This year’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival will premiere The Southern Artists Celebratory Series, a presentation of southern poet James Dickey. SACS will explore Dickey’s works starting with Deliverance on Sat. May 30 at 12 p.m. at the Terrace Theatre.
The now-classic film based on Dickey’s 1970 novel will be shown and followed by a panel discussion. The panel will be moderated by independent filmmaker Peter Wentworth and will include: Franklin Ashley, professor of playwriting at College of Charleston, and student of James Dickey at USC; Tara Powell, poet and assistant professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina and chair of the Dickey Society; and John Lane, associate professor of English and Environmental Studies at Wofford College and author of Chattooga: Descending Into the Myth of Deliverance River.
Tickets are $14 and an upscale trail lunch will be included during the event. Later on in the evening, SACS will be hosting Camera Obscura, Small Views of a Big Poet at 6 p.m. at the Visitor’s Center Auditorium on 375 Meeting St. Two films of Dickey in action will be shown, Lord, Let Me Die, but Not Die Out and Two Poets, Two Friends. The first depicts Dickey on a three-week brainstorming adventure, conversing with students and poet Robert Lowell. The second shows snippets of the friendship between the U.S. poet laureate and Robert Penn Warren. Tickets are $5.
The weekend finished on Sun. May 31 at 3 p.m. with the hosting of James Dickey: An American Poet Remembered at the Circular Congregational Church on 150 Meeting St. Marjory Wentworth, South Carolina Poet Laureate, will introduce Dickey’s widow, Deborah, who will read some poetry and memoirs and show selected family photos in order to give the audience a more personal and intimate look at Dickey’s life and career. Tickets are $10. —Reina Gascon-Lopez
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