This Is How We Listen

Marlanda Dekine is a poet and licensed social worker from Georgetown, South Carolina, and the author of Thresh & Hold, winner of the New Southern Voices Poetry Prize from Hub City Press and praised by The New York Times as a “stirring debut.” She is also the author and recording artist of I am from a punch & a kiss. Dekine currently serves as the first Poet Laureate of Georgetown County Libraries. She has served with the Children’s Advocacy Center for Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union counties as a Forensic Interviewer, Therapist, and Program Coordinator. She has also served as a Clinical Therapist for Marshall I. Pickens Hospital and other community organizations across the Upstate.

Her work crosses page, stage, recording, and collaborative performance. She has shared her work, lectures, and conversations with audiences across the South, ranging from the Columbia Museum of Art to Malaprop’s Bookstore and the Furious Flower Poetry Conference. Her poems and texts have been commissioned and performed by multiple contemporary music ensembles, including Juventas Ensemble, Castle of Our Skins, counter)induction, and FUSE Collaborations in Song. Her poem “Ars Poetica,” interwoven with song by composer Douglas Boyce, has been internationally noted in Gramophone UK for its “intimate and epic perspectives” on American identity and is featured on Boyce’s recent album The Bird is an Alphabet. A dynamic performer, she has toured throughout the South and beyond, and is a Grand Slam Champion of the Soul Sista Poetry Slam and Queen of the South Poetry Slam.

Read more on Marlanda Dekine’s website.

Photo by Robert Torres

Since his concerto debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has appeared nine times, the American pianist Steven Graff has been the recipient of numerous distinguished awards and glowing critical praise. Mr. Graff was born in Chicago where he began his musical training. A string of scholarships led to studies at The Juilliard School where he received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees as a Petschek scholarship awardee, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from The Graduate School of CUNY.

Steven Graff is at home on stage, over the airwaves and in the classroom. His appearances on the Nickelodeon Channel and the QE2 enlightened audiences with his interpretive performances, and recent tours of China, Norway, Japan, Italy, Israel and in cities across the U.S. have thrilled music-lovers everywhere.

A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, Graff has performed at Weill, Zankel and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, Lang Recital Hall and the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, Merkin and Alice Tully Halls in New York City and his performances have been broadcast in Oslo and Honolulu, on New York radio stations WQXR and WNCN, and Chicago’s WFMT.

Read more on Dr. Steven Graff’s website.

Erin Bailey is a South Carolina native who first discovered her passion for dance at The Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC (1999-2003). She is a graduate of Columbia College, SC (BFA) and Texas Woman’s University (MFA), where she received the Excellence in Choreography Award(2012) and the Pauline Bishop Leman Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement (2014). Erin is also a graduate of the Integrated Movement Studies program (2016) and is a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and Somatic Movement Educator/Therapist. She currently practices as a Licensed Massage Therapist of 12 years along with serving as an adjunct dance professor at Columbia College (SC), Coker University (SC), and the University of South Carolina.

Erin has worked and performed with local dance companies in Columbia since 2004, beginning her professional journey with The Power Company under the direction of Martha Brim. She has also been a member of other Columbia based dance companies such as Unbound Dance Company, Sapphire Moon and Eboni/CORE Dance Theatre.

Erin is the founder and Artistic Director of Moving Body Dance Company (2018).

Read more on University of South Carolina’s website and Columbia College’s website.

Photo by Jesse Scroggins