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Dr. Marlena Smalls 

story by Cindy Reid

photos by Susan DeLoach

Dr. Marlena Smalls is truly the Voice of Gullah. Founder of The Hallelujah Singers, an internationally known vocalist and entertainer, a cultural ambassador from the lowcountry to the world, she has been there and done that twice over and then some. She continues to educate, to entertain and to expand our horizons. A true American treasure, she sat down with us to share some of her wisdom on the business of culture and entertainment.

What are some of your current musical projects?

     Two successful shows at USCB Center for the Arts, collaborating with vocalists Elaine Lake, Velma Polk and the Lowcountry Jazz Band, under the direction of David Hershey, have kept me busy. Together we performed a Tribute to Etta James, Motown and More; with a third show, Ain’t Nobody’s Biz, coming up this year. I greatly value working with USCB and it is a great joy to get on stage with Elaine and Velma.

How did your career in music start?

     Interestingly enough, I started out founding a school of music with my mother where we taught voice, piano and dance. From our original five students, we eventually built the school to one hundred and ninety five pupils. Now from the school came out something even bigger. You see we did a wonderful play called “Hail Mahalia” with the music school students, and the parents of those children formed the first nucleus of ‘The Hallelujah Singers.’

Tell us about The Hallelujah Singers

     I founded The Hallelujah Singers in 1990 specifically to preserve the melodies and storytelling unique to the South Carolina Sea Islands. We were the first Gullah Ambassadors. The Hallelujah Singers use entertainment to inspire, celebrate, and preserve the West African heritage which has shaped today’s Gullah culture.

Other important firsts?

     I worked for the City of Beaufort as the Arts Coordinator, and in that capacity I created the first Gullah Festival in 1984. The festival came about because I was trying to create a project where we could fund raise for the arts, particularly children’s projects, and highlight Black culture at the same time.

How did you become the “Voice of Gullah?”

     Even before the first Gullah Festival I was getting the word Gullah out there. Based on the work I was doing, there became quite an interest. Media outlets were contacting me for interviews and information on Gullah culture, the BBC filmed me three times and I did several interviews with NPR. At that point, then South Carolina Governor Riley and Senator Strom Thurmond were contacting me, essentially the state of South Carolina said ‘we need to talk to you!’ That is really how I became the ‘Voice of Gullah’ and I continued to represent South Carolina and conduct interviews on ABC, NBC, at the Atlanta Constitutional Journal and so forth.

In addition to being an artist, you were also in charge of the business of your work.

     The creation of The Hallelujah Singers was the opportunity of a lifetime. As a troupe, we went to Japan, Germany, France, Spain, England and Scotland. We travelled the world. However it was very time consuming; it grew so fast so quickly that cash flow became a problem. I had a wonderful friend whose husband was a retired banker and he worked with me to complete a prospectus which helped me obtain a business loan. That was very unusual in the entertainment business, because you have no tangible assets. Keeping up with the business side of entertainment is a rollercoaster.

What do you want people to understand about Gullah?

     I want people to understand Gullah is not stuck in time. It’s more than just being born somewhere from Wilmington, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida. It’s the DNA. It’s the West Indies, Brazil and Africa. We cut the culture of Gullah short when we think of slavery and slavery alone. By doing that we exclude essentials such as diet, wisdom and religion. The Gullah was wise and creative enough to accept the culture so they could survive. The African survived. He entangled himself like a vine on a tree. The culture of Gullah is bigger than Beaufort.

What do you think about the current focus on Reconstruction?

     When we look at Reconstruction, which we are starting to do here in Beaufort, we see it never completely took because it took fifty one years for the African to achieve equality. Fifty one years for the right to housing and education and healthcare. We are still not equal in how the African is perceived. This is a lack of education. We must be vigilant in making sure all Americans are educated. A campaign of diversity. A campaign of ‘See me’- to see what we have each brought to this country. We can do this by including a truer picture of history in the classroom.

This leads to your involvement in children’s education?

     Yes, this is why children’s education is important. When I do cultural presentations in a classroom I start with a world map and work through food. I ask the children ‘do you know even if you have never left your hometown, you have travelled the world?’ We go through the origins of pasta, of frankfurters, of sweet potatoes and rice, of various spices. I ask the children to talk to the oldest person you can, to ask them to give you something to represent your heritage. Over the years I have gotten Irish war beads, a coffee cup from Peru, French bread made at home, various combs, a piece of a kilt, all sorts of things.

What is your current children’s project?

     I have adopted the Mossy Oak Elementary School. At the end of this year the children will be collaborating with me and illustrating my children’s book. Next year I will have the children involved with music. The children are wonderful and I get great joy from the classroom.

What would you tell a young woman embarking on an entertainment career? 

     I would tell her, ‘You need to be kind.’ Because kindness has worked for me. I would say to her, surround yourself with positive and wise people. That’s what I did and that helped me to build my business. As I look back one person in particular was so meaningful in my life, and that was Harriet Keyserling. She had me come to her home. We had tea and talked. ‘Let me help you’ she said. She was kind and open. Also Jayne Leigh Powell was very important to me, she became my business partner. We were like sisters, and then she was a surrogate mother to me until she went on to Glory.

     So I say you need to be kind, you need to be helpful, you need to share with mankind. Be kind.

Your favorite place in Beaufort?

     The waterfront park. I have been here long enough to see the changes in the waterfront, and they correlate with the changes in my life. In the past, I worked with the city of Beaufort, and I planned events there, and now I am not working for the city and I occasionally sing from the stage. Now I get in the swings and I watch people, some I know, some I don’t, and I have quick conversations. God speaks to me there.

Feeling Blessed and Grateful

     I would like to say I am very thankful to Beaufort South Carolina. They embraced me and my children when I arrived here and I will forever be eternally grateful. I was able to share Gullah and could not have done it without them.

     I was blessed with so much after as I matured in my music and life.  God allowed me to sing with my daughters, Tracey McGhee and Sumitra Stewart, and my sister Gladys Jenkins shared her gift of song with us. They were a blessing and inspiration to me over the years as we performed and kept Gullah in the forefront.

     Also, I found my best friend and Sister, Peggy Bing-O’Banner, in this beautiful Lowcountry.  The Hallelujah Singers produced five CDs over the years that I pray will forever leave an imprint on the lives of all who hear them.  It is my desire that our music will speak for itself as it lays the path for future generations to hear and learn of our wonderful Gullah culture. Life is good.

“Forging & Welding Historic Railroad Parts into Words of Art”

story by Cindy Reid     photos by Susan DeLoach

To enter Cathy Pender Emmert and her father Jim Pender’s blacksmith workshop is to enter a wonderland of fire and noise, steel and iron, anvils and forges. Out of the midst of much machinery and who knows how many tools, Cathy and Jim have created an entire art form from previously discarded historical artifacts. And they have also created something else. They have forged a true father and daughter friendship.

Railroad Remnants 

     Cathy comes by her facility with tools and machinery by way of eighteen years of working at the family’s business, Pender Brothers Inc., a plumbing, welding and HVAC business established in Port Royal in 1985 by Cathy’s father Jim Pender and Johnny Pender, his brother. Cathy runs the welding office and she and Jim run the welding shop.

     The Railroad Remnants story really starts in 2014 when Pender Brothers, Inc. bought the contract to remove the last two and a half miles of the Port Royal railroad track.  From Railroad Remnants, “The Port Royal, SC Railroad…The railroad was chartered in 1856. Construction began in 1870 and was completed to Augusta, GA in 1873. It ran from 1870 until 2003 when it was abandoned. Then in 2011 the demo of it began to build what is now known as the Spanish Moss Trail, a bicycle/walking trail. For over 100 years it carried passengers, freight and future Marines to Port Royal.”

     Jim Pender says “We bought that contract to take up the tracks because it was right outside the shop and we could keep all the remnants from the rock to the spikes, crossties and rail. After we pulled it all up, we sold the crossties and rail.” But there were still thousands of spikes and other metal pieces left over.

     Cathy says, “I said don’t scrap it- we can do something with it.” So they repurposed industrial containers and stored about 25,000 railroad spikes and various metal clips and plates from the tracks for an undefined future use. And there they sat.

Word Spikes

     The idea to create art from the discarded spikes was born when Cathy was scrolling through Facebook two years ago. She says, “I saw a Christmas tree made from welded horseshoes and thought ‘I could make that,’ so I went in the shop and I made the Christmas tree. Then I started messing around and I made the words ‘Joy’ and ‘Love’ out of the old railroad spikes.” She took pictures of her work and put them on Facebook. She says, “Next thing I know I was taking orders.” Her Dad Jim chimes in, “She made one or two words and it made me jealous. So I joined in.”

     The process they use to create words from spikes starts with the bead blaster, a large piece of machinery which ‘blasts’ the metal with glass beads and takes the rust off. But Cathy says, “We like keeping the patina on the spikes so we have to be careful how much we blast them.” After the spikes come out of the bead blaster it is time to ‘heat and beat.’ The ‘heat’ part comes from putting the spikes in one of the two forges in their workshop.

     Cathy says, “Dad should have been born in the horse and buggy age, because he already had a coal and propane forges here at the shop, in fact they have been here for about 30 years.” They generally use the propane forge, which enables Cathy and Jim to control the temperature better than coal forge. After being in the forge for about 5 minutes, the spikes are around an astounding 2000 degrees hot.

     The ‘beat’ step is exactly as it sounds-  they beat the long part of the spikes in order to draw them  out from their original six to six and a half inches to eight inches, the length needed to make an individual letter. Have you ever tried to change the length of a piece of iron or steel by hand? It is as hard as it sounds. Jim was able to track down the only piece of equipment they bought, a ‘trip hammer’ which they use to lengthen the red hot spikes. Before the trip hammer, they would laboriously beat the spike on the anvil until they got the desired length. The trip hammer does the ‘beating for them,’ making the process significantly easier.

     They only have a short window of time to beat the spike into the desired shape of a letter or number. Those moments go rapidly and Cathy and Jim have become very adept at creating a letter quickly. These skills took hours of work to develop, as Jim says “It took time, and trial and error, to develop the letters from then to what we do now.”

     What they do with the finished letters is create names, all kinds of different names. They create family names, place names, business names, even pet names, that can hang on a wall, stand alone on a mantle or table, or even have stakes welded to them so they can stick in the ground.

Words of Art

     Every ‘word of art’ is a one of its kind because every letter created is distinct. One “A” is different from the other “A”’s because each spike is different, before and after it is forged and transformed into an individual letter. In addition, the two blacksmiths bring their own artistic sensibility to each piece. Cathy says, “I get excited with every word I start, even if I have made it before. Each is unique.”      Jim makes the point with several versions of the letter “E,” illustrating perfectly the individuality of each and every letter created. The letters then create words and as Jim says, “Much more go into a word than creating each letter. You have to keep the same height, make it look right, make it so you can hang it or put it on a stand. You need to gauge where it will balance, where to weld a hook.” A typical word takes four to six hours to create.

     Their work is more than the repurposing of old railroad spikes. “These are Port Royal artifacts,” Jim says, and “We turn history into heirlooms.” Jim also says, “We have a lot of pride in what we do. A letter we make might be acceptable to a lot of people but if we don’t like it we don’t use it.”

     In addition Cathy and Jim have created new and interesting projects that go beyond a family or place name, such as a five foot long sign for a local plantation, numerical coordinates and bottle openers and oyster knives. Cathy and Jim recently made two sets of deer antlers from the railroad spikes, both as gifts for retiring Marines. Jim also makes mini anvils using the railroad iron.

     They have also donated words of art to CAPA and to the SC Water Fowl Association for fundraisers. Their work is reaching all corners of the world, including Japan and Australia. Pretty good for a two person operation that only advertises on Facebook!

Welded

     Cathy says, “The best part is the relationship we’ve developed and the time spent with my Dad. My family is big and we have always been close, but its one thing to be close with your parents and it’s another to call them your friend. And I can truly say my parents are my friends, and once we started blacksmithing, that bond got closer. To me that is priceless, and makes the blacksmithing come easy.”   She says “This has been a huge bonding experience for both of us.” Jim’s pride in his daughter is evident and one can see how much he enjoys being in their business together.

Portable Blacksmiths 

     They have such a good time working together that they spent a considerable amount of time creating a portable blacksmith shop in order to take their shop on the road to craft shows and community events. Ingeniously they used a pop-up camper as the base, and it includes a portable forge so they can give demonstrations and create art at events. Jim got the idea from watching other crafters and what it entailed to be in a festival. He says, “You have to load all of your merchandise, tables and tent to go to the festival, unload it when you get there, load it all up to leave and unload it again when you get home. That’s a lot of loading and unloading; and all of our stuff is heavy.” Cathy says, “With our portable blacksmith shop there is much less to handle to participate in the craft fairs. Not to mention the crowd it draws because of its looks and the sound of our hammers hitting hot steel on the anvil. “

Forging Plans

     After two years of working together, Cathy and Jim are looking forward to continuing Railroad Remnants and taking their work to the next level. She has ideas that incorporate found driftwood and Jim’s mind is always working on the next project, such as the custom  trestle table he recently made from railroad pieces for a client. She says, “I have lots of ideas for the future. I never expected this when  I took ‘Love’ and ‘Joy’ to Facebook, it really has been a whirlwind!”

     Their genuine respect and affection for each other shines through their humor, and the jokes fly as much as the sparks from the anvil. When asked about retirement Jim answers that no, retirement is not an option because ”she works me like a borrowed mule. You can quote me on that.” Cathy laughs and says “The fun part is hanging out with him”.  To keep up with this father /daughter duo follow them on Facebook at : Railroad Remnants by Cathy Pender Emmert.

story by Cindy Reid   photos by Paul Nurnberg

Falconry is the hunting of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Falconry is an art. It requires long hours, constant devotion, finesse, subtlety and skill. The falconer must train a bird of prey to fly free, hunt for a human being and then accept a return to captivity.

     In a sport that started thousands of years ago, one might be surprised to find a practioner here in our modern world. But really, nothing should be a surprise in the lowcountry, not even a current day falconer and his very well trained bird of prey.

     Met Bruce Dunbar, General Falconer. He and his hawk, David, make an elegant and sure footed team as they tramp and fly, respectively, through the gorgeous live oaks of a local pecan farm on a hunt. David, a four and half year old Red-tail hawk, swoops and glides above our heads, never going far from Bruce, as they work in tandem in a present day illustration of this truly ancient art.

     Being a falconer is something rare in our society. Bruce says, “There are only 2000 to 3000 practicing falconers in the country, out of 5000 licensed falconers. It is a very long process to become a falconer, it requires a substantial amount of time and resources upfront, and it’s not something to be taken lightly. It is not just a sport. Falconry is a lifestyle.”

Becoming a Falconer

     Bruce, originally from Atlanta Georgia, attended Georgia Southern and graduated in 2013 with a degree in Biology.  He says,  “In college I wanted to do more with wildlife, but I didn’t know what I wanted to focus on so I started volunteering and then working at the Center for Wildlife Education and the Lamar Q. Ball, Jr. Raptor Center on campus. “ He worked at Georgia Southern’s Center for Wildlife Education for two years as a student volunteer and after graduation as Assistant Curator for two years.

     Bruce says he became interested in becoming a falconer while working at the center. The center’s director and Master Falconer Steve Hein trained Bruce, guiding him through the laborious process and apprenticeship necessary to become a licensed falconer.  Bruce is a currently a General Falconer and is now able to train others, although he stresses that becoming a falconer is a deep commitment.

David

     An apprentice falconer must catch their bird in the wild and are required to have a license and a sponsor before doing so or they can be charged with a federal crime and go to jail. A young hawk is captured in the wild, after it has learned to hunt, but before it is an adult. After capture, the extensive training begins. This is not training a pet or exotic bird. This is training solely directed in the art of hunting live animals as a team of human and bird of prey. Of training, Bruce says,”A falconer’s main goal is to earn the birds trust.”

      Bruce’s bird David, a male Red Tailed Hawk, was trapped by Bruce in Georgia in the winter of 2013.  The training and expertise needed to train and care for a bird of prey is very extensive and requires much time, commitment and patience. Not only does the falconer need to train the bird, they must also learn everything about caring for a wild bird including learning to diagnose and treat raptor ailments, which can include fungal infections and West Nile disease. Their diet is specific; raptors are obligate carnivore and subsist on a diet of raw game meat such as mice and quail, which generally has to be mail ordered. David weighs 2.2 pounds, which is a good healthy weight for this bird.

     They are not what we would term sociable animals. Bruce says, “Red-tails are solitary animals and, outside of mating season, see other raptors as threats and competition.” They are entirely self sufficient.  “David would  be fine if left in the wild, he would be able to feed himself and would survive just as well as if he never been in captivity,” says Bruce, “ His lifespan would most likely be shorter though, hawks in captivity live up to and around twenty years, but in the wild only around two and a half years. “

     Bruce uses a travel box to transport David to hunts and demonstrations and says “Hawks get used to whatever you condition him to do. He does very well at demonstrations and will be perfectly content on his perch. As long as he is used to something he will do well. Stress for a hawk is whatever he is not used to.”

The Hunt

     Falconry is a hunting sport. Some falconers work with a trained hunting dog, others work as a team of falconer and bird only. Bruce and David work together, and Bruce’s job is to flush game out for David to spot and kill. Squirrels, mice, rabbits and other small mammals are what they are hunting. Bruce says the Red-tailed hawk needs open spaces. “Red-tails thrive best in open forests and fields. This is a hunter,” he says, “and he is constantly looking for movement.” David’s visional range is two to three miles but he doesn’t wander far; in fact you can almost always see where he is during the hunt.

     Bruce says, “Red tails sticks very close because they need to be in the action.” David follows Bruce, watching from trees, and he will swoop down in response to Bruce’s whistle commands. Small bits of food also bring the hawk down to Bruce’s gloved hand. Bruce says, “He sees me as a food source and responds accordingly.”

Seeing David in action is a thrill. All economy of motion, he flaps his wings in forward propulsion, then flies in a silent glide. It all happens very fast. He is in complete control of himself and the situation.

     Like all birds of prey used by falconers, David has bells fastened on his legs.  This is so the falconer can tell what the bird is doing and where he is based on the slightest bell sounds. Bruce says he is always listening to the bell and can differentiate between the slightest variations and so knows where David is at any time out in the field. They are a team, man and bird, working together.

     Watching the two work together one can see the years of training and trust that has been established between them. There is deep respect and appreciation on Bruce’s part for what this magnificent bird is able to do, and for what they accomplish together.

Lowcountry Life

      As regarding the past and future of the sport Bruce says, “Falconry has been documented as far back as 2000 BC, when raptors were being used by humans to hunt in ancient China. It is the predator most referenced in history.” And of today he says” Falconry is currently experiencing a renaissance in United States. It has only been in the US for roughly 100 years and the number of falconers has doubled in the past twenty years in the US. North America has brought new birds into the falconry world such as the harris hawk which is now one of the most used birds in the falconry world.”

     Bruce lives on Fripp island with his girlfriend Jessica Miller, the Head Naturalist for Fripp Island. That works out well because as Bruce says, “When you live with a naturalist, it’s ‘oh we have a hawk living with us’, and takes it all in stride.” After three years of professional falconry in the Brunswick GA area, Bruce is currently employed at Fripp Island and available for falconry hunts and demonstrations through On The Fly Outfitters out of Brunswick, GA. (Contact info is through their face book page or call Adam Hein at 912-536-5808.)

      “Falconry means something different to everyone. It is a connection to nature that you can’t get anywhere else. It is a primal event and you are in the front row to the action.” He pauses and says, “Personally, it speaks to me and keeps me going.” Watching Bruce and David working together is a rare treat and speaks to all of us who in thrall to our natural world.

Story By: Carol Lauvray

Photos By: John Wollwerth