10/07/2025
It's always one of our favorite days of the Festival when the MOJA Arts Festival 4th Grade Readout has us visiting local elementary schools and distributing almost 1,500 copies of a recent title to young readers attending participating Charleston County School District schools.
This initiative first served Peninsular schools, but has now grown to have us serving a total of 20 partner schools this past Thursday and Friday, including Buist Academy Knights, Charleston Development Academy, Charleston Progressive Academy, James Simons Montessori School, Memminger Elementary School, Mitchell Math and Science Elementary School, Sanders-Clyde Creative Arts School, Ashley River Creative Arts Elementary School, Carolina Voyager Charter School, Drayton Hall Elementary School, Montessori Community School, Oakland Elementary, Orange Grove Charter School, Springfield Elementary School, St. Andrew's School of Math and Science, Stono Park Elementary, Harbor View Elementary School, James Island Elementary School, Murray-LaSaine Montessori School, and Stiles Point Elementary School.
Shout out to MOJA Artistic Director Charlton Singleton, our partners at CCSD, the Avery Research Center team and volunteer readers, Victoria Rae Boynton Moore, the MOJA Planning Committee, International African American Museum's Education and Public Programs staff, and everyone else who worked behind the scenes to pull off this year's Readout.
This year's selected title is Kwame Alexander's "How Sweet the Sound" and we couldn't be happier to have one of South Carolina's favorite authors once again assisting us. Plans are already underway for next year to add new elements and events to truly bring Kwame's encyclopedic celebration of African and African-American music to life! But mostly we're excited to see pictures like the one shared by Charleston Progressive Academy. Young readers make great future leaders.
Such a great experience!
