|
Conference
Celebrates Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston,
"All
of Us Emerged When We Got a Glimpse of Who Zora Was"
-- Alice Walker
Novelist
Zora Neale Hurston once said, "Whenever I am discriminated
against, I am not angry. I am astonished. How could anyone
deny themselves the pleasure of my company?"
Though Hurston’s obvious tenacity and talent made her
one of the principal figures during the Harlem Renaissance
of the 1920s and 30s, not everyone agreed with her self assessment.
By the time she died in 1960 after a prolific writing career,
her books were out of print, her reputation faded into obscurity
and her pockets empty. She did not even leave enough money
for her family to put a marker on her grave.
That changed in the 1970s when a revival of interest in her
stories, essays and plays began. And seventy-five years after
she became the first known African American to graduate from
Barnard College, Hurston’s major scholars and biographers,
along with students and others gathered on Friday, October
3, at Barnard Hall to enjoy again "the pleasure of Zora’s
company." With special dramatic performances, panel discussions
and a talk by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet Alice
Walker, the Virginia C. Gildersleeve Conference, "Jumpin’
at the Sun: Reassessing the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston,"
drew over 1,000 participants throughout the day. Nearly 1,500
people heard Walker’s inspiring lecture on Hurston’s
life and views.
Alice
Walker |
Barnard
President Judith Shapiro, a cultural anthropologist, introduced
the conference by noting how Hurston, who graduated in 1928,
still influences a variety of fields, including anthropology,
literature and journalism. "Zora is a Barnard woman.
Today we can step back and consider her impact on so many
areas," President Shapiro said. Settling in New York
during the height of the Harlem Renaissance of the early 1920s,
Hurston was almost immediately discovered by Annie Nathan
Meyer, one of the founders of Barnard. Meyer was extremely
supportive of Hurston's zest and talent in numerous areas,
and offered her a scholarship to the College. Hurston enthusiastically
accepted, and thus in the fall of 1925 she began her studies
at Barnard, feeling "highly privileged and determined
to make the most of it. I did not resolve to be a grind, however,
to show the white folks I had brains. I took it for granted
that they knew that. Else, why was I at Barnard? Not everyone
who cries, 'Lord! Lord!' can enter those sacred iron gates."
"Novelist, folklorist, anthropologist, and 'genius of
the South,' Zora Neale Hurston, Barnard class of 1928, is
hot," said Monica Miller, assistant professor of English.
With the help of Janet Jakobsen, director of the Barnard Center
for Research on Women (which co-sponsored the event), Miller
began planning the gathering two years ago when she realized
how little her students knew of the author. Drawing on materials
about Hurston she’d found in Barnard’s archives,
Miller recalled Huston’s many contributions.
"Fighting constant poverty, (she died in a welfare hospital),
overcoming or ignoring the limited vision others would have
of her as black and a woman, Zora Neale wanted and achieved
a 'big life,' inhabiting and expanding our own definitions
of "the eternal feminine," Miller said. "Indeed,
her Life in Letters biographer Carla Kaplan has said
that Zora has suffered from 'being loved too simply,' an object
only of worship…Let us focus on the fact that although
sometimes 'surged upon and overswept' by societal and personal
demons, Hurston always remained herself."
In a panel discussion entitled, "‘Sharp Shadows,
High Lights, and Smudgy In -Betweens’: Narrating the
Life of Zora Neale Hurston," three biographers explored
how their work on Hurston affected them. Robert Hemenway,
Chancellor of the University of Kansas and author of the first
biography on Hurston, said he wanted to find out who "the
woman was behind the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God."
When he could not find any biographies, he began his research,
culminating in the groundbreaking, Zora Neale Hurston:
A Literary Biography, a 1978 New York Times Notable
Book.
Before his biography was released, Hemenway also published
some of his findings in scholarly essays, one of which told
the story of Hurston’s penniless death. Author Alice
Walker read the essay, went in search of the grave, and when
she found it, decided to place a tombstone for Hurston. She
wrote a letter to Hemenway about the discovery and the two
have been colleagues ever since.
Carla
Kaplan, Robert Hemenway and Valerie Boyd |
Their
work, including Walker’s pivotal 1975 article in Ms.
Magazine about discovering Hurston’s grave, sparked
such interest in Hurston that publishers began reissuing her
books. What Miller called, "ZoraMania" began to
grow, and today, even the U.S. Post Office has honored her
with a postage stamp, "a fitting award since Zora was
a prolific letter writer," Miller said.
Part of the momentum also helped create the Zora Neale Hurston
Festival in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida. Only 300
people attended the first in 1990; by 2003 it had grown to
150,000. During that first festival, Hemenway publicly critiqued
his own biography and said it was time for a new book on Hurston,
one written by a black woman.
Thirteen years later, Valerie Boyd, who listened to Hemenway’s
challenge in Eatonville, released, Wrapped in Rainbows:
The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. Boyd spent six years researching
the book in libraries, archives and colleges across the United
States as well as interviewing people who knew Hurston.
"Zora could walk her way into the hearts of everyone
she encountered," Boyd said. "People said she didn’t
just go to parties during the Harlem Renaissance, she was
the party. That’s still true. I was amazed someone could
have written a book [Their Eyes Were Watching God]
in the 1930s that so spoke to me across the decades, one that
remains relevant."
Hurston
also corresponded regularly with a variety of people. Carla
Kaplan, professor of English at the University of Southern
California and author of Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in
Letters, said Hurston often typed 15-25 letters a day,
single-spaced. Kaplan has discovered over 600 letters from
Hurston housed in various archives, making hers the only book
of letters by an African American woman.
"Zora’s letters are sometimes wishful, often ironic
and always revealing of her life in complicating ways,"
Kaplan said. "They are calculated, audacious and reflect
the persona she created and used well, sometimes to mask her
loneliness but always as a way of staying connected to her
communities."
In a discussion entitled, "Everybody’s Zora: The
Legacy of Hurston’s Work," Cheryl Wall, author of
Women of the Harlem Renaissance and Rutgers University
professor of English, pointed out the influence Hurston’s
nonfiction has had on the development of the essay. "Her
black aesthetic helped define the black essay tradition. Her
essays were often a mixture of political and social satire
with personal reflection," Wall said.
Hurston’s work paved the way for feminists and African
American women writers alike; still, for all her contributions,
Ann DuCille, professor of English and African American Studies
at Wesleyan University, warned against elevating Hurston to
icon status. "She was a phenomenal woman but she was
not a phenomenon. She invented herself and inspired many other
writers but we need to cultivate more writers like her,"
DuCille said.
Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, Barnard English professor and director
of Pan-African Studies, agreed. "Zora seems to have something
for everyone. But we should look at what her work means generally,
not just to us. We cannot relegate her to the category of
exceptionalism," Gerzina said.
Nonetheless, Hurston’s legacy is evident among contemporary
writers, such as Alice Walker, whose lecture was the climax
of the conference. Introduced by Miller’s senior honor
student, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, an aspiring writer, Walker
spoke for over an hour, including original poems, political
commentary and spiritual encouragement in her talk. Walker
last visited Barnard in 1975 when she also lectured on Hurston.
Alice
Walker signs books after the keynote address. |
Best known
for her award-winning novel, The Color Purple, Walker
recounted the tragedy of having grown up unaware that there
were black women writers at all. When she finally discovered
There Eyes Were Watching God, she acknowledged how "good
[it was] to have this novel that affirmed love and freedom,
not love at the expense of freedom."
But it is Hurston’s work as an anthropologist and folklorist
that most fascinates Walker today. "So often we think
of Zora with her novels and short stories, but we don’t
think enough of her sitting on the ground listening to people’s
stories. She had an intense curiosity about people and deeply
respected the wisdom of indigenous people," she said.
The conference, "Jumpin’ at the Sun"—a
phrase Hurston’s mother used to encourage her to do—helped
solidify Hurston’s place in the personal and academic
circles of many contemporary women.
As Walker said, "All of us emerged when we got a glimpse
of who Zora was. We saw ourselves."
—Jo Kadlecek
For more information, contact Suzanne Trimel, 212-854-7583
in the Barnard Office of Public Affairs or contact the Barnard
Center for Research on Women at 212-854-2067 or
www.barnard.edu/bcrw
|
