January 13—Zora Neale Hurston’s words will live forever through her many novels.
What some may not realize, however, is that the acclaimed author became a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain set out to capture Hurston’s story in the documentary “Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space.” The documentary is under the umbrella of American Experience for PBS and will premiere on Tuesday, January 17 at 8 pm on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also stream on the PBS Video app.
Both Randall MacLowry and Cameo George serve as producers on the film.
George says the author’s biography shows how her groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender, and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.
Raised in Eatonville, a small, all-black Florida town, Hurston studied at Howard University before coming to New York in 1925. She would soon become a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, best remembered for her novel “His Eyes Were Looking at God”.
While gaining renown in Harlem literary circles, Hurston was also discovering anthropology at Barnard College with the renowned Franz Boas. He would make several trips to the southern United States and the Caribbean, documenting the lives of rural blacks and collecting his stories. She studied her own people, an unusual practice at the time, and during her lifetime became known as the foremost authority on black folklore.
George says Hurston immersed himself in the worlds of the participants and built trust.
In 1936, with the help of two Guggenheim Fellowships, Hurston traveled to Haiti and Jamaica and focused on his literary and scientific work. While in Haiti, he wrote “His eyes looked at God,” mixing memory, fiction, and research. In 1937 the novel was published to great acclaim, followed by Tell My Horse, his second ethnographic book, in 1938.
But the royalties from both books were not enough to give Hurston financial security.
Despite his success, the end of Hurston’s life was marked by money problems and a multitude of setbacks. To make ends meet, she published her autobiographical book “Dust Tracks on a Road” in 1942. Although her book helped establish her as a literary celebrity, Hurston still struggled financially. She eventually landed in the black community of Fort Pierce, Florida, where she worked a series of odd jobs.
On January 28, 1960, at the age of 69, Hurston died in near darkness following a stroke in a nursing home.
“Zora Neale Hurston has long been considered a literary giant of the Harlem Renaissance, but her anthropological and ethnographic efforts were just as important and impactful,” says George. “His research of her and her writings helped establish the dialects and folklore of African Americans, Caribbeans, and Africans throughout the American Diaspora as components of a rich and distinct culture, anchoring the black experience in the Americas.”
ON TV
“Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space” will premiere Tuesday, January 17 at 8 pm on New Mexico PBS, channel 5.1. It will also stream on the PBS Video app.
