Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and Her Eatonville Roots - An NEH Landmarks of American History Workshop
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Seminar Details
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Project Director:
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Ann Schoenacher, Florida Humanities Council |
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Dates:
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June 14 - 20, 2009 or June 21 - 27, 2009 |
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Format:
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6-night residential seminar |
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Times:
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The seminar begins at 6:30 pm on Sunday evening, and concludes by noon on Saturday. |
| Location: |
The workshops will take place on the campus of Rollins College, a liberal arts college situated on a tree-lined campus, in the quaint community of Winter Park in Central Florida. Each participant will have a single-occupancy room in a Rollins dormitory. |
| Lead Scholar: |
Dr. Heather Russell, Associate Professor of English, Florida International University, Miami. Russell holds a Ph.D. in Literature from Rutgers and specializes in African American literature, Caribbean literature, black feminist theory, and narratology. She is the author of African Atlantic Crossings: Race, Nation and Narratology. |
Description:
Dear Colleague,
The Florida Humanities Council (FHC) invites educators from across the United States to join distinguished historians, folklorists, and literary scholars for a week-long workshop, “Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and her Eatonville Roots.”
Just ten miles north of Orlando, Eatonville lies in the shadow of the world’s largest theme park. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, it is a place of great significance on three levels: its history as the oldest incorporated black municipality; its association with Zora Neale Hurston, author of Their Eyes Were Watching God; and the continuity of its traditional culture. Hurston’s family was among the town’s earliest citizens, having moved there from Alabama around 1893. According to author Alice Walker, “…everything Zora Neale Hurston wrote came out of her experience of Eatonville.”
These weeklong seminars will bring together a distinguished team of humanities scholars who will provide an interdisciplinary exploration of Hurston’s life and work. They include a literary scholar who has written extensively on Hurston; a folklorist who wrote the application that placed Eatonville on the Historic Register; a Hurston biographer; the director of the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress, where most of Hurston’s folklife collection resides; and a colleague of Hurston’s in the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Participants will examine Hurston’s accomplishments within the context of the historical and cultural development of the Eatonville community. They will grapple with compelling questions about how this unique black enclave fueled Hurston’s appreciation of folk culture, inspired her literary works, created her racial identity, and formed her sometimes controversial views on race.
Topics, Presenters, and Site Visits include:
Hurston’s Eatonville Roots
Teachers will spend a day in Eatonville, touring such sites as the Hungerford School and St. Lawrence AME Church. Historian Julian Chambliss will place Eatonville in the context of the American South during the periods of Reconstruction and the New South. Participants will investigate primary documents, historic maps, and photographs of Eatonville and interact with a panel of longtime Eatonville residents who will discuss how the town’s traditional culture lives on today through a variety of cultural activities and institutions. Phyllis McEwen, independent scholar, Chautauquan, and poet, will portray Hurston, talking about her childhood in Eatonville and telling the stories and singing the songs Hurston collected during her work with the WPA in Florida.
Inspiration for Hurston’s Racial and Gender Identity, Folkloric Research, and Literary Work
Valerie Boyd, Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Georgia, will discuss her 2004 Hurston biography Wrapped in Rainbows. Dr. Boyd will explore her work as a biographer, excavate and articulate Hurston’s life, and compare the biography to an earlier literary biography written by Robert Hemenway. The lead scholar, Boyd, and McEwen will then lead small-group discussions of Hurston’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
The Harlem Renaissance and the WPA
Jill Jones, Professor of Literature, Rollins College, will examine the role Hurston played in the Harlem Renaissance and her relationships with some of the leading lights of that movement. They will explore a variety of issues that arose in Hurston’s life during this period, including her feuds with other black intellectuals of the day, her use of folklore and the black idiom in her novels, and her struggle to integrate her academic research and training and her literary ambitions.
Dr. Peggy Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress will talk about Hurston’s work with the Florida Writers Project (FWP) and the important contributions she made to the efforts to collect and preserve black culture in the “jook joints and turpentine camps” of Florida.
Humor and Religion
John Lowe, Professor of Literature, Louisiana State University, will discuss the role of humor and religion in Hurston’s writing. Concentrating on her autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, and some of her early short stories, he will lead participants in an examination of how Hurston wove together humor and religion in her literary work. He will also draw from Their Eyes Were Watching God and Moses, Man of the Mountain to connect Hurston to the broader context of African American humor and to explore such themes as myths and legends, work songs, spirituals, verbal dueling, the humor of courtship, and comic re-inscriptions of scripture in her writing.
Fort Pierce: From Halcyon Days to Obscurity
Participants will spend time on Florida’s East Coast in Fort Pierce, where Hurston moved in 1957 and lived until her death in 1960. Participants will compare Hurston’s early life in Eatonville to her later life in Fort Pierce; explore some of Hurston’s last and unpublished works and the historical and literary reasons she lived her last year in obscurity; and examine the changing racial climate of the time and how Hurston’s viewpoints on race and, especially "Brown vs. Board of Education", placed her at odds with civil rights leaders of her day.
Other Details:
Reading and Assignments:
Prior to the workshops, participants will receive packets containing the primary text, Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston, and an anthology of readings suggested by workshop presenters. These readings should be completed before participants arrive for the workshop.
In-service Credit:
At the completion of each workshop, the Florida Humanities Council will present participants with a certificate of completion certifying them for 35 in-service points. Graduate credit is not available for this workshop.
Who:
This program is open to public, private, and home-school teachers, and to selected school personnel. (See the application information page for more details.) Teachers and administrators from all grade levels and disciplines (e.g., history, social studies, literature, foreign languages, theatre, art, music, science, and mathematics) are encouraged to apply.
Cost:
Each participant will receive a stipend of $750 to help cover the costs of food, lodging, books, and other materials. Single-occupancy rooms in an apartment-style residence hall are available at Rollins College, our host institution, for $42 a night. Workshop participants will be charged approximately $150 for a campus meal plan for the entire week, including an occasional meal off-campus. Books and materials will cost up to $50 per person, and a college ID will cost $3. With participants’ consent, FHC will retain these costs – approximately $455 -- directly from the stipend; the remainder will be paid at the workshop. Additional travel funds are available for participant travel on a case-by-case basis and will be paid at the conclusion of the workshop.
Application Information:
Please Note: The eligibility guidelines and application process for the Zora Neale Hurston seminars are different than all other FHC summer seminars.
This project is funded as part of the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program and website do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The title of the workshop is used with the permission of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community.
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