SHOW NOTES:
In this episode of the Lowcountry Explorer Podcast, host Sasha Horne sits down with Reverend Johnny Simmons, the self-taught Gullah folk artist and Vietnam veteran whose wood burning art has traveled from Saint Helena Island to collectors around the world.
Rev. Simmons shares the unlikely story of how it all started: a long wait at Walmart, a wood burning kit, and a creative gift he never knew he had. What followed was a body of work rooted in ancestral memory, the Gullah language, and the land and people of the Sea Islands.
In this conversation, he reflects on growing up on Saint Helena before the bridges, farming corn and rice with no tractor, speaking Gullah before he even had a name for it, and what it meant to graduate from an integrated school in the early 1970s. He also opens up about his military service in Vietnam, his decades of work at Parris Island and the Naval Hospital, and how art found him later in life, starting to earn from his craft in his early 50s.
His pieces don't just hang on walls. They carry Gullah words, stories, and prayers, and Rev. Simmons says that's by design. He wants the next generation to see the language, read it, feel it, and carry it forward.
In this episode:
- How Rev. Simmons discovered his artistic gift later in life
- Growing up farming on Saint Helena with no car, no electricity, and no tractor
- What the island looked like before the bridge and before integration
- The tradition of "seeking" in the Gullah church
- Why Gullah was never called Gullah growing up
- His Vietnam service and the winding path back home
- Why he prays over every piece he creates
- His top spots to visit and eat on Saint Helena Island
Find Rev. Johnny Simmons: https://gullahwoodburning.yolasite.com/FOLK-ART-ORIGINALS.php
TAGS / KEYWORDS: Gullah folk art, St. Helena Island, Lowcountry culture, Gullah Geechee heritage, wood burning art, Penn Center, Sea Islands history, South Carolina Black history, Gullah language preservation, Reverend Johnny Simmons, Lowcountry Explorer Podcast, Sasha Horne Hirshout, The Beaufort Blog, Sasha Horne
33 min
Mar 16 20261 min