25 YEARS OF SOTERIA

This year we are celebrating 25 years of helping the formerly incarcerated reintegrate back into society after incarceration.

Join Soteria for an evening of storytelling, art, music, and fellowship as we honor the past and future of this organization that has been breaking generational cycles of poverty and recidivism through housing, education, employment, affirmation, and advocacy services for men and women just released from prison.  

Attire: Cocktail
Cash Bar
Light hors d'oeuvres will be served.

About the Musicians:  

Internationally renowned jazz violinist, Christian Howes, will lead a jazz ensemble including pianist Lovell Bradford, bassist Shannon Hoover of the Jazz Collective, & drummer Justin Watts to entertain and to acompany the evening of storytelling and poetry.

About the Art: 

OYÉ Artists Signe & Genna Grushovenko, Patricia DeLeon, and Rey Alfonso offered to incorporate an OYÉ exhibit at our upcoming fundraiser celebrating 25 Years of Soteria.

Each of the OYÉ artists created an original piece in honor of Soteria's work that will be for sale, and they will donate a portion of their proceeds to Soteria. Prints of each piece will also be for sale, and 100% of those proceeds, along with the collaboration with Rey, will be donated to our event.
Rey Alfonso invited the men in our job training program, Soteria at Work, to collaborate on a large piece to auction for the event. Our guys built the canvas out of reclaimed wood, delivered it to Rey, and then worked with him, creating layers of artifacts, writing, paint, and symbolism.

The art featured above is an original work by the Grushovenkos created for this event.

(Oyé Studios is a group of 12 artists and one interior designer sharing space in a former church in the north Main neighborhood.)

About our Emcee:

Bernie Mazyck is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the South Carolina Association for Community Economic Development. SCACED is the state’s trade association and funding intermediary for Community Development Corporations, Community Development Financial Institutions, an grassroots economic development organizations. 

Bernie also served as the chief architect of the passage of the South Carolina Community Economic Development Act. This landmark piece of legislation authorizes the South Carolina General Assembly to provide grants, loans and tax credits to certified community economic development organizations in South Carolina. 

Bernie is the 2004 recipient of the Order of the Silver Crescent from former Governor Mark Sanford and the 2014 recipient of the Order of the Palmetto from former Governor Nikki Haley. The Order of the Palmetto is the state’s highest civilian honor for service to the state. Recently, Bernie received the Diane Sterner Leadership Award in 2020 and the Community Leadership Award from the SC Commission for Minority Affairs and in 2024, the Joseph P. Riley Leadership Award.

Getting There:

Judson Mill is home to Loft apartments as well as event and retail space.  Be sure to enter from 2nd Avenue in order to access our venue.  Once you pull into the parking lot, "Annex" signage is on the building, and will direct you to the correct entrance: