Earth, I Thank You: The Backyard and Legacy of Anne Spencer Now Streaming
Nationwide — The Backyard Conservancy’s new documentary movie Earth, I Thank You: The Backyard and Legacy of Anne Spencer is now streaming on the Backyard Conservancy’s web site and YouTube channel.
Earth, I Thank You: The Backyard and Legacy of Anne Spencer explores the historic sanctuary of Harlem Renaissance poet, civil rights advocate, and gardener Anne Spencer. The 37-minute documentary celebrates the cultural and historic significance of the Anne Spencer Home and Backyard Museum in Lynchburg, VA. It’s uncommon for a historic home and backyard to outlive intact—particularly one belonging to an African American. This historic web site presents a glimpse into the lifetime of some of the influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Spencer’s beloved backyard was an oasis the place she wrote a lot of her poetry, drawing inspiration and insights from the pure magnificence surrounding her. It was additionally a vibrant gathering place, welcoming luminaries and civil rights leaders, together with Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Thurgood Marshall, George Washington Carver, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Earth, I Thank You traces the evolution of the property from a private retreat to a nationally important cultural panorama. The house and backyard are listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations and the Virginia Landmarks Register, guaranteeing their preservation for future generations. By documenting the sweetness and significance of Spencer’s backyard, Earth, I Thank You honors the profound connection between gardens, historical past, and neighborhood. View the trailer at gardenconservancy.org/movies
Backyard Conservancy board member Kate Cordsen is Government Producer of the documentary. The documentary is made potential by the Suzanne and Frederic Rheinstein Fund for Documentary Movies, a groundbreaking Backyard Conservancy initiative envisioned by the late Suzanne Rheinstein to make use of movie to seize the essence of gardens and their historic significance.
Gardens, as residing artworks, current distinctive storytelling alternatives, and the documentary movie program takes an revolutionary method utilizing a mix of archival supplies, interviews, letters, and visible storytelling. Earth, I Thank You presents a multi-dimensional portrait of Spencer’s backyard and the position it performed in her artistic life at a pivotal time in American historical past. The movie additionally explores the literary legacy of Anne Spencer as a poet, librarian, and civil rights advocate who opened the Lynchburg, VA, chapter of the NAACP and have become a nationally acknowledged determine.
The legacy of Anne Spencer’s backyard
Spencer’s backyard is without doubt one of the most vital examples of a preserved African American backyard in the USA. A modest and deeply private area, the backyard is imbued with tales of civil rights advocacy, literary genius, the enjoyment of household, and the various historic figures who walked its paths. It was right here that Anne Spencer created her poetry and the place she and her husband Edward Spencer hung out with their household and linked with among the most vital intellectuals and activists of their time. The backyard incorporates a sculpture given to Spencer by W. E. B. Du Bois.
On the coronary heart of the backyard stands “Edankraal,” a writing studio that Spencer’s husband constructed for her. The cottage, whose identify combines the couple’s names (Edward and Anne) with “kraal,” the Afrikaans phrase for enclosure, symbolizes the intertwined lives and artistic synergy of the Spencer household. This small however significant working area is featured within the documentary as a key factor of the backyard’s design and a mirrored image of Spencer’s artistic course of.
The backyard’s design blends authentic crops and sculptures with discovered objects that replicate each Anne and Edward Spencer’s artistry and artistic spirit. Within the Eighties, the backyard underwent a considerate restoration, initiated by Anne Spencer’s son, Chauncey Spencer, led by the Hillside Backyard Membership, which labored to protect its distinctive character and connection to Spencer’s literary legacy. The Backyard Conservancy suggested on a second restoration of key backyard components within the mid-2000s and continues to offer preservation planning assist right now.
Showing within the movie are key figures on this planet of historic preservation and African American historical past. Brent Leggs, of the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation, presents insights into the importance of preserving this web site. Peggy Cornett, Curator of Crops at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello; Dr. Reuben M. Rainey, Professor Emeritus on the College of Virginia and co-author of a ebook on Anne Spencer; and Dr. Noelle Morrissette, Director of African American and African Diaspora Research on the College of North Carolina Greensboro and creator of a ebook on Anne Spencer, talk about the horticultural heritage and legacy of the backyard and its position in shaping African American cultural identification.
“She writes that this backyard was half her world, and it actually was half her world,” Shaun Spencer-Hester observes through the movie, talking from her grandmother’s backyard in Lynchburg. “She couldn’t vote. She was a black lady who was very vocal right here on this metropolis. It was a spot that she used to come back to put in writing, and to backyard, but additionally to flee—to get away from the issues that had been occurring outdoors of this backyard gate.”
Earth, I Thank You is the latest in a set of documentary movies produced by the Backyard Conservancy. A Backyard in Dialog: Louise Agee Wrinkle’s Southern Woodland Sanctuary premiered in 2024, exploring how Louise Wrinkle cultivated and remodeled her childhood house in Mountain Brook, AL, right into a regional treasure inspiring an appreciation for native gardening and conservation. The gathering additionally paperwork Blithewood Backyard in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Backyard in Mill Neck, NY, and the woodland backyard at Rocky Hills in Mount Kisco, NY.
“By way of documentary movie, we are able to protect the ephemeral nature of a backyard, and seize the sensory expertise of visiting these residing artworks. We will additionally seize the outstanding voices of the backyard’s creators and stewards,” mentioned James Brayton Corridor, President and CEO of the Backyard Conservancy. “Anne Spencer’s backyard is awfully vital in serving to us share a broad and various vary of American gardening tales. We hope this movie evokes additional understanding of Spencer’s distinctive legacy, and the worth of preserving such a big area.”
AboutThe Backyard Conservancy is a non-profit group that preserves, shares, and celebrates America’s gardens and various gardening traditions. Based mostly in Garrison, New York, it really works nationally to guard gardens of horticultural, historic, and design significance. Since its founding in 1989, it has helped make sure the survival of greater than 100 public gardens. The Backyard Conservancy’s signature program, Open Days, is the most important personal backyard visiting initiative within the U.S., and since 1995, greater than 4,000 gardens have participated, with 1.4 million guests in 41 states. The Backyard Conservancy has produced quite a few documentary movies and movie shorts, highlighting gardens as cultural landscapes and residing artworks. Lectures, excursions, symposia, and webinars supply engaged exploration of environmental, cultural, and historic points. By way of all of its packages and outreach, the Conservancy champions the very important position that gardens play in our historical past, our tradition, and our high quality of life. For extra info, please go to GardenConservancy.org
Picture Credit:• Anne Spencer Pond, courtesy of The Backyard Conservancy• Anne and Edward and grandchildren, late Nineteen Twenties. Courtesy of Anne Spencer Home and Backyard Museum, Inc.• Anne Spencer Backyard, Blossoms. Movie nonetheless courtesy of The Backyard Conservancy
