About the Persimmon Creek Residency

The Persimmon Creek Writers and Artists Residency is designed to bring emerging and established writers, artists, and musicians to live and work in the historic Village of Arrow Rock, Missouri. The residency program was established in 2021 by an advisory board of private citizens, including current and former inhabitants of Arrow Rock, Marshall, Columbia, and Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to hosting creative residents and supporting their work, the program is designed to introduce the Village of Arrow Rock to a wider national creative audience; recognize the historic presence of Black lives in Arrow Rock; and enrich present-day awareness of this one-time vibrant community. Currently, the program is funded by gifts from private donors, and it collaborates with the 501(c)3 nonprofit Experience Arrow Rock to ensure future funding and resources.

Alumni of the Persimmon Creek program include novelist and memoirist Karla FC Holloway of Wake Forest, North Carolina. “Some months later, I must admit it feels like a magical interlude,” Holloway said in 2023, “until I look at the chapters — yes, plural! — I drafted while there. As much as it offers a community of engaging, interested readers and auditors, it will leave with you an inspired locale, a gathering of friends, and the unyielding sense of how and why art matters.” And she adds this warning: “Something of it — a place, a person, a scene, a gathering of irises or clutch of peonies — will quite likely slip into the project you bring, and it and you will be the better for it!”

Kansas City writer and fiber artist Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin found similar creative value in her Persimmon Creek residency experience. “One of the most fulfilling experiences of my career as an artist was my residency at Arrow Rock, where I had the privilege of immersing myself in the African American cultural scene,” she said. “This comprehensive and enlightening experience was invaluable and has left a lasting impression on me.”

Fiction writer and filmmaker X.C. Atkins of Los Angeles, California, described the usefulness of the time and space offered by the Persimmon Creek program. “The main thing the Arrow Rock experience provides is a generous space, generous hosts, and a community of kind people who sincerely want you to make the most out of your time there,” Atkins says. “With the promise of uninterrupted solitude, I was able to write a good deal of short stories and enjoy my privacy while still having the option to enjoy the town and its historical perks.”

The Persimmon Creek Residency was inspired by the long-time presence of the historic Black community in Arrow Rock. The cottage utilized by residents stands in the footprint of the parsonage for Brown’s Chapel Freewill Baptist Church, founded in 1869. “As a native Saline Countian with direct ties to Black descendants of Arrow Rock and nearby Pennytown, I am profoundly proud of the work that has been and is currently being done to shine a positive light on contributions and impact African Americans had on this area,” says advisory board member Clarence Smith of Kansas City. “Persimmon Creek reinforces my desire and need to embrace the importance of teaching, preserving, and celebrating African American history. In the current climate where omitting and distorting history is being commanded, the work so many of us are doing with Persimmon Creek is of extreme importance.”

The residency takes its name from the 1938 children’s novel Persimmon Creek, written by Marshall author Nellie Page Carter. Designed for young readers across races, the book tells the story of two Black children who travel from Kansas City to visit their grandmother in a settlement near Arrow Rock. It was the first of Carter’s four novels. The author based her work on three years of research among Arrow Rock’s residents of all colors. As a result, Persimmon Creek offers a rare glimpse into the village’s historic Black community, and it reflects important Black landmarks, including Brown’s Chapel, Brown Lodge, the Black schoolhouse, and Whittie’s Over East restaurant and dance hall.

For more information, please visit our FAQ page or email persimmoncreekresidency@gmail.com