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Photo of visual artwork by Lakeema Matthew painted on a large rectangular canvas positioned horizontally. The work depicts a nighttime landscape with the moon, stars, and cityscape in the background. The foreground is a cutaway of the Earth鈥檚 surface revealing various symbols above and below the ground. On the left, two large, bare tree trunks emerge from the ground, their branches transforming into the shape of two hands holding a sign that reads 鈥淒o Black Lives Matter鈥ven In Death?鈥�. On the right, there is a large tree whose roots extend into the soil where they are connected to five souls (depicted as human silhouettes of various ages ), leaving their bodies (depicted as skeletons of various corresponding ages) directly underneath them.

OUR LOST ROOTS

Acrylic on canvas, 48 in x 96 in

This piece by Lakeema Matthew is an artistic response to the systemic erasure of historic Black cemeteries in Tampa Bay and ongoing efforts to recover their stories by the African American Burial Ground Project team.

Read full artist brief here 

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Screenshot of a Tampa Bay area map with Pinellas County shaded in blue and Hillsborough County shaded in a light green color. The map includes markers for the locations of Oaklawn, Evergreen, and Moffett cemeteries in St. Petersburg, FL, the location of Zion cemetery in Tampa, FL, and the locations of both USF campuses in St. Pete and Tampa.

AABGP STORY MAP
Kaleigh Hoyt
ArcGIS StoryMaps

Explore this interactive exhibit by Kaleigh Hoyt for a comprehensive look at the histories of Oaklawn, Evergreen, and Moffett Cemeteries in St. Petersburg, FL. Located beneath Interstate-175 and VIP Parking Lot 1 for Tropicana Field baseball stadium, these sites are one of two primary locations for ongoing research conducted by the African American Burial Ground Project team.

A LULLABY FOR LIVING COMMUNITIES

Spoken word

鈥淭he past speaks. Are you listening?鈥�

Spoken word artist, community advocate, and longtime leader of creative outreach for the African American Burial Ground Project and Black Cemetery Network, Wally B Jennings delivers this pointed reflection on the systemic erasure of Black history and subsequent call-to-listen.