Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space

Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean — reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms.

Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain talks about Zora Neale Hurston and her interest in capturing the rural Black folk in her writings and ethnographic work. In multiple trips to the south, Hurston shot 16mm film of rural Black people, culture and customs amassing 85 minutes of footage that she shot and/or directed.

Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean — reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms.

In 1936, the anthropologist and noted Harlem Renaissance figure Zora Neale Hurston traveled to Jamaica to learn the customs and traditions of its free Black population. Her experience there highlights one of the many ways she was ahead of her time.