Historic Savannah Foundation’s lecture series, “People, Places and Stories that Define Savannah,”  will feature lectures covering a wide range of speakers and topics. Each lecturer will give a presentation on a subject that falls within the realm of their expertise followed by a question-and-answer session.

Professor Patricia West

IN HONOR OF JUNETEENTH

Celebrating Savannah’s African American & Gullah Geechee Literary Legacies

June 19 | 6:00 PM

HSF is delighted to welcome Professor Patricia West as the June speaker for our lecture series. In honor of Juneteenth, Ms. West will present on “Celebrating Savannah’s African American & Gullah Geechee Literary Legacies.”

Think of Patricia West’s lecture as a literary tour through the Savannah section of the Gullah-Geechee Corridor. She will discuss authors who have called Savannah home, outsiders who made surprising connections to its people, and those who moved on to take their places in the broader realm of African American and American literary traditions. She will also share a sampling of her original poetry that captures the history of Savannah from its rivers to the Dundee Cove, with spotlights on dockworkers, ‘dinner’ ladies, and African American Victorians. In the end, attendees will learn that Savannah has a legacy of African American literature, rarely discussed, and it is rich!

The lecture will take place at HSF headquarters located at 321 E. York Street. Attendees are invited to a wine reception at 5:30 pm and the discussion will start at 6:00 pm. Reservations are recommended, as space is limited. Attendance is free for HSF members and $15 for non-members. Members may RSVP by emailing Kendall Graham at kgraham@myhsf.org or calling 912-233-7787, ext. 109 and non-members may purchase tickets at the link above.

ABOUT PROFESSOR WEST

Patricia Ann West is a native of Savannah, GA who retired as an Assistant Professor of English at Savannah State University in 2022. She is a 1976 alumnus of Savannah State University, holds a 1996 Master’s Degree in English Education from Georgia Southern University, and attained Doctoral Candidacy status at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Since 2005, she has presented at least 20 conference sessions in numerous states across the country from Beaufort, SC to Belize, Central America. She is the author of numerous newspaper articles, journal articles and book chapters. In 2020, she published her book Still Water Words: Poems and Stories from Ancestral Places, and in 2022 she co-authored the e-textbook Great Works of African American Literature.

through a grant from the University System of Georgia. In the Fall of 2022, The Journal of Museum Anthropology published her research essay, “The Total Picture: Activist Artist Virginia Jackson Kiah and the Black House Museum Beyond the Frame.”

Additionally in 2022, the journal Women’s Studies published her article, “ Ev’ry Shut Eye Ain’ Sleep: A Critical Race Awakening of Flannery O’Connor’s Artificial and Converged Characters in Crisis.” In May 2025, she presented ground-breaking research on the African American farm workers and house servants who influenced the writing of Flannery O’Connor before the American Literature Association Conference in Boston.

She brings attention to the beauty of her Gullah Geechee heritage and culture as a focus for literary scholarship through writing and performance. She has appeared in two stage productions of Blank Page Poetry directed by renowned artist Jerome Meadows in October, 2014 and in November 2018.

She gives back as a member of the SSU Community Booster Club in support of athletes, the SSU National Alumni Association, Historic Savannah Foundation, The Flannery O’Connor Society, the LePageville Memorial Cemetery Board of Directors, the National Council of Negro Women, the St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, and lecturer for the Senior Learning Center. When able, she volunteered with the Ossabaw Island Foundation. She enjoys baking, gardening, photography, and above all writing, researching history and family heritage. She is married to Stephen Gairn of New South Wales, Australia; and she is the mother of one awesome son, Dedan McClinton and a grandson, Dedan, Jr. with beautiful, kind, and creative souls.