"I guarantee that once you start, you will not stop, and when you are done, you will have discovered the healing power of Love Cemetery." - Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal
Above is the trailer for our documentary, "Resurrecting Love: The Cemetery That Can Heal a Nation".
The documentary tells the unlikely story of two women-- one black, one white -- and a racially divided community as they battle corporate interests to reclaim Love Cemetery and fulfill a mother's dying wish.
VICTORY! We just got back into Love Cemetery, a 175 year-old African
American
cemetery in East Texas, that the community had been illegally locked out of for 4 years by a powerful timber corporation. Not only did we change Texas law, we ended the lockout!
YOUR Generous SUPPORT makes all this possible.
Keep up to date on the progress and release of the movie by clicking to our Facebook Page and sharing it with your friends!
View this 6-minute video clip of the "Writing History Project" at Wiley College, Home of The Great Debaters, Marshall, Texas. It is
EXCITING to share the passion today's young people have for
discovering their ancestors.
Photos on right from top to bottom:
Mark Anthony Johnson and Ailey Pope,
students at
Wiley College, Home of
The Great Debaters,
Marshall, Texas. China Galland with members of the Love Cemetery Burial Association.
To make donations
online,click here. You will arrive at our dedicated page on
the San Francisco Film Society's website where you can donate
instantly. We are honored that our film has been selected for fiscal
sponsorship by SFFS. They handle our online donations as well
as give us invaluable advice and support.
If you feel moved to write a check and
send it by mail,
please make your check out to CARE
or the Center for the Arts Religion and Education.
Be sure to write "Keepers of Love" on the memo line.
Please send your contributions to us at: Keepers of Love, 20 Sunnyside Ave. Suite A, Mill
Valley CA, 94941. [All donations, whether online
or by check are fully tax-deductible
within the extent of the law]. We log your gift, thank you,
and pass your gifts on to CARE who disperses your contribution and issues
an acknowledgement letter for the IRS.
For more information about our "Resurrecting Love" film project, including our budget, and our role in "Writing History" (™) and other work, please contact me, China Galland, at: (415) 451-7497 or write me, chinagalland@yahoo.com.
The Courage of Conscience Award
China is being given the Courage of Conscience Award from the
Peace Abbey, in Sherborn, MA.
and from the
Chaplaincy Institute in Berkeley. She will become a part of
an illustrious group which includes the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou, the Dalai Lama, Dr. Paul Farmer, Julia Butterfly Hill, and
many others. China is receiving this award in recognition of her years of writing, leadership, and activism on behalf of justice, reconciliation, and peace.
The award is being given to her at this time because of the Abbey's
and the Institute's belief that her visionary work on truth and reconciliation has never been needed more than now.
Read more about the Courage of Conscience Award and the Peace Abbey.
Earlier News from
Texas
November, 2009 - Austin, TX, and San Francisco, CA - Thanks to the controversy over access to Love Cemetery and public hearings held across Texas throughout 2008, we now know of at least thirty-five (35) other cemeteries where families are locked out. Coleman's bill was incorporated as an amendment to another bill that passed the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Perry on May 30, 2009.
The new law enforces reasonable access to family burial grounds and adds penalties for those who lock people out.
Click HERE for full press release.Despite growing awareness and the new law, our friends continue to
be locked out.
April 21, 2009 - Austin,
TX, and San Francisco, CA - "Keeping people locked out of their
family burial grounds has created a horrible situation," says Rep.
Garnet Coleman of Houston. "This should have never happened. I've
introduced legislation to make sure that this doesn't happen again,"
Rep. Coleman told author, China Galland. Coleman introduced HB #
3739 on March 12th, 2009, to strengthen existing Texas laws. On
April 21, 2009, there will be a public hearing in Austin on the
bill. China and others from the Love Cemetery community are in
Austin for today's hearing. click here
for full press release.
After multiple hearings across the state, the final hearing on Love Cemetery and others where access has been denied was December 16th, 2008, in Austin. Now the illegal lockouts, which is now up to 35 cases, will be taken up by the Texas legislature that opens January 13th, 2009 for five months.
A representative from Houston is drafting new legislation that will be introduced during this session.
To support the
work of The Keepers of Love in the
areas of reconciliation, community building and advocacy,
click here
Love Cemetery,
Unburying the Secret History of Slaves
By
China Galland
Though
it's set in a remote part of rural East Texas, the story of Love--a
historic black cemetery--is really a quintessential American story of
land theft, racism and environmental destruction that plays out in
different versions in New Orleans, Iraq, and Darfur. It asks whether
we can work together to create a shared future by understanding our
shared history.
Published by
HarperOne (a division of HarperCollins),
2008.
[...read more about the book
]
[or view press release
]
If you don't have the book,
use IndieBound to find your local independent bookseller! If that's not
possible, then go to Amazon.
View the trailer of the documentary-in-progress about Love Cemetery.
View a video of China reading from Love Cemetery. She's joined by singer Linda Tillery and accompanist Ann Jefferson.
Watch China's presentation at the Commonwealth Club,
San Francisco, the nation's oldest and largest public affairs
forum.
ery and public hearings held across Texas throughout 2008, we now know of at least thirty-five (35) other cemeteries where families are locked out. Coleman's bill was incorporated as an amendment to another bill that passed the legislature and was signed into law by Governor Perry on May 30, 2009.
The new law enforces reasonable access to family burial grounds and adds penalties for those who lock people out.
