Tickets
General Ticket: $25
Member Ticket: $20
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, 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 advocacy, literary genius, and the many historic figures who walked its paths.
Appearing in the film are key figures in the world of historic preservation and African American history. Brent Leggs, CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, offers insights into the significance of preserving this site. Peggy Comett, Curator of Plants at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello; Dr. Reuben M. Rainey, Professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and co-author of a book on Anne Spencer; and Dr. Noelle Morrissette, Director of African American and African Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and author of a book on Anne Spencer, discuss the horticultural heritage and legacy of the garden and its role in shaping African American cultural identity. The film was produced for The Garden Conservancy by artist Kate Cordsen.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS
BRENT LEGGS
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BRENT LEGGS is the eleventh President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and has served in the role since 2026. Brent has been with the National Trust for over twenty years, most recently as the founding Executive Director of its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which has raised over $200 million for the preservation of sites associated with Black history across the country.
KEVIN YOUNG
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KEVIN YOUNG is the author of sixteen books of poetry and prose, including Night Watch, winner of the 2026 Griffin Poetry Prize and the 2026 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. He is the poetry editor of The New Yorker, where he hosts the Poetry Podcast, and the editor of eleven volumes, including A Century of Poetry in the New Yorker, 1925-2025 and the acclaimed anthology African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song. Young is currently the Global Distinguished Professor at NYU. Starting in fall 2026, Young will serve as the Rosenkranz Writer-in-Residence at Yale University, a post formerly held by Nobel laureate Louise Glück.
Young’s other books include Stones, shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize; Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015, longlisted for the National Book Award; Book of Hours, winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Jelly Roll: a blues, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry; Bunk a New York Times Notable Book, longlisted for the National Book Award, and named on many “best of” lists for 2017; and The Grey Album, winner of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the PEN Open Book Award, a New York Times Notable Book, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. His picture book, Emile and the Field, was named one of the “Best Children’s Books of 2022” by the New York Times.
From 2021-2025, Young was the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. From 2016-2021, he was the director of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. From 2005-2016, Young served as Candler Professor of Creative Writing and English at Emory University as well as Literary Curator and Curator of the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library—a 75,000-volume collection of rare and modern poetry housed at Emory’s Rose Library.