Report Back from Palestine
2026-02-17 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
GROW NIGHT with Delaney Wilder
Hybrid Event via Zoom & In Person
During the first two weeks of December 2025, Delaney Wilder joined a Catholic Workers delegation in travel though cities, towns and villages of the West Bank in Palestine. Against the backdrop of pervasive military oppression from Israel, he was blessed with countless warm welcomes and open yet shattered hearts from the Palestinian community. It would be Delaney’s humbled honor to speak with you about these life changing experiences, not as a voice for Palestinians but as an echo of their inclusive message to all of humanity. Please join us to hear Delaney’s words from the trip, Q&A, and discussion on how you are already helping and can help more.
Light refreshments provided. Free and open to the public.

RSVP/Request Zoom Link: info@carolinapeace.org
GROW Night is Carolina Peace‘s monthly educational evening program at GROW (Grass Roots Organizing Workshop) on third Tuesday evenings of the month.

GROW jazz workshop
2026-02-19 20:00 - 22:00
Join us for a night out at at the SC Progressive Network‘s HQ, 1340 Elmwood Ave. Doors open at 7:30; music runs from 8 until 10pm. As with all our workshops — jazz every 1st and 3rd Thursday; blues every 2nd and 4th Thursday — folks with talent are invited to sit in with the band for a tune or two.
No cover charge. Free snacks. All are welcome.

Adopt-a-Street sweep
2026-02-21 10:00 - 11:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
The Modjeska Simkins School, a project of the SC Progressive Network, takes part in a quarterly clean-up through the City of Columbia’s Adopt-A-Street program. We need volunteers who will spend an hour picking up trash along Marion Street between Elmwood Avenue and Taylor Street. Volunteers are issued gloves, bags, and pickers. Snacks and beverages provided. If you have questions or want to sign up, call 803-808-3384.

Degenerate Activist Fair
2026-02-21 13:00 - 16:00
The SC Progressive Network and the Modjeska Simkins School will be tabling at the Activist Fair at Stormwater Studios in Columbia. Stop by and see us! If you want to volunteer to staff the table, call 803-808-3384 or email network@scpronet.com.

GROW blues workshop
2026-02-26 20:00 - 22:00, 2026-03-12 20:00 - 22:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202

Kat Fest
2026-02-27 17:00 - 20:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
Kathy McCaston was beloved by a wide circle of friends in Columbia and beyond. Friends will gather at GROW to remember her.

Modjeska Simkins School Orientation
2026-02-28 12:00 - 17:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
Before the spring session of the Modjeska Simkins School begins, students are invited to Columbia for an orientation. It is a chance for students to meet each other, review the class schedule and protocols, and ask any questions they have about the coming semester.

Modjeska Simkins School Class
2026-03-02 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-03-09 18:30 - 20:30 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
The spring 2026 session of the Modjeska Simkins School runs from March 2 through June 22. Classes meet Monday evenings in-person at GROW in Columbia, on Zoom, and broadcast live to satellite sites in Charleston, Lancaster, Orangeburg, Pendleton, Penn Center, and Sumter.
For details, see modjeskaschool.com.

GROW Jazz Workshop
2026-03-05 20:00 - 22:00, 2026-03-19 20:00 - 22:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202

Deep Dive: First Nations
2026-03-08 16:00 - 18:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
Guests
Chris Judge, Assistant Director at University of South Carolina Lancaster
Beckee Garris, Program Assistant at University of South Carolina Lancaster
Jay Bender, former attorney for the Catawba Indian Nation
Chris Judge is a prominent archaeologist with more than 40 years of experience studying pre-contact Native American cultures in our state. He is a Senior Instructor of Anthropology and a member of the SC Humanities Speakers Bureau. For a number of years, he has been instrumental in presenting our state’s native history to the Modjeska Simkins School and connecting us with South Carolina tribes.
Catawba Elder Beckee Garris is a close relative of Chief Gilbert Blue, chief of the Catawba Nation from 1973 until 2007. She is an active tribal member, and works at the Native American Study Center. She will recount her memories of growing up native in South Carolina.
Jay Bender graduated from USC Law School the year he became an attorney for the Catawba Indian Nation. He participated in litigation and negotiations from 1975 to 2006, leading to the settlement of a land claim that arose in 1840. He has built a national reputation as a lawyer for newspapers and broadcasters, and is regarded as South Carolina’s foremost authority on the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act. He has been a Free Speech consultant for the SC Progressive Network for decades, and most recently defended the First Amendment rights of the Carolina Peace Resource Center after SC Attorney General Alan Wilson accused the nonprofit of supporting terrorists because of their campaign for peace in Palestine.
• • •
Deep Dives are part of the Modjeska Simkins School’s spring session. They offer in-depth conversations about historic and current topics by leading writers, activists, and historians. The free programs are open to the public on Zoom and in-person at GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., downtown Columbia. Feel free to share the invitation with friends and neighbors.
To join on Zoom, register HERE.

Deep Dive: The Intersection of Slavery and Capitalism
2026-03-15 16:00 - 18:00

Modjeska Simkins School Class
2026-03-16 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-03-23 18:30 - 20:30 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
The spring 2026 session of the Modjeska Simkins School runs from March 2 through June 22. Classes meet Monday evenings in-person at GROW in Columbia, on Zoom, and broadcast live to satellite sites in Charleston, Lancaster, Orangeburg, Pendleton, Penn Center, and Sumter.
To apply or for details, see modjeskaschool.com.

Carolina Peace monthly meeting (hybrid)
2026-03-17 18:30 - 20:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202

Deep Dive with Vernon Burton and Fergus Bordewich
2026-03-22 16:00 - 18:00

GROW Blues Workshop
2026-03-26 20:00 - 22:00, 2026-04-09 20:00 - 22:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
Join us for a night out at at the SC Progressive Network‘s HQ, 1340 Elmwood Ave. As with all our workshops — jazz every 1st and 3rd Thursday; blues every 2nd and 4th Thursday — folks with talent are invited to sit in with the band for a tune or two.
No cover charge. Free snacks. All are welcome.

No Kings Rally
2026-03-28 10:30 - 14:30 | SC State House, 1100 Gervais St., Columbia, SC
The SC Progressive Network and the Modjeska Simkins School will be tabling at the rally. If you can take a shift, we would love to have your help. Call our office at 803-808-3384 or email network@scpronet.com to volunteer.

Dr. Jennifer Taylor: From Red Shirts to Proud Boys
2026-03-29 16:00 - 18:00
From Red Shirts to Proud Boys, from the Klan to ICE, tracking white nationalism
Guest: Dr. Jennifer Taylor
Dr. Taylor earned her PhD at USC, and is an Associate Professor of Public History at Duquesne University. She specializes in debunking myths and telling true stories about our painful past. She addresses the tensions involved between the romanticized history told by the winners and the peoples’ lived history. She offers best practices for interpreting issues such as white supremacy and domestic political terrorism for public audiences. Her recent book Rebirth: Creating the Museum of the Reconstruction Era and the Future of the House Museum, tells how the Woodrow Wilson boyhood home in Columbia was upgraded for the 21st Century as the Museum of the Reconstruction Era. Rebirth is available in hardback and paperback, as well as a free open access e-book through the University of South Carolina Press.
To join on Zoom, register HERE

Modjeska Simkins School Class
2026-03-30 18:30 - 20:30, 2026-04-20 18:30 - 21:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
The spring 2026 session of the Modjeska Simkins School runs from March 2 through June 22. Classes meet Monday evenings in-person at GROW in Columbia, on Zoom, and broadcast live to satellite sites in Charleston, Lancaster, Pendleton, Penn Center, and Sumter. You must be a student to participate.
For details, see modjeskaschool.com.

GROW Jazz Workshop
2026-04-02 20:00 - 22:00, 2026-04-16 20:00 - 22:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202

Modeska Simkins School Class
2026-04-06 18:30 - 21:00, 2026-04-13 18:30 - 21:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202

MOTHERFUCKERS JMB & CO
2026-04-14 19:00 - 23:00 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
MOTHERFUCKERS JMB & CO
Music Excitement Action Beauty
Meet Motherfuckers JMB & Co! J is for Jim, M is for Marc, B is for Brian. Motherfuckers is for…well, you’ll have to hear that for yourself.
You might get an idea pretty quick once you’re spinning Music Excitement Action Beauty. The trio’s first full-length is a rocket of rhythm and atmosphere that fearlessly treks into vast sonic spaces. Drumbeats spread into constellations, bass pumps air into the sky, drones flare into clouds. Thick grooves drift in and out of focus, but there’s always a central force to cling to as all the vapor-trails shoot past.
Decades of musical archaeology lurk behind this rainbow-hued swirl of psych, drone, improvisation, and ritual. Brian Weitz (hurdy gurdy) has spent 25 years crafting sound as Geologist in the ground-breaking quartet Animal Collective. Jim Thomson (drums) has been in scores of bands, from helping found Richmond art-metal legends GWAR, to jamming instrumentals in SST alums Alter-Natives (a fitting forebear to JMB’s vocal-less jaunts), to driving the spirited dance-punk of Time Is Fire. Marc Minsker (bass, guitar, harmonium) has made music since the early 90s, initially in Third Eye Lounge (who backed legendary improviser Eugene Chadbourne), and later in myriad partnerships around the mid-Atlantic region.
The trio came together via old-fashioned community, in the always-fertile ground of the DC/Maryland/Virginia experimental scene. In 2018, Minsker and Weitz met at a mutual friend’s birthday party. Bonding over shared obsessions (Sun City Girls, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282), they soon guested on each other’s radio shows (Minsker at WOWD in Takoma Park, MD, Weitz on NTS in cyberspace) and traded creative ideas. In 2023, they performed together for the first time: Minsker on harmonium and Weitz on hurdy gurdy, both shrouded by a hanging tapestry.
Around the same time, Minsker met drummer Jim Thomson at a concert the latter organized for Baba Commandant & Mandingo Band at DC’s Kennedy Center. Minsker invited Thomson to guest with a student/faculty band at the high school where Minsker works. This led to Thomson joining Minsker and Weitz for a show in Baltimore, MD. And thus, Motherfuckers JMB & Co were officially born. The name? Just Weitz’s homage to German psych-groove band Xhol Caravan’s 1972 album Motherfuckers GmbH & Co.
After a few more shows and even fewer rehearsals, the trio entered Tonal Park studios, armed with riffs and motifs that served as launching points rather than guidelines. Recordings took place during a single afternoon, with “lights lowered and incense and candles lit,” as Thomson describes. Weitz edited the resulting material after a three-month break (“it’s good to forget the session a bit instead of making critical decisions where you’re still feeling proud of yourself,” he explains), trimming down improvisations and reworking cut-out sections into seamless transitions. And now we have Music Excitement Action Beauty, seven cascading tracks that blend like ice cream flavors overfilling a cone.
Opening with the daybreak drone of “Rise,” the trio shift into the steady-climb of Thomson’s sturdy beat and Minsker’s fluid bass loop in “Breakers Part 1.” Weitz’s spiraling hurdy-gurdy grows like moss around the rhythm, fading into “Strange Planet,” a surf-psych mantra featuring a transfixing Minsker riff that twists like a snake. A sunny whirr coats the stereo space until “Breakers Part 2” emerges like Apocalypse Now’s Captain Willard surfacing in the dark, sparking a high-speed jam that evokes Neu’s motorik escapades.
Before you can breathe, the textured noise-quilt “Studio B” melts into the slow-burning groove of “Metro 29,” in which Thomson’s stutter-step drums and Minsker’s twang rhyme with Weitz’s high-pitched cycles. Everything coalesces in closer “Keep the Temp,” a break-neck stomp that revs up with Thomson’s dub siren, then slowly implodes into a dying star.
Throughout Music Excitement Action Beauty, there’s a communal vibe–not just from the friends-through-friends connections of JMB, but also the larger environments they’ve moved in for years. There’s a “Co.” at the end of their name for a reason, as if Music Excitement Action Beauty was made by three on behalf of many more. “Every group I’ve played with was usually organically formed and informed by the community and friendships in some ways,” says Thomson. “I was very attracted to playing with Marc and Brian because of the promise of repetition, drone, and psychedelia, and it delivered in spades.”

Atmospheres at GROW
2026-04-18 20:00 - 23:30 | GROW, 1340 Elmwood Ave., Columbia, 29202
