I’m coming home…

“Every community has stories that deserve to be told.”

For years, conversations about Marlboro County have often focused on statistics, challenges, and outside perceptions. While those realities are part of the story, they are not the whole story. Behind every neighborhood, business, church, classroom, and family gathering are people whose experiences reflect the character, resilience, creativity, and spirit of this community.

Now Tell A Story was created to document those voices.

Through photography and personal storytelling, this project invites residents to share their lived experiences in their own words. Some stories may celebrate achievements, traditions, and milestones. Others may reflect on hardship, growth, identity, or hopes for the future. Together, they form a collective narrative that is honest, human, and deeply rooted in place.

This project is about more than preserving memories. It is about creating a record of who we are as a community at this moment in time. It is about challenging the idea that nothing is happening here and highlighting the people who continue to shape Marlboro County every day. Most importantly, it is about answering a simple but important question: Why Marlboro?

The answer cannot be found in a report, a headline, or a statistic. It can only be found in the stories of the people who call this place home.

Now Tell A Story is an invitation to listen, to learn, and to see Marlboro County through the eyes of its people—one story at a time.

“Daishanna Pearson, a Marlboro County native who came back with an unforeseen purpose.”

I graduated from the University of South Carolina, Columbia in 2020, and when it was time to figure out what came next, the answer kept pointing back home. Back to the people, the stories, the place that shaped me.

My creative work lives at the intersection of people and feeling. I am drawn to the things that are hard to put into words, the way someone carries themselves, the weight behind an expression, the unspoken experiences that make us who we are. I work as a visual storyteller, and whether I am behind a camera, crafting a concept, or building something for a community, the thread running through all of it is the same: I want people to feel seen.

For me, art and community have never been separate things. They have always fed each other. The more I pour into the people around me, the more that shows up in what I create. The more I create, the more I understand what this community needs and what it deserves to have told about it.

Now Tell A Story is a natural extension of all of that. It is me doing what I have always done, listening, watching, and then finding a way to hold it up to the light.

about the artist

Daishanna Pearson | Creative Director, Storyteller, Visual Artist

A woman with dark skin, wearing glasses and a bright orange dress, standing next to a collage art piece with newspaper clippings and a painted portrait of a woman with long black hair, wearing a red top and blue overalls with tape over her mouth, on an easel in a room with wood floors and decorated rug.