Culture Connection: Entrepreneurial Spirit: Interpreting America’s History

Please join us every other Wednesday from May 28, 2025, to August 6, 2025, for the third installment of AMC’s “Culture Connection” virtual event series, which highlights Americans who use their passion for culture to chart their personal paths to success and creative fulfillment. This edition will focus on entrepreneurship, celebrating the American spirit of following a dream, starting a business, inventing a product, and creating something new. Title: Interpreting America’s History Description: Historical sites and museums must choose which stories to tell and how to tell them. How do we make sure history is told in the most honest and ethical way? After designing exhibits on slavery and plantation life in South Carolina, Shawn Halifax founded Stono History Consulting to guide historical sites and museums through the difficult and sometimes controversial process of historical interpretation. Shawn joins Culture Connection to talk about the inspiration of South Carolina’s Gulla/Geechee culture along the banks of the Stono River and describe his experience working with the most complicated aspects of American history to create educational, engaging experiences. Bio: Shawn Halifax is a public historian who collaborates with people and communities to preserve and share their history. His career is characterized by opening new sites or revitalizing old ones, including the development of public history programs at McLeod Plantation Historic Site, the first historic plantation in South Carolina with the sole purpose to interpret the lives of enslaved people and their descendants. He has worked with the Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Middleton Place Foundation and the Fort Monroe Authority.