This application preview is for reference only.

All grant applications must be submitted online at

GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Program Grant Application—Preview only

All program grant applications must be submitted online by March 30, 2021, at 11:30p.m. EST. All application
fields are required.

Is this a draft or final version of your application? DRAFT/FINAL

Is this a proposed project for the Digital Tour Initiative? YES/NO

Project Summary
Project title:
Response limited to 150 characters.
The Sallie Ellis Davis House Book Club
Please provide a brief overview of the proposed project.
Responses should be no longer than 3 sentences. Further information may be entered in the project narrative
section of this application.
This will be a quarterly book club (a new book every three month) for one year. The books read will help
participants understand minority experiences in the U.S. through historical and social lenses.
Grant Request:
The amount of funding requested should not exceed $2,500.
$2,000
Program Dates:
Approximate dates are acceptable.
May 2021- April 2022
Q1: May-July Q2: August-October Q3: November-January Q4: February-April
Applicant Organization Information
Provide the contact information for the primary applicant organization below. This is the organization who will
receive all grant payments and be responsible for all reporting requirements, if the grant is awarded. If this project
will utilize a fiscal sponsor, it is the fiscal sponsor’s information that should be identified below.

Name: Sallie Ellis Davis House

Mailing Address:
120 South Clarke St
Campus box 092
Milledgeville, GA 31061

Physical Address:
Required only if different than the organization’s mailing address.
130 South Clarke Street, Milledgeville, GA 31061
Phone:
478-445-3045
Website:
https://www.gcsu.edu/sallieellisdavis
Georgia County:
Baldwin
EIN: 5860002064

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Annual Operating Budget: The Sallie Ellis Davis House receives $1,095 from the Georgia State
Government every year for the purpose of paying one docent. All other funding comes out of the budget
and revenue for Georgia’s Old Governor’s Mansion.

Georgia House District:

You can find this information at http://www.house.ga.gov/mediaServices/en-US/FindYourLawmaker.aspx
District 145
Georgia Senate District:
You can find this information at http://www.senate.ga.gov/senators/en-US/FindyourLegislator.aspx
District 025
U.S. Congressional District:
You can find this information at https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
District 010
Briefly describe your organization’s mission. How does it connect to the mission of Georgia
Humanities and the humanities disciplines?
Responses limited to 750 characters.
The mission of the Sallie Ellis Davis Historic House Museum is to care for, collect, interpret, and exhibit
items (including artifacts and structures) that illustrate the history of the site and its inhabitants during
the years the house was the home of Sallie Ellis Davis (1910-1950) in order to make these objects
available to the public for educational benefit.
Much like Georgia Humanities, our goal is to promote historical understanding by bringing communities
together through the appreciation of Sallie Ellis Davis’s legacy. The story of Sallie Ellis Davis’s life as an
educator is one that moves many people to appreciation for their education and educators. It is the
organization’s hope that participants will be moved by discussions of the books and the understandings
we will reach.

Project Personnel
Project Director
This individual will be considered the primary contact for all grant communications and is responsible, along with
the Financial Officer (see below), for completing all required materials, including a final report.

Name: Katie Stockdale

Title + Affiliation: Curator, Sallie Ellis Davis House

Mailing Address:
120 S. Clark St
Campus Box 092
Milledgeville, GA 31061

Phone: 478-445-4545

E-mail: Kaitlyn.stockdale@gcsu.edu

Financial Officer
This individual will be responsible for all of the project’s fiscal reporting, including the processing of grant payment
requests. This individual cannot be the same as the Project Director.

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Name: Haley Stodart

Title + Affiliation: Curator of Education, Georgia’s Old Governor’s Mansion and the Sallie Ellis Davis
House

Mailing Address:
120 S Clarke St
Campus Box 092
Milledgeville, GA 31061

Phone: 478-445-4545

E-mail: haley.stodart@gcsu.edu

Project Narrative
This section of the application provides the opportunity to share more information about the proposed project.

Describe the project’s events and activities.

Please focus this description on the activities that will be supported directly by Georgia Humanities grant funds.
Address the following questions: What is the need for this project? What activities and events will the project
include? Are the project’s events and activities free and open to the public? Response limited to 4,500 characters.
List of books: Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, Blonde
Roots by Bernadine Evaristo, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

The first event of each quarter will be the book pickup, in which paperback copies of the book, a reading guide, and
a letter explaining why the book was chosen, will be able to be picked up in a socially distant manner on the front
lawn of the Sallie Ellis Davis house from 12-4 and 5-7. If people prefer, or the books run out, they can also get the
books form their local library and pick up the reading guide and letter. The list of books, reading guides, and letters
will be available on the website of the Sallie Ellis Davis House. (The grant will fund the purchase of enough book
copies.)

Each book club meeting will take place over Zoom and will last for about an hour with a (30-45) minute theme
discussion, followed by a (15-minute) close reading and a discussion of a character element or scene that stood out
to each person during that period’s reading. There will be two book club meetings for each book, to discuss a
predetermined first half and second half.

Each book will also have an additional event, specific to the book’s themes.
Swing: The special event will be a discussion of the history of jazz and its importance in the book. Humanities
scholars will include the authors of Swing, Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess and a music professor form
Georgia college who specializes in jazz, Dr. Don N. Parker. Dr. Parker will discuss the historic elements of jazz while
Alexander and Hess will discuss their reasoning for featuring it so heavily in their book. Each participant will also
get the chance to play part of their favorite jazz song and discuss why it is important to them.

Blond Roots: The special event will be a discussion of alternate history and the power of hate speech and labels
have in “othering” a population. The humanities scholar will be the author, Bernadine Evaristo. We will discuss why
she chose to include opposite pejorative labels in her book and why she chose the ones she did. We will also
discuss how those labels gave power to the institutions in her book and how the labels in our own world support
institutions of hate.

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Parable of the Sower: The special event will be a discussion of how climate change affects climate injustice, looking
especially at how the most marginalized communities are often those most adversely affected by climate change.
Hank Green, a speaker on climate change, will participating in an examination of how communities in the book
responded to climate change by attempting to wall out the negative effects. We will also look at the impact the
climate change of the novel had on political and economic structure, and how in the ensuing hardships, people
became tribalistic, sometimes on racial lines. We will examine this part of the novel as another example of climate
inequity.

Their Eyes Were Watching God: This particular event will not be paid for by the grant. Humanities scholar Dr. Chika
Unigwe, a Georgia College professor, will facilitate the writing workshop on love stories, helping participants to see
how love stories can incorporate themes other than love, by illustrating the example of the book.

Will the project’s audience incur any fees to participate in the events and activities proposed above?
If yes, detail all fees to be charged to participants below. Include the entity’s standard admission fees, if applicable.
No, in order to make this fully accessible all events and materials will be free. Costs of the books and
fees in booking the six experts for the four special events, will be paid through the grant and the
organization’s matching funds.

What is the project’s COVID-19 contingency plan?

If the proposed project includes in-person activities and events, how will the project adapt/change course if public
health circumstances pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic make in-person activities impracticable? Can the
project transition to a virtual or digital format? Has the project team explored other program format options?
Responses limited to 2,000 characters.
This project is being designed with Covid in mind, but if the pandemic worsens, then all hybrid events will go fully
online and the book pickup event will have to be changed to mailing the books out, from a sign-up list completed
previously.

How do the humanities inform this project?

Please identify the humanities disciplines central to this project. What questions or issues will your project address?
What makes these questions significant at this moment? How will this project connect the research and knowledge
of humanities scholars with the public? Responses limited to 2,500 characters.
The point of this book club is to use literature to reframe the ways we look at history, race relations, social justice,
and social inequity (including climate inequity) by reading about these issues through characters. We hope that
this frame will provide enough distance for people to look critically at their lives and the world around them and
understand how all these issues affected the characters in the books, and affect people in real life. Sallie Ellis
Davis’s mission was not only to educate her children, but also to ensure that they knew their history and the
achievements of African Americans. By choosing books with black authors that tell the stories of black experience,
the Sallie Ellis Davis House hopes to continue Sallie’s work of highlighting black excellence. Sallie believed in
education through reading and provided her students access to as many books as possible. By encouraging reading
in her community, we strive to continue Sallie’s mission of a well-rounded education through books.
Through Swing we will be able to examine how racial and gender stereotypes affected the lives of three high
school students. Blonde Roots will show that while historical choices could be arbitrary the institutions that
supported and perpetuated those choices were not. We will also discuss the true effects of hate speech and labels
on ‘othering’ a population for the purpose of dehumanizing them – and how that rhetoric continues to oppress
marginalized communities today. Parable of the Sower will illustrate how in devastating situations, responses can
often become tribalistic to our own detriment and how marginalized people form communities in order to offset as
many effects of marginalization as possible. Their Eyes Were Watching God will reveal race relations in northern to
mid-Florida in the early twentieth century. It will also reveal how anti-black racism affected African American
communities, even when no whites were present. We will also examine the story of life and love in the face of
difficulties in order to underscore the point that all people live and love no matter their hardships.

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Describe the intended audience(s) and desired audience reaction to this project.
Who is this project designed to reach? If your organization has an established audience base, how will this project
attract new audiences? What do you hope the project’s audience(s) will learn, experience, or gain as a result of this
project? Responses limited to 2,500 characters.

This project is intended to reach high school and college students, young adults, and adults. The themes in the
books require a certain level of maturity that the organization believes is not yet universal in middle school
students, although if parents wish to involve their middle school aged students in the book club the organization
will allow their participation on a case by case basis. Given that the book club events will be virtual, and the Sallie
Ellis Davis House has an active following on social media, the organization hopes to engage that audience even if
they are not local by having them check out the books from their local library and posting the reading guides and
letters online, and encouraging them to participate in the book club meetings and virtually in the hybrid events.

Humanities Scholars
List the credentials and/or experience of the project’s humanities scholar(s), including their name, position, and
institutional affiliation (if applicable), a brief biography for each scholar, and the specific ways the scholar(s) will
inform the project. Please do not exceed more than a paragraph for each scholar listed. Do not include resumes or
CVs of the project’s humanities scholar(s).
Humanities scholar for special event discussion of labels and othering in Blond Roots: Bernadine Evaristo, author of
Blonde Roots, British writer Bernardine Evaristo is the author of eight books and numerous other works. Her
writing and projects are based around her interest in the African diaspora. She is Professor of Creative Writing at
Brunel University London. She will participate in the special event for Blonde Roots, discussing the importance of
labels, the effect they have in her boon, and helping participants imagine their alternate history ideas and the point
they wish to make with these ideas.

Humanities scholars for special event discussion of jazz in United States history and Swing:
Kwame Alexander, a poet, educator, publisher, and New York Times Bestselling author of 35 books, including
Booked, which was longlisted for the National Book Award, Solo, Rebound, which was shortlisted for prestigious UK
Carnegie Medal, The Caldecott Medal and Newbery Honor-winning picture book, The Undefeated, illustrated by
Kadir Nelson, and, his Newbery medal-winning middle grade novel, The Crossover. Kwame Alexander will
participate in the special event for Swing in the discussion on jazz and the reason for its inclusion in the book.
Mary Rand Hess, a poet, screenwriter, mixed-media artist, and New York Times bestselling author of notable and
award-winning books such as Solo and Swing (Blink YA), coauthored with Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander. She
will participate in the special event for Swing, both in the discussion on jazz and why the book is written in verse.
Dr. Don N. Parker, the Chair and Professor of Music (Percussion) at Georgia College and State University. The
Haydon/Parker Duo’s second CD, Reunion (2015), is available on the ACA Digital Recordings/Albany Record. As part
of the album release tour, Parker’s jazz vibes/piano duo presented jazz clinics and concerts at Fayetteville State
University and Claflin University (SC). In 2007 and 2015 Dr. Parker contributed a teacher resource guides to
Teaching Music through Performance in Jazz, Vols. I & II, a series complied and edited by Richard Miles and Ronald
Carter (GIA Publications). He will participate on the discussion of jazz’s importance in U.S. history as part of the
historical context for the special event for Swing.

Humanities scholar for special event on climate change in Parable of the Sower: Hank Green, a speaker on climate
change, he will participate in the special event for Parable of the Sower in a discussion of climate change and how
could affect not only the economic and social aspects of our lives, but also governmental structures. Given the
recent California wildfires, huge snowstorm in Texas, multiple large hurricane seasons, fires in the Amazon, fires in
Australia and the recent flooding in the South Eastern U.S., this discussion will use real life events to frame the way
climate change affected the novel.

Humanities scholar for Their Eyes Were Watching God’s special writing workshop event: Dr. Chika Unigwe, an
author whose novels include On Black Sister Street (Random House, 2011) and Night Dancer (Jonathan Cape,
2012). Her works focus on women trying to claim for themselves what their lives will be, reminiscent of Janie in

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Their Eyes Were Watching God. Love is also a theme in her work, and as a writer she can help guide the special
event workshop to encourage participants to think of love stories as incorporating larger themes and narratives
than only the individuals falling in love. Dr. Unigwe’s honorarium and any costs of the writing workshop will not be
paid for with grant funds, but will come out of the organizations matching funds.

Publicity and Marketing

What are your plans to publicize and promote the project? How will the publicity and marketing plan help reach the
project’s desired audience(s)? Responses limited to 1,500 characters.

There will be a social media push to advertise to the audience we already have and to engage with younger
audiences that use the platforms more. We will also advertise in the library, on the GC campus, local high schools,
in downtown Milledgeville, and in the new Milledgeville secondhand bookstore. Also, to continue engaging with
the college campus, we will contact the GC English and writing departments, and clubs for promotion.

In this way the organization hopes to reach the new audiences we are looking for through advertisement in
downtown locations and promote the programs to our current audience to promote retention.

Timeline
Provide a timeline for your project, including planning, implementation, and post-program activities. Responses
limited to 1,000 characters.

April: order the books, start the social media push, put up all advertisements.

May 1-8: book pick up for Swing and advertise the Jazz discussion special event. Participants will also be
encouraged to join spoiler-free Facebook groups (dived into chapter groupings) to discuss as they are reading.

June 1-6: book club meetings (virtual – likely Zoom, already have licensing). Multiple sessions held to
accommodate everyone’s schedules.

June 26: Jazz discussion as a hybrid special event. Humanities scholars Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess will
be videoed into the event space and the event will be open to joining on video. The event will also be recorded.

July 19-24: final book club meeting (virtual). Multiple sessions held throughout the week to accommodate
everyone’s schedules.

July 25-31: Comment period when participants can review their experience either through email surveys or on an
open forum in the Facebook group.

August 1-8: Book pickup for Blonde Roots, advertise Bernadine Evaristo’s author talk special event. Once again,
participants will be encouraged to join spoiler-free Facebook groups to discuss as they read.

September 1-5: first book club meetings (virtual). Multiple sessions held throughout the week to accommodate
everyone’s schedules.

September 25: Bernadine Evaristo’s author talk hybrid special event. Evaristo will be video called in and the event
will also be open to viewing in person and joining on video. The event will be recorded.

October 18-24: Final book club meetings (virtual). Multiple sessions held throughout the week to accommodate
everyone’s schedules.

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

October 25-31: Comment period when participants can review their experience either through email surveys or on
an open forum in the Facebook group.

November 1-8: Book pickup for Parable of the Sower. Advertise the special event talk on climate change in the
book with humanities scholar Hank Green. Open Facebook discussion groups.

November 28-Decemeber 4: first book club meetings (virtual). Multiple sessions held throughout the week to
accommodate everyone’s schedules.

December 18: hybrid special event on climate change in Parable of the Sower with humanities scholar Hank Green.
Green will be video called in and the event will also be open to viewing in person and joining on video. The event
will be recorded.

January 17-23, 2022: final book club meetings (virtual). Multiple sessions held throughout the week to
accommodate everyone’s schedules.

January 24-31: Comment period when participants can review their experience either through email surveys or on
an open forum in the Facebook group.

February 1-6: Book pickup for Their Eyes Were Watching God. Advertise the special event writing workshop for
love stories with Dr. Unigwe. Open Facebook discussion groups.

March 1-6: first book club meetings (virtual). Multiple sessions will be held throughout the week to accommodate
everyone’s schedules.

March 26: special event writing workshop (not funded by grant money) with Dr. Unigwe. This will be a hybrid
event, open to participants joining through video call. It will be recorded.

April 18-24: final book club meetings (virtual). Multiple sessions will be held throughout the week to accommodate
everyone’s schedules.

April 25-30: Comment period when participants can review their experience either through email surveys or on an
open forum in the Facebook group. We will also solicit suggestions for books to be used in future programming.

Evaluation and Outcomes

What are the goals and intended outcomes of this project? Describe the methods you will use to evaluate your
project, and how you will determine if the project was successful. Responses limited to 1,500 characters.

We will use a mix of ongoing and remedial evaluation during the process. The ongoing evaluation will be the
surveys and open comment Facebook groups that will allow us to see what worked (days of the week, forum, and
reading pacing). If anything needs to be changed to better suit our participants needs, we have enough time in the
schedule to be able to make those changes.

At the end of the program, we will have another survey asking people what books they would like to read if the
program were to happen again. This is remedial evaluation but could also be seen as front-end evaluation for the
second program if it were to happen. There will also be a larger overall survey sent out to the participants at the
very end of the program and a few roundtable sessions (likely hybrid or fully virtual) held in May 2022 to
determine the strengths and minuses of the program.

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Project Budget – Grant Request

Identify the expenses for which you are requesting grant support, and provide a brief description (no more than one sentence) of the specific expenses that will
be supported in each requested budget categories.

Type of Expense Grant Request Description

Honoraria/stipends $
Transportation/travel $
Publicity/marketing $ 36 This money will be used to purchase posters from the Georgia College print
shop for advertising.
Printing/duplication $
Supplies $ 964 This money will be used to purchase 100 copies of books (25 copies of
Blonde Roots: $255) (25 copies of Swing: $173) (25 copies of Parable of the
Sower: $288.75) (25 copies of Their Eyes Were Watching God: $247.25)
Facility/equipment rental $
Paid vendors $
Project staff/facility assistance/volunteers

Project Budget – Cost-Share

Identify your project’s cost-share totals below. Georgia Humanities requires that all grant funds be matched at least 1:1 through cash or in-kind sources (or a
combination of both). Georgia Humanities acknowledges that amounts may be projections and subject to change at a later date.

Type of Expense Cash Cost-Share In-Kind Cost-Share Description

Honoraria/stipends $600 $ This money will be used provide honorariums for the
humanities scholars. As all events will be virtual or hybrid
(due to COVID-19) all scholars outside of Georgia College
will participate virtually and there is no need to cover
travel.
Transportation/travel $ $
Publicity/marketing $ 52 $ This money will be used to purchase posters from the
Georgia College print shop for advertising.
Printing/duplication $ $
Supplies $ $
Facilities/equipment rental $ $
Paid vendors $ $
Project staff/facility assistance/volunteers $ $348 This will be the time donated by our docents in helping us
moderate the book clubs. (7.25/hr, twenty four book club

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

meetings, two docents)

December 3, 2020
This application preview is for reference only. All grant applications must be submitted online at
GeorgiaHumanities.org/grants.

Application Submission
By submitting this application, I certify to the statements contained in the list of certifications and attest
that the statements are true, complete, and accurate to the best of my knowledge. I agree to comply
with any stated terms of this grant award. I am further aware that any false or fraudulent claims or
statements could establish criminal, civil, or administrative penalties as stated in U.S. Code, Title 213,
Section 1001. Certifications and Assurances, as well as general terms and requirements that apply to this
grant award, can be found online.

Electronic Signature
The application may be signed and submitted by the project director or the financial official. It is the responsibility
of the applicant organization to ensure the application is approved and submitted by an individual with the
authority to do so on behalf of the applicant organization.
 The applicant organization assumes all responsibilities as grantee. In signing and submitting a
grant application, the applicant organization certifies that it will submit all required documents
and reports on time. Recipients must certify their compliance with above named
nondiscrimination statutes and affirm that they have not been disbarred or suspended from
eligibility to receive these funds. By signing and submitting this application, the applicant
organization is providing these certifications.

Name: Katie Stockdale

Organization: Sallie Ellis Davis House
Title (if applicable): Sallie Ellis Davis House Book Club
E-mail: Kaitlyn.stockdale@gcsu.edu
Electronic Signature: Katie Stockdale
Date: 4/16/21

December 3, 2020