Land acknowledgments and honoring the land of those who have been violently displaced is a good start. But it is only the beginning of the work that actually needs to be done. The Indigenous Women-led practice of rematriation seeks “to restore sacred relationships between Indigenous people and [their] ancestral land.” Similar work is being done in the ongoing recovery of Black burial grounds. One such organization doing this work is the Black Cemetery Network which seeks to raise awareness about the erasure of Black cemeteries across the United States. Their work goes beyond restoration. Researchers, artists and community members work collaboratively to reclaim the lost histories of Black cemeteries through preservation and legislative advocacy.

Walter Jennings, spoken-word artist and creative consultant of the Black Cemetery Network spoke with me about his work with the African American Burial Ground Project in Tampa, Florida, his personal connection to the project and the role of artists in further elevating the stories of the deceased.

I’m really interested in the integration of art with the work of preserving the legacies of black burial grounds. Can you talk a little bit about what that looks like?

When it comes to [founder and director] Dr. Antoinette Jackson and her team of researchers and professors, their focus is on the data and the geological impact of this work. As artists, we seek to put faces to those numbers and one of the things that we like to say is that data and numbers speak to the head and the stories speak to the heart. And so being able to put names and faces with these individuals really helped to humanize them in a way to where it hopefully makes a broader impact.

Also, one of the burial grounds is actually underneath one of Tampa’s largest housing projects. So now you’ve got a community that is directly impacted, because now those people potentially have to be relocated or live with the mystique of living on top of a cemetery and what type of psychological and mental challenges does that present? So again, being able to give voice to that is a really important part of artistically expanding what we’re able to do. Cause this isn’t art for art’s sake. It provides a level of activism in regard to a project like this.

I know there are so many stories, especially just based on what you just said. Can you talk about one of the most memorable stories that has been recovered?

I know that for the cemetery over in Saint Petersburg, which is Oaklawn and Evergreen, there was a black man who was buried there, who fought in World War I. His family was actually challenged with finding him. They didn’t know where he was and so being able to again locate him and then share that information with the family, it was emotional and overwhelming. And so those types of things really help to provide clarity and in a sense of closure for the family.

And you know, of course, that alludes and really speaks to our experience as Black people in America, where we’re treated oftentimes as really disposable in a way. People forget that we’re individuals, too. We have families as well, and so when we look at things like the Black Lives Matter movement and things of that nature, it really helps to shine a light on that.

What are some of the challenges of reclaiming these physical spaces, these black burial grounds and these stories that have been discarded?

I’m a Tampa native, so this is home for me. And so, this resonates with me as not just a person who has an appreciation for art and history, but as a child of the city. For many of these cemeteries, they exist in areas where our connection to those areas are different. For example, with Zion Cemetery, when you have people that are living there and you’ve got a housing project, the question then becomes how do we honor the Zion Cemetery but also address this idea of potential displacement of individuals who are living there [and] experiencing economic challenges?

One of the things that we seek to do is to have these public forums and presentations where we make the public aware of the issues that have taken place, pushing for laws, making sure to raise those issues at the state, local and national level because what we found is that this is a systemic issue. It’s not just happening here in Tampa, but it’s happening and has happened all over all over the nation.

As an artist and as someone who’s a native to Tampa, how do you cultivate joy while doing this work?

That’s a really difficult aspect of it because obviously it’s a very morbid topic. It’s very challenging in that way. But to be perfectly honest, where I am and where we are artistically right now of uncovering this travesty that’s taking place, we’re pushing for change. But what does change and joy look like as we move forward? What I’ve seen is that with a lot of our public presentations, we have this great combination of elders and children and then my generation in the middle. And so, you have these elders who are able to reflect and tell stories. You have these children who are like sponges, soaking all of this in that represent the hope and the future of being able to preserve and keep this information and these stories moving forward. So, it’s created this space for us to really have this exchange not just from an ethnic standpoint, but from an age standpoint as well. That’s where a lot of the joy has taken place.