What Zora Knew: A Crossroads, a Bargain with the Devil, and a Late Witness

Abstract

This lecture will focus on the pivotal historical moment when Zora Neale Hurston turned in her (rejected) dissertation for the doctorate at Columbia University to "Father Franz" (Boas). It will also address the times in which Zora did her field research, wrote from her heart, and became the most famous female connected to (and rejected from) the Harlem Renaissance. My work with Hurston's legacy seeks to repair damage done and roads "not taken" even when folklore studies and anthropology had a seer as forward thinking and imaginative as Hurston. In this talk, I stand as a late witness to decisions made and stances taken that are only now being re-examined in how we write what we do and know.