FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION: Earth, I Thank You: The Garden and Legacy of Anne Spencer with BRENT LEGGS and KEVIN YOUNG

About this event

Tickets General Ticket: $25 Member Ticket: $20 RESERVE TICKETS NOW! Join us for a very special screening of the documentary short film Earth, I Thank You: The Garden and Legacy of Anne Spencer. The film had its world premiere at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture and its New York premiere at The Frick Collection. The documentary explores the historic sanctuary of Harlem Renaissance poet, civil rights advocate, and gardener Anne Spencer. The 37- minute documentary celebrates the cultural and historical significance of the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum in Lynchburg, VA. It is rare for a historic house and garden to survive intact—especially one belonging to an African American. The film screening will be followed by a powerful discussion on preservation and legacy between Brent Leggs, the President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and poet Kevin Young, the Poetry Editor of The New Yorker, 2026 Griffin Poetry Prize recipient and National Book Critics Circle Awardee. The discussion will then open to a thoughtful Q&A with the audience. This program is presented in tandem with our summer exhibition, This Land: Considering the American Landscape. Reflecting upon the 250th anniversary of the United States, the film explores the people and histories that have shaped the American experience and our understanding of the land itself. A legendary Harlem Renaissance poet, civil rights advocate, and passionate gardener, Anne Spencer housed and entertained numerous luminaries and civil rights leaders including Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Thurgood Marshall, George Washington Carvver, and Dr. Martin Luther King in her Virginia home. Her garden features a sculpture gifted to Spencer by W.E.B Du Bois and is one of the most significant examples of a preserved African American garden in the United States. A modest and deeply personal space, the garden is imbued with stories of civil rights…