Zora Neale Hurston

A Living Biography Project by Merone Eshetu

Merone Eshetu

I am a senior majoring Public Health Studies at Johns Hopkins University. I took this course because I am involved in theater production on campus and was interested in studying how applied theater can be used for Public Health purposes. Outside of school and theater, I am involved in service work both in Baltimore and Minnesota, so seeing how storytelling can be used for both healing and as a tool to give people a voice and make impactful change in their own communities was enlightening. I hope this content can also help others discover the power of storytelling.

Final Living Biography

To the right is the final working product of my work, which I performed for the class at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum on April 18th!

Final Script

Final Draft Script:

“I am not tragically Colored” “I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.”
I remember the very day that I became colored
Grew up in Eatonville, Florida
1. All black town
2. I don’t mean by that the black back–side of an average town. Eatonville, Florida, is, and was at the time of my birth, a pure black town– charter, mayor, council, town marshal town
3. Given the name Zora Neale Hurston by father, a former slave, was a 3 term mayor of Eatonville
4. My mother was a teacher at the catholic school
5. Together with my parents and seeing evidence of black achievement all over my town, I was never indoctrinated with inferiority
6. Never knew racism
My mother died when I was 13 years old.
1. And when she died I was forced to leave Eatonville
2. I lost my mother, and I was forced to leave my home
3. I was just 13 years old
4. They sent me to Jacksonville, Florida, where the white people ran everything. For the first time in my life, I was no longer Zora of orange county, I was just “the little colored girl”
5. I was only colored against a sharp white background
6. I remember that very day I became colored
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can anyone deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.
“I am not tragically Colored” “I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.”

Career
1. When i was 26 years old- after working odd jobs I got appendicitis while cleaning for a traveling theater troupe
2. No fancy medicines like antibiotics like you have today
3. Stayed here in baltimore with my sister and i wanted to go to highschool so i lied and said i was 16 years old so i could attend morgan academy
I am an anthropologist
1. I became an anthropologist after studying anthropology at Howard University and Barnard College.
2. When people read my work I want them to feel immersed in the culture as if they were in the field with me
  1. I’ve done fieldwork in haiti, alabama, florida, the bahamas, and my readers have always been right there with me
3. Means I write how people talk. In their dialogue, their expressions
4. This has offended a few people, especially other black intellectuals, including langston hughes and dubois
  1. Because my characters “Laughed loud, danced long, and spoke in dialect”
  2. They thought my representation of these characters dragged down the race
  3. Why put on a show for white people
This is why I don’t like being pigeonholed into the Harlem renaissance, activist category
1. I grew up knowing who i was
2. I know black people are complex, dignified human beings no matter what stereotypes say about us.
3. I write about black people as I know black people, as you, and you, and you know black people. I refuse to change my writing to seem less stereotypical. Why give racism that much power over me?
“I am not tragically Colored” “I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.”
The way I do anthropological fieldwork was also different from others at that time
1. I did what I like to call “self-experience”
  1. I had no interest in staged affairs
  2. I only wished to experience and write about ceremonies in their “natural setting and sequence”
  3. Trust: The people I wanted to learn from and write about wouldn’t trust some researcher who is coming to observe them
  4. One time while I was doing work with Maroons in rural Jamaica, I persuaded some village leaders to take me on a boar hunt. After much “talking and begging and coaxing...a hunting party was organized”
  5. There were four hunters, the dogs, the baggage boy, and me. I went with them through the bush where I watched them catch and clean a wild hog.
  6. I knew their behavior was influenced by me being there, but it was a risk I was glad to take because it gave me insight into the details of the ritual, their superstitions about sharpening weapons, and the method of killing the hog.
  7. The old way of doing things wouldn’t have taken me far. The local people were too reluctant to openly discuss their cultural norms, I know if some stranger came to Eatonville when I was a kid and wanted us to explain all of our customs and lifestyle choices we would’ve looked at them like they were crazy.
  8. So I knew I had to actually see everything for myself if I was going to learn about it.
  9. What I was actually doing was making general observations. I wanted to see what the Maroons were like, really... I wanted to see how they felt about education, transportation, public health and democracy. I wanted to see their culture and art expressions and knew that if I asked for anything especially, I would get something out of context... So I just sat around and waited.
2. Of course, my work as a writer and anthropologist is only one aspect of my life.
3. I also had a rich personal life, full of love and adventure. I was the life of the party. I even performed as a dancer in Harlem nightclubs for a while. I was married twice, and I had numerous affairs with both men and [some say], women. I believed that love was something to be celebrated and enjoyed, no matter who it was with.
“I am not tragically Colored” “I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.”
I will leave you with an excerpt from my autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, that I wrote in 1942
1. “I regret all of my books. It is one of the tragedies of life that one cannot have all the wisdom one is ever to possess in the beginning. Perhaps, it is just as well to be rash and foolish for a while. If writers were too wise, perhaps no books would get written at all. It might be better to ask yourself “Why?” afterwards than before. Anyway, the force from somewhere in Space which commands you to write in the first place, gives you no choice. You take up the pen when you are told, and write what is commanded. There is no agony like a bearing and untold story inside you.”
“I am not tragically Colored” “I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.”

Final Reflection

Reflection #4- 4/25/23

I think that my performance turned out better than my initial draft because I focused less on presenting all of the factual information and added more story, emotion, and speculation as recommended by Mama Janice and Dr. Blanks Jones in class. This helped me give more of a voice to my character and allowed me to include more improvisation since I didn’t have to memorize all of the specific facts I learned about Hurston to list to the audience. Instead, I was able to elaborate on how I thought Zora felt and how she would express her emotions. I was nervous about including too much speculation in my script because I didn’t want to be historically inaccurate, but I could have improved the performance by including more informed speculation. I did not have time to revise and memorize (or at least remember most of the points I wanted to discuss) before my presentation, but I also agree with feedback from the educators that it would have been better to have the script out of my hands so that I could connect more with the audience and use gestures to express the character more.

Second Visit

Reflection #3- 2/28/23

The second trip to the museum was really helpful as I had overcome the initial shock of visiting the museum and was able to focus on the contributions of the people it honors. Hearing about how each wax figure was selected and created was interesting as well. Since each wax figure is thousands of dollars, they require sponsors or need to be popular with the visitors of the museum. I also wondered if that’s why most of the figures in the museum were men. Since most of the black historical figures we learn about and are expected to have in a museum are men, there is a gap in the collection as there are many important black women we haven’t learned about at all that wouldn’t be expected to be in the museum, but should be recognized as well. For my project, I will be highlighting a woman in the museum by focusing on Zora Neale Hurston.

Black Theater- DBH Produces Is God Is

Above: Director, actors, and set designers work together on blocking scene changes

Reflection #2- 3/13/23

My role in the Production of Is God Is by Aleshea Harris was producer and set designer. As a producer, I was responsible for hiring the director, casting, creating the production timeline, managing finances, and making marketing decisions. As a set designer, I was responsible for designing and creating all scenic elements used in the play based on explicit mentions in the script, my own interpretation of the story including symbolism and motifs that I thought were important to incorporate in the set, and the interpretation of the directors. Is God Is was a challenge for both roles. The story deals with sensitive topics such as domestic violence, patricide, the black

Cont. feminine experience, but is also surrealist and comedic. While it is very different from other shows DBH puts on due to its graphic violence and surrealism, it is similar in that many black plays in general tackle heavy themes, usually racism and family conflict using comedy and satirical language. As a theater group performing for a mainly non-black audience, we have to carefully balance on the line between serious messaging and comedic delivery. In my role, I had to step in when technical decisions crossed that boundary (such as if the audio engineer decided to use a certain song that was inappropriate for a moment that was supposed to sit with the audience rather than make fun of a more serious moment), or as a set designer, making sure that the set reflects the realities of the character’s experiences such as making the decision to create a contrast between an affluent family’s home and a grungy home and hospice room for the characters who experienced violence in early life. This is a decision I made through knowledge of the effects of adverse experiences in early life such as domestic violence on economic outcomes.

Besides the actual play itself, working with a team of black actors and crew members was an amazing experience. Everyone in DBH is very connected to the stories we tell, as everyone can relate to something about the characters or the story. Just as Mama Janice discussed how every black story has a message, every story that we tell in DBH is more than a story and has a message that every member in DBH and audience member leaves with.

First Visit

Reflection #1- 1/31/23

I was struck by the wax figures that were on display at the museum, showcasing the contributions and achievements of black people throughout history. I was also struck by the resilience and determination that was displayed by seeing these accomplishments juxtaposed with the history of brutal violence and social and economic discrimination imposed on African Americans. The brutality I saw in the exhibits stuck with me. Although I do not remember all the names or specific facts, I remember the images and stories of lynchings and torture. I would love to revisit the museum again and delve deeper into the stories and experiences of some of the figures on display.

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