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Arts & Entertainment

Lucy Anne Hurston Shares Aunt's Way With Words

Niece of famed Harlem Renaissance author, anthropologist, playwright, and journalist Zora Neale Hurston talks about her biogrpahy of her famous aunt and her inspiring work

Lucy Anne Hurston knows how to weave a good story. It's a trait she shares with her famous aunt, Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston, the subject of Lucy's 2004 biographical work, .

Last week, as part of the Eaton-Dimock-King Author Series, the welcomed Lucy Anne Hurston, who shared history and insight into the life of Zora Neale Hurston, the lasting contributions her aunt made to literature and the Harlem Renaissance, and the parallels between the two women's lives.

Only 3- years-old when Zora died, Hurston said she has no memories of her aunt, but feels her presence has been with her nevertheless at times.

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Her sociological research in some ways parallels Zora Neale Hurston's anthropological and folklorist work, which took Zora to Jamaica and Haiti, as well as the American south. "It was through that [anthropological] lens that all her work was done," said Lucy Anne Hurston.

Hurston said she discovered Zora for herself at the grand old age of 9. An avid reader for as long as she could remember, she grew up loving to read--so much so that she even created a little library of her own in her bedroom, date-stamping her own collection of books anytime someone wanted to read one. She also loved borrowing books from the library, but she got herself into a bit of trouble when she decided on her own that certain favorite books should remain in her home library rather than be returned.

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When the library shut off her borrowing privileges, her interest in reading took her elsewhere, and she soon discovered a well-worn copy of a book in her father's attic. The title? "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston.

"I asked my father, 'Who's this person named Zora, this person who has my last name?'"

From that point on, Hurston said she collected years and years of stories about Zora, literally at her father's feet.

Times were much harder for black writers in the period in which Zora Neale Hurston lived.  Often, in order to secure work, a writer required a wealthy white patron to sustain them.

Lucy Anne Hurston said her aunt, who in later years would come to be known as the "Genius of the South" had the unique ability to write with duality, creating work that pleased her patrons and allowed her to survive financially, which then freed her up to create the kind of work she felt passionate about.

"It's a difficult thing to do," said Hurston.

Referring to her aunt's work as a playwright, poet, and news reporter, as well as anthropologist, Hurston said, "Zora dabbled in a lot of different fields."

"I think she would have pushed me harder to do more. It's scary to think I might be compared to her," she said.

Now chair of the department of Sociology at , Lucy Anne Hurston got off to an admittedly late start as a college student. At 31, the mother of two took a couple of college classes and found herself immediately hooked. She decided to attend full time, earning herself an associates degree in General Studies, then following up  with a bachelor's degree in Sociology at Central Connecticut State College. She has been employed with MCC since 1998.

"I'm the living model about what the community college experience is all about," said Hurston. "MCC laid a fine foundation."

Hurston said she was always concerned with repairing injustices in the social world and for that reason, issues of inequality and stratification along several fields had always been her focus. Her field work has taken her to various parts of the world, including New Orleans for Habitat for Humanity and Kingston, Jamaica—once for a study of the women's prison system, and again to study the limited economic choices of domestic workers.

"Research keeps my students on the cutting edge. Sociology is a vibrant science that can be used to resolve social issues," said Hurston.

"It empowers me, and through me, my students, to know that we can put our hands on the social problems of the world, locally, nationally and globally, even when governments cannot," she said. "This shows that each one of us can have an impact on other people's lives."

Hurston said her personal discovery of history through the lens of her aunt awakened in her the importance of capturing and recording oral history. It is something she puts into practical use in her speaking engagements with elementary school students.

"I tell kids to find the oldest person in their family or neighborhood, bring them a box of Fig Newtons and a tape recorder, and get that story from them before it's gone," said Hurston. "This was Zora's life work. She captured for us in the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s what we did not understand."

By the time of her death in 1960, Zora Neale Hurston's novels had long gone out of print. However, thanks to the efforts of contemporary author Alice Walker, her work began enjoying a resurgence in the 1970s and 1980s, said Lucy Anne Hurston.  Additionally, a 2005 movie produced by Oprah Winfrey and  loosely-based on Zora's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God," has created additional interest in the pioneering author.

Today, Lucy Anne Hurston is collaborating with literary historian Henry Louis Gates on a collection of unpublished Zora Neale Hurston's writings, for which Alice Walker will be writing a foreword.

"In all Zora's work, she shows the beauty of black life," said Hurston. "She showed that we're all works in progress, and who you roll up against determines the snowball you become."

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