The Bowie Arts Center at Erskine College is honored to present, “Of Beauty & Backbone,” an exhibition developed in collaboration with Erskine alumna Glenis Redmond ’85, Poet Laureate of Greenville, S.C. This carefully curated collection of poetry and visual art invites viewers into a profound dialogue between language and image—a space where beauty and backbone, vulnerability and strength, converge to tell the stories that define us.

Through her words, Redmond reclaims and honors the beauty woven through her lived experience—a Black woman, an AfroCarolinian rooted in Southern heritage, shaped by ancestral wisdom, and fortified by the unbreakable backbone that runs through her family’s story and her own. Her poetry is a testament to how heritage becomes voice, how struggle becomes strength, and how beauty emerges not despite our hardships, but because of them.

In this intimate curation of poetry and visual art, we witness Redmond’s journey from the landscapes and legacies of the South to the truth that connects us all. Her words speak to resilience, dignity, and the quiet power found in claiming one’s story.

Join us to celebrate a voice that carries the weight of history and the hope for today. 

April 18-June 5, 2026

Opening Day 

April 18, 2026, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Special readings by Glenis Redmond at 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (click to see details)

Art by Brian Hibbard