Climate documentary about elder Black gay women farming Harriet Tubman’s ancestral lands begins streaming on Black Public Media’s YouTube channel February 17
NEW YORK — The Aunties, an award-winning short film about two Black women elders and viral sensations working to keep Harriet Tubman’s spirit alive through agriculture, education and heritage preservation, is the next episode of Black Public Media’s online series AfroPoP Digital Shorts. The film by Charlyn Griffith-Oro and Jeannine Kayembe-Oro begins streaming on the Black Public Media (BPM) YouTube channel on Monday, February 17, during Black History Month.
The Ubuntu Climate Initiative — winning film spotlights Donna Dear and Paulette Greene, a married couple who met in 1974 and their work to teach sustainability and conservation while tending their land. Dear, a former military officer, and Greene, an educator — who identify as Black gay women and partners in life — bought the farm, which is adjacent to land developed by Paulette’s great-grandparents, in 1994 and soon slowed their jet-setting to move to Maryland. The Aunties is a short environmental documentary about the Black pioneers and their work at Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms, their 111-acre plot of land on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which has been said to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. The land is a part of 2,167-acre plantation where enslaved people developed agriculture and lived alongside the aquatic majesty that Maryland’s Eastern shore is known for. The Witness Tree, a popular tulip, has remained a growing, breathing partner in the transformation of this site of radical healing and liberation for a new generation of Black climate activists.
Griffith-Oro, co-director, screenwriter and co-editor for the film, and Kayembe-Oro, the film’s co-director, producer and score designer, also are a married couple. These days, they embrace their role as two of Dear and Greene’s many “nieces” and “nephews.” The filmmakers themselves are committed to climate initiatives. Since meeting the seniors in 2016, the Philadelphia residents have led many tours to Mt. Pleasant Acres Farms to connect Black city dwellers with the rural land, a site of food production. They also operate a produce market which distributes no-cost food to the neighbors surrounding their Southwest Philadelphia home.
The film was executive produced by the Center for Cultural Power and its distribution supported by Queer Women of Color in Media Arts Project.
“I first saw this film at BlackStar Film Festival in 2023 and it has continued to sit with me ever since,” said BPM Director of Programs Denise A. Greene. “The themes of land stewardship, cultural preservation, uplifting legacies and climate justice woven together in a beautiful love story is inspiring and revolutionary.”
AfroPoP Digital Shorts is an offshoot of BPM’s award-winning documentary and narrative series about life, art, culture, history and more throughout the African Diaspora, AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange.
To find out more about AfroPoP Digital Shorts, visit https://blackpublicmedia.org/afropop/. Follow BPM on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at @BlackPublicMedia and on X at @BLKPublicMedia.
ABOUT BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA:
Black Public Media (BPM) supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience to inspire a more equitable and inclusive future. For 45 years, BPM has addressed the needs of unserved and underserved audiences. BPM-supported programs have won five Emmys, 10 Peabody, five Anthem Awards, 14 Emmy nominations and an Oscar nomination. BPM continues to address historical, contemporary, and systemic challenges that traditionally impede the development and distribution of Black stories.
