For theater-maker ChelseaDee Harrison, art and the environment are intimately interconnected. From her project Free Black Chesapeake to her arts education company Wild Seed Productions, land and the narratives connected to it serve as inspiration to preserve, create, and build community.
“I’m inspired by the landscape. I’m inspired by the deep stories that are held in the land,” she told The Informer. “It starts with the historic site, and it gives me a story and I just share it.”
When her research led her to Evergreen Cemetery in Bladensburg, Maryland, Harrison knew it was a perfect site for a placemaking project in collaboration with Joe’s Movement Emporium and their environmental initiative GreenWorks.
“It has been around since the 1700s. It actually existed before the town of Bladensburg was formed,” she explained during the first Evergreen Cemetery Legacy Project event Oct. 31, the first in a three-part series that continues through March 2027. “So this land actually functions as a time capsule, an archive of so many generations of history here in Bladensburg.”
The Halloween-day affair, featuring sweet treats, hot apple cider, and a remembrance activity table to honor ancestors through art and reflections, also created space to celebrate the legacies of those buried at the cemetery through tending to the grounds.
“I think this is really a reflection of who the town is and where the town has come from, and how do we protect it and steward the land for future generations,” Harrison continued. “And that’s the importance of what we’re doing here today: taking care of the land, getting these invasive plants managed, bringing those headstones that are maybe obscured by a little bit of foliage, clearing the way so that we can honor those who came before us.”
The series serves as a means of not only commemorating and uplifting Bladensburg history — even before America’s founding 250 years ago — but to empower the community to consider the people who have shaped the past, present and future.
“A cemetery has [the ability] to facilitate people to gather, and remember and carry on a legacy of those who rest here, and that’s part of our culture.” Brooke Kidd, executive director of Joe’s Movement Emporium, told The Informer. “This space is still here, and it’s a lot to celebrate in its culture and its location. Its importance to history.”
On a sunny Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, a diverse, intergenerational group gathered at the Bladensburg site off of Edmonston Road to connect through art, history, land conservation and ancestral appreciation.
“[The event is] for people to come down and just connect with the site, feel the spirit of this place because there’s definitely a spirit here of peace,” Bladensburg Mayor Takisha James said. “But you also feel something for those enslaved folks who are laid to rest here, and it definitely makes you feel a sense of honor and respect for them as well.”
Celebrating History, Keeping Stories Alive
The Town of Bladensburg, James said, is proudly partnering in this art, history and conservation effort to engage the community and preserve the locale’s narratives.
“This project is to help us come away with some ways that we can actually update the information and history of this site on the town’s website, so that more people, not just in Bladensburg, but across the state of Maryland and even beyond, can really understand the history of Evergreen Cemetery, understand who was laid to rest here and why,” she told The Informer.
The mayor explained that this project unearths several stories buried as a result of death, time and America’s racist past.
“There are enslaved people that are buried here, and many of those graves were not marked, and it’s going to require some work between Joe’s Movement Emporium and the town to do some historic research to identify who those people are,” she continued. “But their stories deserve to be told, and we want to make that history available on our website so other generations can learn about what occurred in the town’s history and just have a greater appreciation that this historic site is right here.”
Harrison has been able to dive into several stories at Evergreen, such as Bladensburg’s first Presbyterian church and the Black mutual aid associations that ensured African Americans were properly buried on the cemetery grounds.
“The coming to consciousness of land acknowledgements, and acknowledging who stewarded the land and their stories, and keeping those stories alive through the land acknowledgement is a huge jumping-off point for most of my creative work at the moment,” she explained.
Through her work with Joe’s Movement Emporium, the playwright, director and arts educator is highlighting forgotten narratives as GreenWorks volunteers bring greenery-buried graves to the surface.
“We are still discovering new places of interment,” Harrison said, “and we need the community to help us clear the land and find these souls and honor them.”
Preserving Land, Honoring Ancestors
While Joe’s Movement Emporium might be known for its dance classes, performances, and community spaces, the arts institution is interested in serving people beyond its Mount Rainier, Maryland site.
“Arts organizations have an important role in our community, and that’s to preserve and support spaces where we gather and can celebrate culture,” Kidd told The Informer.
GreenWorks furthers that mission.
“The art community is tied to the environment, and they are one of the stewards of things that, in terms of beauty and nature, call to action to make sure that we’re healthy and we have a clean [way of] living,” said Hullam Thiong, operations director for Joe’s Movement Emporium and Creative Suitland, who is also currently overseeing the GreenWorks team. “It was just a natural transition that … the artists that surround Joe’s Movement Emporium are naturally environmentalists in one way, shape, or form.”
Through sponsorship and grants from organizations like the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Green and Healthy Homes Initiative, and the Town of Bladensburg, GreenWorks is able to participate in the Evergreen Cemetery Legacy Project as well as other conservation efforts.
“With GreenWorks, we do have a free tree planting program for residents,” Thiong told The Informer. “We support the community in all different ways, whether it’s through Stream Team, which helps clean out our water systems. We have trash traps in three different areas of the county, and we maintain them for Anacostia River keepers.”
Further, Thiong said the work at Evergreen removes the invasive species, harming the land and “killing off the legacy.”
By removing the vines, trimming back overgrowth on tombstones, taking in the names of those buried at the cemetery, and creating artworks, Evergreen Legacy Project participants are working to bring the cemetery back to life while honoring the people who have contributed to Bladensburg and nationwide history. While Harrison is the artist spearheading the project, she said it is important that all people celebrate and preserve the narratives of those who paved the paths today and beyond.
“Our ancestors have had a relationship with this land since before Bladensburg existed, since before America existed. People have been watching over this land and making sure that it is accessible to us [and] the future generations that are coming,” she told The Washington Informer. “So when our ancestors are really giving their blood, sweat, and tears to keep this place going and to keep it sacred, so that it can be preserved for us, we can honor them. We can give thanks back to them by keeping that mission going and keeping this land taken care of for the next generations.”
Harrison encourages people to join the next two creative placemaking events at Evergreen in February and March.
“Help us find those who are lost, bring them home,” she said, “and really solidify this land.”
