepy oak trees, someday, perhaps, when he was old. Then he’d pedal on home, to his family and kin, where he’d play with his neighbor and best buddy, Jimjim. “My dad,” Kelvin tells me, “he almost went into the NBA. He was a basketball star; he’s even up on the wall at the Etherredge Center. And […]
