Cultivating Community: Cemetery Clubs

“The mission of an architect is to help people understand how to make life more beautiful, the world a better one for living in, and to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to life.” – Frank Lloyd Wright, 1957

Join us for a community talk with Martin House Creative Resident Abra Lee.

Inspired by the words of Frank Lloyd Wright, the discussion Powers of Place will explore a 1947 letter written by Zora Neale Hurston to W.E.B. Du Bois expressing her excitement to build a cemetery in Florida to celebrate Black achievement in America. This “place of ravishing beauty” envisioned a jubilant recipe of plants, words, the arts, and more to honor the ancestors.

Our examination and reflection of these burial recipes of the past—including the power of Witness Trees and the loving care of Cemetery Clubs—is a colorful reminder of how, like Wright, we can be our own architects to give reason, rhyme, and meaning to the lives and memory of our loved ones.

Abra Lee is an international speaker, writer, and educator. She is also the author of the forthcoming book, Conquer the Soil: Black America and the Untold Stories of Our Country’s Gardeners, Farmers, and Growers.

The event will take place in the Greatbatch Pavilion at the Martin House. Registration is required.