Published 3:11 pm Thursday, June 20, 2024 By Joshua Windus Nicole Kirksey, tourism director, recently hosted a diversity talk on the 14 th of June at 9 a.m. Afterward, she gave an interview on diversity, telling a story she had shared at the talk.
She mentioned how a few years prior, she had looked for more diverse photos that reflected the demographic make-up of Sumter County. “Diversity is not just about race, right? It’s about, you know, different ages. It’s about sexual orientation.
It can be from different countries, it can be disabilities, it can be anything.” She talked about how she had asked Madison Hernandez, owner of Art Hive, to take new pictures for her. “I know you’re a photographer, can you take some really good pictures?” Kirksey noted the results: “She showed me these beautiful pictures.
I had a picture of a couple. The gentleman was African American, the wife was Caucasian, and their child obviously was interracial. She gave me some other pictures that were two white males that clearly in the photos you could see that they were a couple.
So I thought this is really cool.” She mentioned that she had initially shared them on her personal page, noting the reactions. “People were a little shocked.
Why are we doing that?” When asked how she thought the diversity talk went, she mentioned that initially she didn’t know whether anyone would show up: “I was pleasantly surprised. That was a huge group. And it was a diverse group.
We had diffe.