07.29.2024
NOAA recommends collaborative oyster reef restoration project for funding
ATHENS, GA – A new project seeks to join Sapelo Island’s Saltwater Geechee community and public entities in a collaborative effort to reduce flooding through […]
02.19.2024
Oyster shells from Atlanta restaurants are helping save the Georgia coast
Since it began, Shell to Shore has partnered with Save Our Legacy Ourself helping to think about ongoing flooding issues on Sapelo Island and […]
12.11.2023
America’s Test Kitchen Podcast: The Lost Crops of Sapelo
“The Gullah Geechee community on Sapelo Island, Georgia, is in a battle against time. Every year, storms, salt water, and construction threaten the land. But […]
07.21.2022
How to hold back the ocean
Making Contact’s reporter Claire Reynolds interviews coastal residents, activists, and scientists about responding to sea level rise on Sapelo Island and beyond. As climate change […]
12.08.2020
New York Times Article about Sapelo Sugarcane Project
Reviving a Crop and an African-American Culture, Stalk by Stalk On the Georgia coast, Maurice Bailey is making sugar cane syrup as a way to […]
11.24.2020
Story in The Bitter Southerner that covers Sapelo Island Sugarcane Project
Story by SHANE MITCHELL | Photographs by RINNE ALLEN (excerpt from bottom of story) The next morning, before leaving on the ferry, Maurice Bailey handed […]
10.21.2020
Article in Georgia Farmers and Consumer Market Bulletin about Sapelo Sugarcane Project
Sugarcane is the foundation of efforts to preserve, revitalize Geechee culture on Sapelo Island By Amy Carter amy.carter@agr.georgia.gov Sapelo Island was the epicenter of early […]
09.29.2020
Scalawag article by Maurice Bailey and Nik Heynen: Sweet (and sticky) redemption
Gullah/Geechee of Sapelo Island reclaim sugarcane to fight cultural erasure There is no U.S. agricultural history without the expertise and labor of African people who […]
11.05.2019
Success in the Sugarcane Fields: A Look into This Year’s Harvest
Last week, volunteers associated with the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program participated in the harvesting of sugarcane in conjunction with the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization […]
10.13.2019
Indigo Planted in May is Harvested
In December of 2018, the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program entered a partnership with the International Center for Indigo Culture (ICIC) and the State Botanical Garden […]
10.12.2019
Expansion of Land on SICARS Farm Lot
In October, the land on the left perimeter of SICARS largest farm plot (Lot 1) was cleared through the use of controlled fire. Volunteers gathered […]
09.05.2019
UGA Students Assist SICARS and Cornelia Walker Bailey Program
This fall semester, students enrolled in the Athens Urban Food Collective course, taught by Cornelia Walker Bailey Program co-director Nik Heynen, have been engaging in […]
08.05.2019
Sapelo Island Geechee Red Peas Reach the Plates of Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia restaurant LRG Provisions has entered a relationship with the Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society (SICARS) to bring Sapelo Island Geechee Red Peas […]
05.31.2019
UGA Maymester Students Assist Cornelia Walker Bailey Program and SICARS
This May, five UGA students spent two weeks on Sapelo Island as part of Nik Heynen’s Geography of the Georgia Coast domestic field-study course associated […]
12.20.2018
New Partnership to Reintroduce Indigo on Sapelo Island
The Cornelia Walker Bailey Program on Land and Agriculture has entered into a partnership with the International Center for Indigo Culture (ICIC) and the State […]
11.27.2018
Heynen and Bailey Awarded Grant from UGA’s Willson Center for Humanities and Arts
Co-Directors Nik Heynen and Maurice Bailey were notified that they have been awarded a research grant titled “Remembering Yesterday, Fighting for Tomorrow: The Cornelia Walker […]
10.13.2018
Phase 3 of SICARS Sugarcane Project Begins
A new crop of purple ribbon sugarcane was planted on Sapelo Island this week. As part of a long-term project being led by the Sapelo […]
10.12.2018
Cornelia Walker Bailey Program Assists with Sugarcane Harvest at SICARS
This week, a group of volunteers connected to the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program spent several days on Sapelo Island to assist with the harvesting of […]
10.08.2018
Cornelia Walker Bailey Program Partners with Davidson College
Students from Davidson College were able to visit Sapelo Island and provide assistance with the Cornelia Walker Bailey Program. Two of the students—Jennifer Thompson and […]
01.20.2018
Heynen and Hardy Awarded NSF Grant
Nik Heynen and Dean Hardy have been awarded a NSF Research Grant titled “A Socio-Ecological Investigation of the Long-Term Impacts of Uneven Exurban Development, Sea-Level […]
11.21.2017
Second Phase of SICARS Sugarcane Project Underway
After the floodwaters brought on by Hurricane Irma subsided it seemed our efforts to revive sugarcane on Sapelo Island might be over as the first […]
09.14.2017
Hurricane Irma Floods New SICARS Sugarcane Project
Hurricane Irma created a great deal of damage on Sapelo Island. Flood waters from the storm surge was especially damaging for many residents in the […]
08.27.2017
Red Peas Are the Backbone of an Island Community off the Georgia Coast
Sapelo, a barrier island in Georgia south of Savannah, is home to a population of people who self-identify as Geechees — descendants of slaves and […]
08.25.2017
How One Georgia Island is Fighting to Keep a Small Red Pea Alive
Sapelo Island is a 16,500-acre swath of land that sits about 60 miles down from Savannah. Reachable only by boat, the barrier island, Georgia’s fourth […]
05.26.2017
UGAMI Partners with SICARS to Plant Red Peas
The new partnership between UGAMI and SICARS took a positive step today when Professor Nik Heynen and students taking his Geography of the Georgia Coast […]
05.20.2017
SICARS Board Formally Partners with UGAMI on Peas and Cane
At a SICARS board meeting this week to discuss the future of SICARS’ efforts to reestablish sugarcane, continue to plant red peas and explore growing […]
09.14.2016
An island’s future tied to farming crops from the past
Off the coast of Georgia lies a quiet island, accessible only by boat and home to about 50 year-round residents — all descendants of slaves… […]
04.29.2016
New Start for SICARS Sugarcane Effort
In 2015 a team of people, including Cornelia Walker Bailey,William “Doc Bill” Thomas, Clemson University Professor Stephen Kresovich, Jerome Dixon, Maurice Bailey, Stanley Walker and others worked […]
03.14.2016
The Return of Purple Ribbon Sugarcane
Purple ribbon sugar cane tastes a little different from its tropical relative. For a while, it thrived on Sapelo Island off the coast of Georgia. […]
03.01.2016
Southern Sugarcane Revival
Sugarcane on Sapelo Island was once tended by slaves. Now it might sustain their descendants and help keep Geechee culture alive… Read the full story […]
07.01.2015
The Heart of Sapelo
Cornelia Bailey, the matriarch of the last pocket of Gullah Geechee culture on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, is on a mission to give this unique community […]
05.21.2015
Clemson joins effort to reintroduce sugarcane to Sapelo Island
SAPELO ISLAND, Georgia — Clemson University is playing a lead role in a months-long effort to reintroduce an ancient breed of sugarcane to Sapelo Island, […]
05.15.2015
Sapelo Island Sugarcane
Clemson University is playing a lead role in a months-long effort to reintroduce an ancient breed of sugarcane to Sapelo Island, where the towering grass […]