New Leadership for the Rosewood Art (and Music!) Festival!

rosewood-2016

 

As the story goes, Arik Bjorn and Rockaways owner Forrest Whitlark came up with the idea of the Rosewood Arts Festival one night sitting on a pair of barstools. Over the years, the festival has grown a reputation for being a perfectly pleasant way to spend a Saturday in September, listening to a little music, checking out the art, and visiting with friends.

But when Arik Bjorn decided to run for public office this year, it became obvious that he wouldn’t be able to conduct his campaign and continue to handle the festival. Enter local poetry guru Al Black, who has stepped into Bjorn’s shoes as festival director and has big plans in store.

But he knows Bjorn is a tough act to follow. “Arik did an excellent job of running the festival since its inception six years ago,” Black says. “He has left us with an excellent legacy to build on. We will always stand on the back of his leadership and vision.”

Along with co-coordinators Jeremy Weisman and Bentz Kirby, Black is putting together a new version of the Rosewood Art Festival and the biggest change is the addition of the word music to the title of the event. According to Black, the Rosewood Art and Music Festival will take place on September 10th from 10 am – 10 pm, “then we will finish the night inside Rockaways with a salsa band and dancing.”

Among the other changes Black has planned is a juried visual art event with monetary awards and an emphasis on the literary arts, realized via spoken word poetry and a poetry workshop for children. Alexandra White will be coordinating the visual artists and Len Lawson will serve the same role for the literary artists. Black also plans to have jugglers, puppets, magicians, and other performers roaming throughout the festival space with live painters near the music stages. As for the music, a total of 12 acts will alternate on two stages.

But Black expects much of the same vibe that festival-goers have come to know and love from the Rosewood Arts Festival of years past. “It will continue to have all the same elements as before; we will just tweak and expand its base,” Black says. “It will continue to be free, and the owners of Rockaways will continue to be our gracious sponsor and host. We will still have Epworth Children’s Home selling drinks as a fundraiser. It will still be a fun place to be!”/CB

 

APOLLO  STAGE
10am   Blue Iguanas
12:00   Daddy Lion
2:00    Reggie Sullivan
4:00    Stillhouse
6:00   The Dirty Gone Dolas
8:00   Art Contest

Sheem One

FEATURED BANDS

DIONYSIUS  STAGE
11am    The Dubber
1:00     Sheem One
3:00     She Returns From War
5:00     Those Lavender Whales
7:00     Infinitikiss
9:00    Wallstreet & the Blues Brokers featuring Marv Ward

 

About Jasper

What Jasper Said is the blogging arm of Jasper – The Word on Columbia Arts, a new written-word oriented arts magazine that serves artists and arts lovers in the Columbia, SC area and its environs in four ways: Via Print Media – Jasper is a bi-monthly magazine, releasing in print six times per year in September, November, January, March, May & July, on the 15th of each month. Jasper covers the latest in theatre and dance, visual arts, literary arts, music, and film as well as arts events and happenings; Via Website – Jasper is an interactive website complete with a visual arts gallery, messages from Jasper, an arts events calendar that is updated several times daily, bite-sized stories on arts events, guest editorials, local music, dance & theatre videos, community surveys, and more; Via Blog – What Jasper Said -- you're reading this now -- is a daily blog featuring a rotating schedule of bloggers from the Jasper staff as well as guest bloggers from throughout the arts community; Via Twitter – Jasper Advises is a method of updating the arts community on arts events, as they happen, with more than a half dozen active tweeters who live, work, and play inside the arts community everyday ~ Jasper Advises keeps the arts community abreast of what not to miss, what is happening when it is happening, and where to be to experience it first hand.
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