Doing Some Background Research

For our first assignment your research skills will be tested. Rather than lecture or provide a specific set of questions to be answered, for today's assignment you will visit the link below. After perusing that link, you will choose an artist, politician, or event, and conduct research about it using the internet or a local library. You will post a 250-word overview of your topic. You MUST provide 3 references at the end of your post (i.e. web links, book titles, etc.), preferably in MLA or APA formatting. Check sonofcitationmachine.net for citation options.

There are two points to this assignment. First, we need to verify that you are using appropriate internet sources. Wikipedia, for example, is not an appropriate website as it can be edited by anyone who visits the site. Your Bibliography will tell me whether or not you are using the internet correctly. Second, you will all ideally pick different topics so that we all learn a little bit about various elements of the Harlem Renaissance.


Monday, October 8, 2007

Sha-Keida H. - Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston, a novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist was born January 7, 1891 in Eatonville, Florida although some records may show her year of birth as 1901 in Notasulga, Alabama. This is because Zora altered her true age in order to complete her education to qualify for college. She attended Howard University and later Barnard College in the late 1920s where she studied anthropology and received her B.A. in 1928. Zora became well known during the Harlem Renaissance, a decade of achievements in the 1920s for many African American artists. During this time, she published several short stories and became an area of interest for other members of the Harlem Renaissance, most notably Langston Hughes. Later, in the 1930s she released her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine followed by her most popular novel, Their Eyes were Watching God. The late 1930s also saw the publication of another novel, Moses, Man of the Mountain followed by her fourth and last novel, Seraph on the Suwanee in the late 1940s. Between writing novels Zora also published an autobiography, Dust Tracks on a Road, and wrote several folklore and short stories. At the time of her death, January 28, 1960 Zora still was not well known so much that she was buried in a grave without a headstone. However in 1973, Alice Walker, upon researching Zora after reading Eyes decided to mark her grave with a headstone that read, “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.” Although Zora received criticism regarding her representation of Blacks, Walker defended her once stating Zora was, “wildly in love with people of color.”

References:

Women in History. Zora Neale Hurston biography - extended. Lakewood Public Library. .

Boyd, Valerie. About Zora Neale Hurston. 2007 http://www.zoranealehurston.com/biography.html

Grosvenor, Vertamae. Intersections: Crafting a Voice for Black Culture,
Alice Walker on Zora Neale Hurston’s “Spiritual Food”, Morning Edition, April 26, 2004 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1849395
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1 comment:

Luisa Sierra said...

Hello Sha-Keida
It’s sad to find out that such a talented woman was buried in a grave without a headstone. It was very insightful reading your post!

October 14, 2007 at 4:43 PM

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