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Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum
Honoring the Anne Spencer House
Sacred Spaces: A Look Inside the Home of Harlem Renaissance Poet Anne Spencer
exhibit of photographs by John M. Hall
Opening Reception
Thursday, February 5 ♦ 5:30 to 7 p.m.
at
The Center for the Study of the American South
at the University of North Carolina
These photographs by
John M. Hall reveal the beautiful and unique home and garden of Anne Spencer in Lynchburg, Virginia. The house, which is registered as a Virginia Historic Landmark, served as a salon and southern outpost of the Harlem Renaissance, as the Spencers hosted literary luminaries such as Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, and many others. Spencer also served as the first librarian at the all-black Dunbar High School from 1923-1945.
During this period, she helped establish the Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP, led a campaign to hire black teachers, and served on committees to improve the legal, social, and economic aspects of African Americans’ lives.
Anne Spencer’s biographer, Professor Emeritus J. Lee Greene, noted that while moving through her home, Spencer would often “recall a person, an incident, a memory, an object that… made the room seem sacred to her.” This exhibit celebrates the rich legacy of Anne Spencer, including her poetry, her activism, her family, and her home.
In addition to a performance by local musicians from the Durham Symphony Orchestra, the reception will include remarks by Professor Greene, photographer John M. Hall, and Spencer’s granddaughter, Shaun Spencer-Hester, who currently serves as curator for the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum. North Carolina poet Jeffery Beam will read a small selection from Spencer’s work.
Exhibit and Reception held at:
The Center for the Study of the American South
at the Love House & Hutchins Forum
410 E. Franklin St, Chapel Hill, 27514
919-962-5665 ♦ csas@unc.edu
Reception is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.
About the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum:
The Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum, located at 1313 Pierce St. in Lynchburg, is the former home of Anne and Edward Spencer. Anne Spencer was a poet, a civil rights activist, a teacher, librarian, wife and mother, and gardener. More than thirty of her poems were published in her lifetime, making her an important figure of the black literary and cultural movement of the 1920s—the Harlem Renaissance—and only the second African American poet to be included in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (1973).
In addition to her writing, Spencer helped to found the Lynchburg Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was also the librarian at the all-black Dunbar High School, a position she held for 20 years. She spent much of her time writing and serving on local committees to improve the legal, social, and economic aspects of African Americans’ lives.
For more information about the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum, Inc., visit www.annespencermuseum.com. Though tours will be free during the open house event this Saturday, Sept. 27th, normally, tours of the Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum are $10 for adults; $5 for seniors; $3 for children under 12 (must be accompanied by adult); and $5 for college students. Groups with ten or more receive a discounted rate and all tours must be pre-arranged by calling (434) 845-1313. The garden is open every day to visitors from dawn until dusk at no charge, though donations are welcome. The Anne Spencer House & Garden Museum is a 501 (c)(3) organization, all donations are tax deductible.
This is a Free Non-Ticketed event.
Listing is for information purposes only.
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This is a Non-ticketed, free event.
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Please go to Randolplhcollege.edu/Events for more information.
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Please arrive on time:
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Latecomers will be seated, at a suitable pause in the performance, in the nearest seat available.
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