Modjeska Simkins School 10-year anniversary gala

Friends, allies, and alumni of the Modjeska Simkins School will gather at the historic Big Apple in the heart of Columbia to celebrate 10 years of teaching in South Carolina. The SC Progressive Network started the school in 2015 to teach civics, organizing skills and strategies, and a true people’s history of the Palmetto State. Since then, some 400 students of all ages, backgrounds, and experience have graduated from the intensive four-month program. Hundreds more have attended the school’s free public programs, deeper dives with experts on topics of current and historical significance. The gala will be a chance to celebrate the school and the people who have made it a first-class, graduate-level experience that is unlike anything else in South Carolina. The gala will feature renowned poet Nikky Finney, a longtime supporter of the school and the Network. The evening will include live jazz and a dance demonstration by Richard Durlach, who owns the Big Apple where the dance craze was born in 1937. Attendees are encouraged to wear 1930s-era dance attire. This event will help raise funds and boost visibility ahead of the spring session, which runs March 1 through June 28 online and in-person at GROW, the Network’s HQ in Columbia.