For Immediate Release, August 2008

America I Am Exhibition Mobile Experience Launched By Tavis Smiley To Visit Charleston, SC on August 11th

Charleston, SC — The City of Charleston and the Old Slave Mart Museum will host “America I AM Across America,” a traveling exhibition preview leading to the “America I AM: The African American Imprint” museum exhibition. The exhibition will visit Charleston, SC on its nationwide tour as it brings the exhibition’s inspirational message to the hearts of more than 40 communities across the country.

“America I AM: The African American Imprint” will open in November celebrating 400 years of African American contributions to the nation through artifacts, documents, multimedia, photos and music. “America I AM Across America” is a traveling microcosm of the exhibition, a multi-sensory experience complete with artifacts, text, video, music and a unique visitor interactive opportunity. In a customized mobile recording booth, visitors can leave their own “imprints” as recorded video messages that will become part of the exhibition. As the exhibit travels to cities across the country, this living imprint will grow to become the largest oral history project recorded in U.S. history.

As it criss-crosses the nation from July to November, “America I AM Across America” will make appearances at festivals, African American museums, landmarks, schools and other community gatherings. Charleston residents and visitors can visit “America I AM Across America” on August 11th at Marion Square from 10AM to 5PM.

Tavis Smiley launched the mobile tour at the ESSENCE Music Festival in New Orleans on July 4, and other tour stops will include St. Louis, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Memphis, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Washington, D.C., New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago, and many more. The exhibition is made possible by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., which serves as its presenting sponsor, and also will host the mobile tour in several cities. ExxonMobil joins the mobile tour as the sponsor fueling the truck across America. Details and a schedule are available at www.AmericaIAM.org.

“America I AM encourages all people to connect in a meaningful way with the foundations of democracy, cultural diversity, exploration and free enterprise, which began when the first Africans arrived in Jamestown,” said Tavis Smiley. “By telling the stories of the events of the past, we can help the leaders of the future set the stage for active participation in the democratic process for years to come.”

“America I AM Across America” Embarks on Nationwide Tour

Charleston is one of the most historic cities in the United States, and it has a history that establishes it as a place where one can find the roots of all aspects of American life and culture. This is especially true for the unique African-American culture that developed in Charleston and the Lowcountry. As the major entry port for Africans captured during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, many African Americans throughout the United States can trace their roots to this area.

Developed in partnership with The Smiley Group, Inc., and organized by Arts and Exhibitions International (AEI) and Cincinnati Museum Center, “America I AM:
The African American Imprint” is a four-year touring museum exhibition that will tell the story of the nation’s African people and their legacies through objects, texts, religion, music, narration and media culled from every period of the nation’s history. Featuring more than 150 extraordinary artifacts, the exhibit will present a historical continuum of pivotal moments in courage, conviction and creativity that solidifies the undeniable imprint of African Americans across the nation and around the world.

More details about the mobile tour and the exhibition, including a gallery walkthrough moderated by Tavis Smiley, are available at www.AmericaIAM.org.

About The Smiley Group, Inc.
Founded in 1998 and based in Los Angeles, The Smiley Group, Inc., (TSG) is a communications corporation dedicated to supporting human rights and related empowerment issues. The mission of TSG is to achieve positive results through advocacy and education on issues of concern to African Americans and other people without substantial economic or social standing. TSG is the holding company for Tavis Smiley Presents, Smiley Radio Properties, High Quality Speakers Bureau, TS Media, and SmileyBooks. The Tavis Smiley Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides leadership development training for youth. Tavis Smiley is the host of Tavis Smiley on PBS and The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI and the author/editor of 11 books including the New York Times best sellers Covenant with Black America, What I Know for Sure: My Story of Growing Up in America, and THE COVENANT In Action. For more information, visit www.tavistalks.com.

About Arts and Exhibitions International (AEI)
Founded in 2003 by president John Norman and international vice president Andres Numhauser, AEI produces the award-winning exhibition “Diana: A Celebration” in association with the Althorp Estate in the United Kingdom, two touring exhibitions dedicated to the treasures of King Tutankhamun and “Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship.” Norman and Numhauser have nearly 40 years combined experience in the entertainment and exhibition business, working over the years on such projects as “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit” and “Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes.” The company has relationships with the most important museums in the world and has presented traveling exhibitions on four continents.

AEI is part of AEG Exhibitions, an affiliate division of AEG LIVE. AEG LIVE is a collection of companies dedicated to all aspects of live contemporary music performance and the live-entertainment division of Los Angeles-based AEG, one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. For more information, log onto www.artsandexhibitions.com.

“America I AM Across America” Embarks on Nationwide Tour

About Cincinnati Museum Center
Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal is home to the Cincinnati History Museum, Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, the Robert D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX® Theater, and the Cincinnati Historical Society Archives & Library. It is a nationally recognized educational and research resource and one of the top cultural attractions in the Midwest. With more than one million visitors each year, Museum Center is the top cultural attraction in Cincinnati and the most visited museum complex in the State of Ohio. Originally built in 1933 as the Union Terminal train station, the building is a national historic landmark and was renovated and reopened as Cincinnati Museum Center in 1990. For information, call (513) 287-7000 or 1-800-733-2077 or visit www.cincymuseum.org.

About Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT)
Every week, millions of customers visit Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Club locations across America or log on to its online store at www.wal-mart.com. The company and its Foundation are committed to a philosophy of giving back locally. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is proud to support the causes that are important to customers and associates right in their own neighborhoods, and last year gave more than $270 million to communities in the United States. To learn more, visit www.wal-martfacts.com, www.wal-martstores.com, or www.walmartfoundation.org.

About ExxonMobil Fuels Marketing Company
The Fuels Marketing organization, one of Exxon Mobil Corporation's Downstream Business Units, provides nearly 5 million barrels per day of ExxonMobil fuel products to a globally diverse customer base in over 80 countries on five continents. Our business is comprised of four (4)
Business Lines: Aviation Fuels, Industrial & Wholesale, Marine Fuels and Retail. The Exxon, Mobil, and Esso brands serve motorists at nearly 34 thousand service stations and provide over 1 million industrial and wholesale customers with quality fuel products. In addition, fuel
products and services are provided to aviation customers at over 650 airports and to marine customers at 200 marine ports around the world.

About The Old Slave Mart Museum
The Old Slave Mart Museum, located at 6 Chalmers Street in downtown Charleston, recounts the story of Charleston’s role as an urban slave-trading center during the domestic slave trade, a hugely profitable economy organized by local and regional slave traders within the United States who forcibly relocated over 1 million American-born slaves from the upper South to the lower South in the decades before the Civil War. The Old Slave Mart is the only structure remaining of a complex of buildings known as Ryan's Mart where hundreds of slave auctions were held from 1856-1863. The museum’s main exhibit focuses on the daily process of slave sales at Ryan’s Mart from the perspectives of a number of its historically documented buyers, traders, and enslaved African Americans and speaks to their stories, contributions and legacies.