Zora Neale Hurston. Recordings, work here in Jacksonville.

[stephendare]

a compilation of all of the known Zora Neale Hurston sound recordings* created while she worked for the WPA in the 1930s. Today, the original recordings are housed at the Library of Congress. Hurston worked for the WPA in 1935 and again in 1939.

Today, Hurston is better known as a major literary figure, but she was also a trained anthropologist, including studying under Franz Boaz. A native of Eatonville, Florida, Hurston fell upon hard times during the Great Depression and eventually sought out relief work with the Federal Writer’s Project (FWP). Having already conducted fieldwork for her own studies, Hurston worked with Herbert Halpert and Stetson Kennedy in the FWP. Her work on Florida’s turpentine camps is still considered authoritative. For more on Hurston and her fieldwork, go to the Florida Memory Project: http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/zora_hurston/

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) â€" after 1939, the Works Projects Administration â€" was a work-relief program created in 1935 by the President Franklin Roosevelt’s Administration that had employed over 8.5 million people by its demise in 1943. One of its programs was the Federal Writers Project (FWP), which included a Folklore Section. This section conducted fieldwork, recording songs, traditions, and stories across the nation. Originally created to gather material for the American Guide Series, later emphasis was placed upon fieldwork for the preservation of folk traditions for future generations.

In Florida, the FWP was based out of Jacksonville, and directed by historian Carita Doggett Corse. Folklorist Stetson Kennedy directed the Florida Folklife section. Seven fieldwork recording expeditions were conducted in Florida. Two were conducted between 1935 and 1937, before the creation of the Florida Folklore Section: one by Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston, and the other by John and Ruby Lomax. After 1939, five more were conducted by Florida’s FWP staff: Kennedy, Hurston, Robert Cook, Alton Morris, Corse, Robert Cornwell, John Filareton, and Herbert Halpert (of the Joint Committee on Folk Art’s Southern Recording Expedition.)

Recording equipment was loaned to Florida’s WPA program by the Library of Congress’ Archive of the American Folk Song (later the American Folklife Center). The field recordings were made on acetate disks, usually recorded at 78 rpm (although occasionally at 33 rpm). Because these disks were shipped from Washington DC to Florida, then to the recording site, and then back to Washington, they often were not of the highest sonic quality. Several had surface scratches and many had various recording speeds. In 1986, the Florida Folklife Program staff made copies of many of these recordings onto reel to reels for inclusion in the Florida Folklife Archive.

Bella Mia
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/bella.mp3

Crow Dance
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/crow.mp3

Dat Ole Black Gal
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/dat_old.mp3

Ever Been Down?
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/ever.mp3

Gonna See My Long Haired Babe
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/gonna.mp3

HalimuFack
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/halimuhfack.mp3

John B. Sails
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/hoist.mp3

Don't Let the Deal Go Down
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/let.mp3

Let's Shake It
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/lets_shake.mp3

Mama Don't Want No Peas, No Rice
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/mama.mp3

Mule on the Mountain
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/mule.mp3

Oh Mr. Brown
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/oh_mr.mp3

Oh the Buford Boat Done Come
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/oh_buford.mp3

Po' Gal
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/po_gal.mp3

Shove it Over
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/shove.mp3

Tampa
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/tampa.mp3

Tilly Lend Me Your Pigeon
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/tilly.mp3

Wake Up Jacob
http://www.floridamemory.com/COLLECTIONS/FOLKLIFE/mp3/hurston/wake.mp3

[lindab]

I love Their Eyes Were Watching God.  It is beautifully written but be prepared for some raw truth.

Stephen, here is a link to a little piece that Zora did on the turpentine camps in Florida. http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/zora_hurston/turpentine.cfm 

I have read in other places that many of those camps were brutal places for the workers and their families.

[newzgrrl]

Jacksonville's connection to Zora is significantly stronger than her work with the WPA. Her "lost years," a period of five to ten years after she left Eatonville and before she went north to Howard University, were spent here. Zora's eldest brother, John C. Hurston, lived in town, I believe around Oakland, and she lived with him. His wife had a sister who was good friends with Zora, and they spent a lot of time together in Saint Nicholas, Spring Park, Spring Glen, Riverside and Oakland. Zora attended school for a time in Jacksonville, and she was for a time a member at Bethel Baptist.

There's debate about when Zora was born, but most biographers agree it was in 1891. She told people she was born in 1901, and apparently could pull off looking ten years younger.

A couple years back, I helped edit a book of stories compiled by a woman who was a relative of Zora's brother's wife. She was a child when Zora was in town but spent some time with her, listening to stories and hearing Zora sing. She's had trouble publishing the book. 

Also a couple years back, The Oxford American magazine included on its annual music album the clip of Zora singing the Crow Dance song.

Other great resources:
Florida Humanities Council has a one-woman show about Zora. She expresses a lot of Zora's spunk and talks at length about her time in Eatonville, Harlem and with the WPA.

Bay Bottom News, in partnership with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts, produced a documentary in 2008 (?) called "Jump at the Sun" about Zora's life. It was shown at the 2009 Zora Fest in Eatonville. (Zora's mother always instructed her to "Jump at the sun!")

[sheclown]

Can you tell us more about her Jacksonville years? 

[thelakelander]

sounds like a story for the front page....

[newzgrrl]

Let me get back in contact with the woman who wrote the book, which I'm overdue for anyway. Now seems like a perfect time to call.