'At least get off the ground'

 

“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to 'jump at the sun.' We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.” – Zora Neale Hurston

 

Born in Alabama on this date in 1891, Hurston was a folklorist, anthropologist and one of the best-known Black writers and dramatists of the 20^th century. 

 

A graduate of Howard University she co-founded the school’s student newspaper, then moved on to Barnard College in New York as the sole Black student.  In the mid-1920s she became one of the key “writing members” of the famed Harlem Renaissance, an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship.

 

A master of the flashback style, Hurston wrote more than 50 short stories, plays and essays – most exploring or sharing the African-American experience from the last part of the 19^th century through the first decades of the 20^th. 

 

She also authored 4 novels, led by the award-winning Their Eyes Were Watching God, a seminal work in both African-American and women's literature.   Time magazine included the 1937 novel in its 100 best English-language novels of the 20^th century.  Hurston died in 1960 and in 2015 she was one of the first 12 writers inducted into the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame.

 

Noted for her meticulous research, she said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”