Granite Countertops in North Charleston, SC

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — The fifth annual Lowcountry Juneteenth Week Festival is set to kick off, celebrating the spirit of the holiday with music, history, culture, family fun and community empowerment.

Running from June 16 through June 23, with the earliest event on Saturday, June 7, J19 Week looks to commemorate the historic day marking the end of slavery in the United States while uplifting Black culture and contributions, event officials detailed in a news release.

"This year’s 5th anniversary is more than a milestone—it’s a movement," said Latisha Manigault, the co-founder of J19 Week. "We’re proud to see this celebration grow each year as more people connect with the history of Juneteenth and the beauty of the Gullah Geechee culture. J19 Week is about unity, empowerment, and honoring the journey."

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J19 Week events span throughout the Lowcountry and are designed to welcome people of all backgrounds. To view the full schedule and purchase tickets, visit www.j19week.com.

"This isn’t just a festival—it’s a family. Whether you’re a longtime supporter or a first-time attendee, J19 Week is where everyone can feel seen, celebrated, and inspired," said Sean Smith, the vice president. "We invite the entire community to come out and be part of this incredible experience."

The 2025 festival lineup includes:

Top Chef contestant Shuai Wang does not think of himself as a competitive person. "I'm one of those people who thinks everyone deserves a trophy for participating," he says.

And yet, the Charleston chef did really well on the television cooking show - making it all the way to the finale.

"Prior to going on Top Chef, I felt very stuck," Wang says. He thought he'd peaked. But being in competition mode, learning from other chefs, he says, "it kind of just rejuvenated my creativity." In one episode, he cooked with ants that he'd foraged and gently toasted. They tasted like lemons, he said, "such a wonderful, zingy flavor."

When he's not off filming a reality show, Shuai Wang is usually in North Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and business partner, Corrie Wang. The couple met working at a restaurant in New York City. They moved south 10 years ago and had a food truck before opening their first restaurant, Jackrabbit Filly, named after their zodiac signs, and then a second restaurant, King BBQ.

Catie Dull/NPR

Catie Dull/NPR

It opened a year and half ago in a building that was, at various times, an ad agency, a church and a lunch counter, says Shuai. It's a beautiful space, with lots of personal touches. A pair of lions standing guard out front and the tile ceiling were custom made and shipped from Beijing, where Shuai was born. Framed portraits of the couple's dogs line the hallway. Red Chinese tassels hang from the ceiling and the walls are painted jade green - for good fortune.

The Wangs call their menu "Chinatown BBQ made with southern smoke." It, too, is full of personal touches. Krab rangoon with buttermilk hush puppies and hot honey. Chinese BBQ egg rolls with habanero duck sauce. "I cook from nostalgia," Chef Wang says.

Catie Dull/NPR

Catie Dull/NPR

The first dish Shuai cooks for NPR rings that bell - crispy, smoked duck on top of noodles with bok choy.

"That's just my fondest memory of growing up in New York," he says, "my parents taking me to Flushing on the weekends, or late nights after work, going down to Chinatown."

Catie Dull/NPR

Catie Dull/NPR

Shuai Wang remembers that when he was a young boy in Beijing, Communist China was still handing out food rations. So his grandma, who helped raise him, had to stretch her portion of rice and allotment of lard to feed the family.

He likens it to how enslaved families in the South improvised using the scraps they were left with to make a meal.

"That's why I feel so connected with Southern food, right?" he says. "That's where collard greens came from. The field peas, the butter beans."

Wang immigrated to the United States when he was nine, where his mom took over the cooking. He calls her the "OG Top Chef." But he didn't find his own love of cooking until high school. "I had to take a culinary class in my last two years to make up credits for all the classes that I 'accidentally missed,'" he laughs.

Catie Dull/NPR

The next plate he makes - chili tofu, a take on mapo tofu - is an homage to Shuai and Corrie's relationship. "That's the first dish that Corrie and I shared on our first date," Shuai explains. "I immediately scooped it up and put it in my mouth, not thinking that it would be a million degrees. And I spat it right out onto my plate, and everywhere."

Corrie didn't leave, and that's how they knew it was meant to be. "We're both like, crying… everything's so spicy and hot," adds Corrie. "It was a great time."

Catie Dull/NPR

This version of chili tofu is done in a fancy, Hamburger Helper, Asian-Italian style, with soft tofu, a sweet, spicy, tangy chili sauce and local ground pork on a bed of pasta, topped with mozzarella cheese. Tofu and mozzarella sound a little funky? Somehow, it really works.

"I get crazy ideas," Shuai Wang says. "I have a million and one crazy ideas. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, you know?"

Catie Dull/NPR

Corrie Wang says she's seen a natural progression as they've developed the restaurants where Shuai is "just creating legit Chinese food" rather than making gimmicky dishes.

"I just realized I really just want to embrace myself and my culture and cook Chinese food," he says.

After his Top Chef stint, Shuai is taking all his crazy ideas, his heritage and a renewed spirit of adventure and creativity into the future. "I realized oh, I didn't peak," he says. "Chinese food has 500 years of history. I've explored very little of it."

NORTH CHARLESTON — Mayor Reggie Burgess has strong ties to Roper St. Francis Hospital, where his wife and two children were born.

It almost seemed serendipitous that the groundbreaking of the medical system's newest hospital fell on his 60th birthday in the town where he grew up and now serves as mayor.

Roper leaders — including CEO Joseph DeLeon and regional exectuive Troy Powell — along with about 350 employees, elected officials, board members and community members joined at 2401 Mall Drive on June 11 to celebrate the forward momentum of the development that's been in the works for years.

The $1.2 billion project on 27 acres near North Charleston City Hall will bring the hospital's main services from the peninsula to a more central location at the well-traveled cross-section of Interstate 526 and I-26.

"This is probably the most accessible spot in the Lowcountry right here, between 526 and 26, with a dedicated exit right off Mall Drive and then right to this spot," said Charles Fletcher, vice president of construction and real estate services at Roper. "So when you think of access to a Level II Trauma Center, you're going to want quick access on busy roads and this is the most successful spot."

The area will offer parking, future public transportation and won't suffer from flooding. During the last major storm, in comparison, Fletcher said Roper's downtown emergency room was on diversion for 12 hours due to water.

"That will never happen here," he said. "So while everything downtown will shut down if they have to, we'll stay accessible to patients ... providing 24/7 care."

The new North CHarleston campus is expected to open in full in June 2029, just as hurricane season resumes. The structure itself will be built to withstand a category 5 storm, Fletcher said.

Unlike expansions where a hospital is built and beds or laboratories are added, regional president Powell said this project will entirely relocate roughly 330 beds from downtown to North Charleston.

"I'd be hard pressed to think of how many projects like that are going on in the country at any given time," Powell said. "So yeah, so it's a huge undertaking because you're doing all of that at one time."

The $1.2 billion campus will include a modern 10-story skyscraper hospital, separate staff and visitor parking, a medical office building, rehabilitation center and greenway paths.

The four-year construction project is expected to generate a $2.5 billion economic impact. For every dollar spent on the effort, $3.26 flows through the local economy, according to a report from the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.

Hospital moves hub to where population is growing

The new location meets residents where they are as the community grows northward and offers a level of care North Charleston residents don't have right now. Currently they have to go downtown to MUSC or Roper's former campus, or visit an urgent care facility.

"The center mass of the community is growing this way and we're going to have the flagship hospital sitting right here at the nexus," DeLeon said.

State Sen. Deon Tedder, D-North Charleston, said the projected 3,600 jobs that construction will bring to the area is a huge win for his district.

"I'm excited about the jobs and that they're moving closer to where people live, where the workers and employees will live," he said.

From the North Charleston hub, DeLeon said satellite branches will spin off, including the $320 million Berkeley hospital expansion from 50 to 100 beds that will fully wrap in November. The Sawmill Health Plex, on track for the first quarter of 2026, will be a free-standing Emergency Department with operating rooms, a laboratory and radiology.

"And now we just got town approval from Mount Pleasant to build something very similar to what we're doing in Summerville," he said. "That'll be under construction soon."

In the first 10 years, DeLeon said the hospital projects one million patient days and the size is built with population growth in mind.

Among the state's largest cities, North Charleston saw one of the biggest population booms from July 2024 to 2025, with a 3.5 percent gain that added 4,265 residents in the year.

"As much as we're actually trying to prepare for that with the rate of growth that we're actually seeing in the area, we're actually seeing that even these hospitals will be reaching their capacity within the next five to 10 years," Powell said. "It's one of these things that as rapidly as this market is growing, it's hard to keep up."

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - One North Charleston nonprofit organization is getting a new on-site library after a partnership with the Charleston County Public Library.

Landmarks for Families does community work helping to provide children and families with housing, educational support and services, also providing facility foster care to children.

This partnership means 500 new books will now be available to middle and high school foster care children at Landmarks for Families in North Charleston.

The on-site library is only accessible to residents, playing a crucial role in academic as well as social development.

The library is modeled after a public library, including book shelves, games and resources right across from a computer lab already in the building.

Books here have been placed specifically for the kid’s preferences, age range and reading levels.

Charleston County Public Library staff will also be visiting this library quarterly to provide more resources and classes for residents.

Melissa Tunstall, the Outreach Manager with the Charleston County Public Library, says providing these kids with an on-site library is important for many reasons.

“The whole goal is to remove barriers and we know how transportation can be a barrier. We know that kids and teens aren’t in control of how they get places, what they need. And then in this facility, in particular, we know how important reading is for emotional development, emotional support and we just thought it was a perfect marriage of those to provide access readily available for them and also to hopefully bring some comfort and resources to them,” Tunstall said.

Charleston County Public Library staff will also be updating the library with new books based on reader preferences for years to come.

“It’s so exciting because this will be books just for them and we’ve built fit for their preferences, their age range and their reading levels. And what’s the most exciting part is that they have a say in what’s going to be added to it. So, if there’s a book that they really want, we’re going to try and get it for them,” Tunstall said.

The on-site library will officially be open to those foster case residents at 10 a.m. Thursday after the ribbon cutting.

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DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - A man arrested in connection to the hit-and-run death of a Lowcountry musician and employee of the City of Goose Creek has been denied bond.

Terrell Darrel Crawford, 37, of North Charleston, who is charged with hit-and-run involving death and driving under suspension, appeared in court Friday morning for a bond hearing.

At that hearing, Judge Tara Frost granted Crawford a $647.50 personal recognizance bond for the charge of driving under suspension, but denied bond for the charge of hit-and-run involving death.

Crawford is accused of striking and killing Kelly Farmer, 46. He was found dead on Dorchester Road after being hit while walking in the area of Tabby Lane just before 7 a.m. back on April 13.

Family members remember Farmer as a “kind, gentle and loving” person.

In court Friday, Farmer’s sister-in-law Creta Tobey gave a testimony.

“I’m denied the opportunity to see Kelly every day,” Tobey said. “I can’t see his smile. I can’t hear his voice. I can’t hear the music that he plays. And I certainly can’t smell his wonderful cooking anymore.”

Sgt. T.G. Methvin with the South Carolina Highway Patrol also spoke in support of the family. He says Crawford made attempts to hide the vehicle involved in this incident during the investigation.

“He also did admit that he knew what he hit that morning,” Methvin said. “So, he knows what he did.”

Frost says Crawford just finished his probationary period for a prior charge of first-degree assault and battery. She says she believes he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Crawford appeared mostly stoic over the video feed, but appeared like he was getting a bit more emotional as the judge read out his bond conditions.

“I apologize to the family,” Crawford said. “There was no intentions of me to do that… At the same time, I have never been through this before. So, I’m kind of scared. Anybody would be scared. Like I said, I apologize.”

Crawford’s bond conditions include not leaving the state without court approval, not having contact with the victim’s family and to appear at all court hearings.

Kelly Farmer’s sister Kathryn Farmer says the judge’s ruling shows a bit of light at the end of a tunnel.

“Relieved a little bit,” Farmer said. “Still very emotional. I know we have a long road ahead of us. But I’m glad that justice is finally starting to be served for my brother.”

South Carolina Highway Patrol arrested Crawford Thursday. He was booked into the L.C. Knight Detention Center, where he will now remain until at least his court hearings next month.

Now, Kelly Farmer’s family must fulfill his final wish of planting his ashes in a bulb that will eventually grow into a tree, while remembering their ultimate goal.

“Our justice system continues to do what it’s supposed to do and find justice for my brother in whatever form they deem,” Farmer said.

At the time of Farmer’s death, the City of Goose Creek released a statement:

South Carolina Highway Patrol arrested Crawford Thursday. He was booked into the L.C. Knight Detention Center, where he will now remain.

Crawford’s charges will be discussed at two separate hearings. The driving under suspension charge will be heard on July 10 at the Summerville Courthouse. The hit-and-run charge will be heard July 22 at the courthouse in St. George.