2014 Spring Cleaining
Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, revered singer-composer formerly with Sweet Honey in the Rock, came to East Texas to sing with us and celebrate the Ancestors
2014 Spring Cleaining
Dr. Ysaye Barnwell, revered singer-composer formerly with Sweet Honey in the Rock, came to East Texas to sing with us and celebrate the Ancestors
China Galland and Her Journey
China was born in East Texas but she moved with her immediate family to grow up in Chicago. However she went back often to connect with relatives there, and on one of those trips back she discovered Love Cemetery.
"Love Cemetery is a 1.6 acre burial ground off a private sandy-dirt road in the rural countryside of East Texas near the Louisiana border. Deeded to the Love Colored Burial Association in 1904, when we found it again in 2003, it had been taken over by wild grapevine and wisteria. Descendants, like Doris Vittatoe’s mother were locked out during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s and were unable to go back in and tend their ancestors’ graves. Doris found her great-grandfather’s headstone, Ohio Taylor, in the center of the cemetery.
Doris Vittatoe & China Galland, 3-2-13, Love Cemetery
"I was fortunate to have a son who was was a budding director, editor, cinematographer so I could convince him to take trips to Texas to learn more and more about Love.
Ben Galland
"In the film, you see the passion and intelligence of the young people of historically black Wiley College, in nearby Marshall, Texas. You hear the Wiley debate team argue on behalf of the larger issue involved – access to history, you meet the African American faculty member at Wiley College, Lisa Taylor, who reached out and asked China to help her find “a way to teach about the history of slavery in this country…. nobody knows how to talk about it.
"By the film’s end, we see the students of predominantly white East Texas Baptist University in nearby Marshall, Texas, join in helping the Wiley students and the Love Burial Association reclaim Love Cemetery."
Thank you for your support,
China Galland, Producer & Writer