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Special Speakers and Entertainment
Fabien Cousteau Evening Entertainment Detailed Biographies Fabien Cousteau: A Legacy of Exploring the Ocean Realm As an adult, Fabien took time to study economics and worked in marketing to try his hand on land. But the call back to the sea was strong and he returned to carrying on the Cousteau legacy of ocean adventure and environmental education. He looks forward to exposing a new audience to the thrills and lessons of the ocean. And, it doesn’t hurt that People Magazine named Fabien the “Sexiest Man of the Sea” in 2002.
This young Cousteau’s latest oceanic obsession is sharks--understanding and protecting them. Fabien says sharks are terribly misunderstood to be vicious man-eaters and this attitude is contributing to their demise. Fabien’s first shark film was a documentary for National Geographic Channel titled Attacks of the Mystery Shark. The film explores a series of shark attacks off of the East Coast of the United States and clears up some misconceptions about those attacks. In November 2005, CBS television aired Fabien Cousteau’s documentary, a special titled Mind of a Demon. The program broke new ground in its look at Great White sharks. Fabien, with the help of a large crew, created a 14-foot, 1,200 pound shark submarine for the show. The sub, named “Troy,” looks just like a real Great White shark and moves among giant sharks without any disruption. Fabien controls Troy from inside the sub and shoots film from the subs many hidden cameras. 
He is also playing a key role in his father’s PBS series: Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures. He is an Assistant Producer and a member of the dive team. Most recently, Fabien and his sister Celine joined their father at all of the national marine sanctuaries located around the United States for a show titled America’s Underwater Treasures, exploring all 14 marine sanctuaries in the U.S. and South Pacific; Return to the Amazon, an adventure he first began at age 14; and Sea Ghosts, a rare look at the white beluga whale. Fabien has recently inked a deal for his own television documentary series for a soon-to-be-announced network. He is also a consultant to Samsonite on its new, rugged luggage product line called “Outlab.” When Fabien is not traveling for work or play, he lives in New York City with his dog Heidi. As a member of the last generation of African Americans born and educated on Sapelo Island Cornelia Walker Bailey has become one of Georgia's most vocal defenders of her homeland and its African American heritage. Sapelo Island, a barrier island off the southern coast of Georgia, has protected the state's interior for thousands of years. Although the island has withstood countless hurricanes and the arrival of colonial settlers, a new threat has come to the people of Sapelo—the threat of industrial development. A self-proclaimed "Saltwater Geechee," Cornelia Walker Bailey was born on Sapelo on June 12, 1945, to Hettie Bryant and Hicks Walker. In 2000 she published God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man, a cultural memoir that both details Bailey's experiences while growing up on Sapelo Island in the 1940s and 1950s and gives its readers a new perspective on the African American culture that emerged on the island more than 200 years ago. Using childhood stories and family legends passed down over generations, Cornelia depicts a way of life that has become threatened by the industrial development that creeps closer and closer to Sapelo. Cornelia traces her lineage back to an African Muslim named Bul-Allah (or Bilali), who worked as the head slave manager for the island's owner, cotton planter Thomas Spalding. Cornelia Bailey and her family, like many of Sapelo's natives, are direct descendants of West African slaves, many of whom (like Bilali) were Muslim. Cornelia returned to Sapelo in 1966 after living with family members on St. Simons Island for some years. As of 2005 she lives on Sapelo with her husband, Julius "Frank" Bailey, and two of her sons. Cornelia has become Sapelo's "griot," an African term for the tribal historian who, in Bailey's own words, keeps "the oral history of the tribe, as it [has been] passed down for thousands of years." She and her husband conduct tours of the island and teach others about their community's rich and treasured history.
Janisse Ray
Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast, was published by Milkweed Editions in 1999. Besides being a plea to protect and restore the glorious pine flatwoods of the South, the book looks hard at family, mental illness, poverty, and fundamentalist religion. Thinker Wendell Berry called the book “well done and deeply moving.” Anne Raver of The New York Times said of Janisse Ray, “The forests of the South find their Rachel Carson.” The book won a Southeastern Booksellers Award 1999, an American Book Award 2000, the Southern Environmental Law Center 2000 Award for Outstanding Writing, and a Southern Book Critics Circle Award 2000. It was a New York Times Notable Book and was chosen as the Book All Georgians Should Read. Ray’s second book, Wild Card Quilt: Taking a Chance on Home, about rural community, was published by Milkweed Editions in early 2003. The third, Pinhook: Finding Wholeness in a Fragmented Land, the story of a 750,000-acre wildland corridor between south Georgia and north Florida, was published by Chelsea Green in 2005. Ray produced In One Place: The Natural History of a Georgia Farmer by Milton Hopkins, out in 2001. She co-edited, with Susan Cerulean and Laura Newton, Between Two Rivers: Stories from the Red Hills to the Gulf (2004). In 2007 Ray started a small press, Wildfire, in order to publish Southern nature writing; an anthology of local stories about a Georgia preserve, Moody Forest, is recently out. Ray’s essays appear in the anthologies A Road Runs Through It; Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent; Elemental South: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water; The Roadless Yaak; Where the Mountain Stands Alone; and The Norton Anthology of Nature Writing, among others. She has published in such periodicals as Audubon, Gray’s Sporting Journal, Hope, Natural History, Oprah Magazine, Orion, Sierra and The Washington Post. She writes poetry and fiction as well as nonfiction, as has been a radio commentator for Vermont and Georgia public radio. She has been visiting professor at Coastal Carolina University, scholar-in-residence at Florida Gulf Coast University, and writer-in-residence at Keene State College and Green Mountain College. She was the John and Renee Grisham writer-in-residence 2003-04 at the University of Mississippi. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and in 2007 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Unity College in Maine. In 2008 she is on the faculty of Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program. She will also teach at Wildbranch Writing Workshop, the Island Institute’s Sitka Symposium, and Unity College’s workshop for teachers, “Education in a Changing Climate.” The author lectures widely on nature, community, organic agriculture, native plants, sustainability and the politics of wholeness. As an organizer and activist, she works to create sustainable communities, local food systems, a stable global climate, intact ecosystems, clean rivers, life-enhancing economies, and participatory democracy. She is a founding board member of Altamaha Riverkeeper and is on the board of the Environmental Leadership Center of Warren Wilson College and Satilla Riverkeeper. Ray attempts to live a simple, sustainable life on a family farm in southern Georgia with her husband, Raven Waters. She has a college-age son, Silas. She is a gardener, tender of farm animals, hospice and Red Cross volunteer, slow-food cook, and a beginning filmmaker. She does yoga and trapeze, and is collaborating with aerialist Susan Murphy of Canopy Studio in Athens, Georgia on a spring 2008 show called “Water Body.” Her current writing projects include a collection of poetry, biweekly columns on the environment, revisions on a novel, and work on a nonfiction book about how Americans live.
A native of Savannah and a fifth-generation coastal Georgian, Sullivan has been Manager of the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve since 1993. John "Crawfish" Crawford
Since 1990 he has been a resident faculty member at The University of Georgia's Marine Education Center and Aquarium on Skidaway Island near Savannah where he spends most days introducing visiting students and his 6 year old daughter to the wonders of nature. Billy D. Causey, PH.D. Dr. Causey’s academic interests are in coral reef ecology, coral reef fishes, sustainable management, marine zoning, climate change and marine policy. He has been observing and studying coral reefs since 1962, when he explored coral reefs off Veracruz, Mexico. He has dived the coral reefs of the Florida Keys since 1968 and moved there in 1973. He has authored numerous papers and book chapters, with a primary focus on marine zoning and the impacts of elevated sea surface temperatures on the coral reefs of the Wider Caribbean. Dr. Causey received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Corpus Christi in 1967, and a Master of Science degree from Texas A&I University in 1969. Three years of post graduate work at the University of South Florida introduced him to the Florida Keys coral reef ecosystem. On May 6, 2006, Billy Causey was bestowed with an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University of South Florida. Dr. Causey has received numerous awards for his work in coral reef conservation, but is probably most highly recognized for his experience in marine protected area management and policy development. He led the efforts to establish a comprehensive marine zoning plan for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, including the nation’s largest network of full-protected areas. Dr. Dionne Hoskins Hoskins is based in Savannah and works with undergraduate and graduate students on a variety of ecological research topics. As a benthic ecologist, her research interests revolve around the ecology of deposit feeding organisms in marine sediments. However, recent projects have examined the recovery of a transplanted marsh, the effects of fishing and disease on blue crab populations, and seasonal fluctuations of macrofaunal and microbial communities in shallow sediments. Her current graduate student is studying sea turtle populations in the U. S. Virgin Islands. Dr. Hoskins also hosts high school students in her lab, one of whom is working on socioeconomic project trying to document the historical role of African-Americans in the coastal economy of Georgia. She teaches graduate courses in benthic ecology, advanced environmetrics, coastal zone management, and fishery population dynamics. She also is program manager of the SSU component of the NOAA Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center. Susan Shipman
Laura Connerat Lawton
McIntosh County Shouters
The McIntosh County Shouters first began performing outside their community around the Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, Briar Patch in 1980. The Sea Island Festival organizers wanted African along with Gullah-Geechee culture to participate in their festival and they knew that in the Briar Patch community members still did the shout and spoke the dialect. Active Members of the shouters are: Freddie Palmer (Songster and Clapper), Harold Lee Evans (Stickman and Singer), Alberta Sallins (Clapper), L.C. Scott (Clapper), Venus McIver (Singer and Shouter), Carolyn Palmer (Shouter), Rebecca “Peach” Wallin (Shouter), Carletha Sullivan (Shouter), Bettye J. Ector (Narrator), and Vanessa Carter (Narrator). The Shouters are still traveling. Their most recent long distance performance was January 2008 in New York, New York, where they were honored to participate in the National Heritage Masters, Gospel Caravan; also featured in the concert were The Dixie Hummingbirds, and The Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama. In February 2008, The Shouters traveled to Atlanta as special guests of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. In Savannah in 2008 the black history celebration for the National Education Alliance was concluded with a performance by The McIntosh County Shouters. Evening Entertainment The World Famous Crabettes! This crustacean crowned combo of mostly senior-ish musicians has been skittering around the Low Country for 18 years! They entertain at reunions, oyster roasts, cruise ships, and naturally, crab boils and even a funeral and a shotgun wedding. Their style is, well....unique. Polkas, sing-alongs, oldies and show tunes - always happy and uplifting, cause toes to tap and hands to clap.
The group consists of keyboards, accordions (Stomach Steinways or Belly Baldwins), a guitar, a clarinet, drums, singers, mandolin, and a gut bucket. Several men have joined the group, but the name is the same. They proudly wear the badge of honor of being a Crabette. Look for this home-grown group in the St. Patrick's Day parade every year and at the Cousteau reception on Thursday, July 24th at 6:30PM. Call the Cops!
The band was formed in 1987 in a garage on Isle of Hope, after which we found a practice home in a garage on Wilmington Island, and has now migrated back to another Isle of Hope garage. We have played in two states and more than two Georgia counties. Our members are attorney Dave Smith (lead vocals/ rhythm guitar), architect Don Cogdell (lead guitar and keyboards), attorney Rick Gnann (electric bass and harmonica), electrical engineer Lee Hobbs (Southern lead guitar), and landscape architect John Glenn (drums). Our play list ranges from the "British Invasion" (Beatles and Rolling Stones) to Southern Cookin' (Allman Brothers and Lynrd Skynrd) to Beach Music (Under the Boardwalk and Wipeout). If you like to dance, you will love this band! Bob and Judy Williams
Judy is a consummate guitarist who also plays the bass (with the Glow in the Dark Stringband), bouzouki (long-necked lute), and the bodhran (Irish drum). Judy is a strong female tenor and has sung with the Handel Choir of Baltimore, and more recently with the Savannah Symphony Chorale. Bob began playing the hammered dulcimer about 20 years ago and with guidance from the likes of master dulcimerists Ken Kolodner and Karen Ashebrook and inspiration from John McCutcheon, Malcolm Dalglish, Jerry Read Smith and others has become a pretty fair hand at playing this unique instrument. Bob also plays guitar, sings, and bends a few notes on the harmonica. The music of CYNERGY is "unplugged" and eclectic. Traditional Celtic and American music provide the initial focus of their efforts; however, love of a wide range of music combined with their individual and collective talents allows them to perform a variety of music including traditional instrumentals, old time music, a touch of country & western, and soft (folk) rock from the 70's and 80's. By day this dynamic duo pursues their other professional careers. Judy is a technician in a local chiropractic clinic and Bob is a marine science educator with University of Georgia Marine Education Center and Aquarium where he is currently serving as interim director. Recently their teenage son Zach has joined them on a few gigs. The fruit definitely did not fall too far from the proverbial parental tree! We know you will enjoy their music, so take time to listen while enjoying the Monday evening’s social event.
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© Georgia Association of Marine Education All Rights Reserved |
Fabien Cousteau, a third-generation ocean explorer and filmmaker, shares his famous father’s and grandfather’s love of deep sea adventure. As a boy he dove for the first time when he was only four years old, a custom tank had to be made to fit his body. By the time Fabien was seven, he had begun accompanying his father, Jean-Michel, and grandfather, Jacques, on expeditions, his first to Papua New Guinea. When Fabien turned 12, he began joining the crew of his grandfather’s ships Calypso and Alcyone on every break from school.
Over time, the different cultures living on Sapelo Island have blended together and become what Bailey calls the Geechee culture. A combination of Christian and Islamic religious beliefs, the Geechee culture on Sapelo Island has remained virtually unchanged, thanks to the island's geographic isolation. 
Cornelia WalkerBailey continues to fight against the loss of her community's cultural heritage. However, as Sapelo's elders pass on and the island's youth are forced to leave Sapelo for education or work, the Geechee community struggles to maintain its historical identity. The state of Georgia currently owns about 95 percent of Sapelo Island, leaving Bailey and her community confined to a small, private portion of the island known as Hog Hammock. Cornelia works to raise awareness of Sapelo's plight by educating those who visit Sapelo Island through public speaking and writing. In May 2004 she received a Governor's Award in the Humanities in recognition of her work on behalf of the African American population of Sapelo Island and the Geechee culture. 
Buddy Sullivan is a leading authority on the history and culture of coastal Georgia. He is the author of 15 books and is in frequent demand as a lecturer on a variety of coastal historical topics. He was the 2005 recipient of the Governor’s Medal in the Humanities from the Georgia Humanities Council in recognition of his literary and cultural contributions to the state over the last twenty years.
Mr. Sullivan’s most recent book is Georgia: A State History, the first new history of Georgia published in 30 years. His other works include two comprehensive coastal histories, Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater, which has been re-printed five times, and From Beautiful Zion to Red Bird Creek. The latter volume received the Georgia Historical Society’s Lilla M. Hawes Award for Georgia’s outstanding work of local history. In addition, he has written two books on 19th century coastal agriculture, focusing on rice cultivation and plantation management. Sullivan is also a major contributor to the University of Georgia’s online New Georgia Encyclopedia.
In 1973 John co-founded Wilderness Southeast, Inc. one of the regions oldest environmental outdoor schools. Through wilderness camping expeditions, from the Carolinas to Central America, he introduced students, of all ages, to the wonders of ecology and the natural sciences.
Billy Causey is the Southeast Regional Director for the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Previously, he had managed National Marine Sanctuaries in the Florida Keys since 1983, when he became the Manager of the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary. As the manager of this marine protected area he developed the education, science and enforcement programs and sustained an interagency partnership between the state and federal governments. He served as the Superintendent of the 2900 square nautical mile Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary from August 1991 to September 2, 2006, when he assumed his current position. Dr. Causey has been the lead National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) official in the development of the management plan for the Keys Sanctuary, which is the third largest marine protected area in the United States. He serves as the liaison with local, state and other federal agencies responsible for management of natural resources in the Southeast Region.
Dr. Dionne Hoskins received her B.S. degree in Marine Biology from Savannah State College in 1992 and her doctorate in Marine Sciences from the University of South Carolina in 1999. She worked briefly as a postdoctoral fellow in the newly established Marine, Environmental Science, and Biotechnology Research Center at SSU in 1999 but was tasked in 2000 by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) of NOAA Fisheries to develop a Cooperative Marine Education and Research (CMER) program at the university, the first of its kind at a historically Black university. Since then, Hoskins has worked as a Fishery Biologist through the Galveston Laboratory of NOAA Fisheries and as an Associate Graduate Professor in the Marine Science program at SSU.
Susan Shipman has been employed by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Coastal Resources Division since 1979 where she has served as Division Director since 2002. As Division Director Ms. Shipman directs GA DNR's Coastal Management Program, habitat protection, and permitting as well as marine fisheries management. Prior to becoming Director, Ms. Shipman served as Chief of Marine Fisheries from 1984 – 2002, coordinating the State’s marine and estuarine fisheries programs for commercial fisheries, recreational fisheries, and outer continental shelf resources. Ms. Shipman is Georgia’s Administrative Commissioner to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), having served as its Chair in 2001-2002. She is a long time (1987 – present) member and former chair of the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. Susan is a graduate of Leadership Glynn, Leadership Georgia, and Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership. She resides on St. Simons with her husband Mark Jicha and son Charlie.
Laura grew up in Savannah, where her older brothers used to take her to the Lucas Theater and to Leopolds for ice cream after the show. She graduated from Sweet Briar College in physics, and has a master's degree in curriculum from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Laura's teaching career includes astronomy at the Savannah Science Museum, math and science in the public schools, and coaching friends and neighbors on the Internet. She also leads star gazing outings for Wilderness Southeast, a not-for-profit school of the outdoors. For most of her adult life, Laura lived in a slave cabin on her great-great-grandfather's place at White Bluff. Just a few years ago her low country house overlooking the Vernon River at White Bluff was completed on her ancestors original home site and it is where she now resides. The mother of two, and grandmother of twins, she takes off to visit them frequently. Laura enjoys looking for comets with her 8" telescope, and plays the clarinet with the Crabettes. She is the co-author, with cousin Angela Lain, of the "Discover Savannah" CD-ROM. 
The McIntosh County Shouters perform ring shouts and sing songs that Negro slaves were singing when they arrived by ship in Virginia in the 1700s.
Clawing their way to stardom, they have become as familiar to Savannahians as grits, red rice and Chatham Artillery Punch. They had a teeny part in the movie, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and generous footage in A & Es Midnight in Savannah. They were also in the TV special, Stranded in Savannah with Cash Peters.
"Call the Cops" has been playing dance party gigs for 20 + years. Many of our engagements are (free) charity fund raisers, such as the local Theatre Actors Guild party, Proteus Syndrome Dance in the Park, and similar events. We have entertained large summer crowds at the Tybee Pavilion, River Street, and Isle of Hope Pool. We love to have fun, make music, make people happy and make them dance. We don't take ourselves too seriously, and we each have day jobs, just in case.
CYNERGY is the collective alter ego of Judy and Bob Williams. They have been performing in and around Savannah for over two decades. In addition to playing at clubs, weddings, and private parties they have been featured at the Savannah Folk Music Festival, Night in Old Savannah, Forsyth Festival and other public events.