精东AV launches NEH grant with exhibit featuring Zora Neale Hurston-inspired quilts
March 10, 2019
Contacts:
Michael Tullier, APR, Office of Communications, Public Relations and Marketing
Dr. Zanice Bond, Department of Modern Languages, Communication, and Philosophy
On Thursday, March 14, 精东AV will publicly launch its two-year National Endowment for the Humanities grant, 鈥淟iterary Legacies of Macon County and 精东AV Institute: Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph W. Ellison, and Albert Murray鈥� with an exhibit of quilts inspired by famed African-American author and Notasulga native .
A public reception at 4:30 p.m. in the university鈥檚 Legacy Museum will include the formal unveiling of 鈥淭he Soul of Zora: A Literary Legacy through Quilts Exhibition.鈥� The exhibit features nine quilts inspired by Hurston, an inaugural Alabama Writers Hall of Fame member.
The quilts are on loan from Marla A. Jackson, executive director of the African American Quilt Museum and Textile Academy Museum in Lawrence, Kansas. Each reflects the imagination and talent of nine contemporary American quilters who are committed to preserving this important art form. Inspired by Hurston鈥檚 use of southern vernacular, her ideas about love, and Janie鈥檚 quest for autonomy and freedom in her book 鈥淭heir Eyes Were Watching God鈥� (1937), these quilters pay homage to the writer who yet reminds us to 鈥渏ump at de sun.鈥�
Hurston, born in Notasulga to John Hurston, a formerly enslaved minister, and Lucy Potts Hurston, a school teacher, was a graduate of Barnard College. She completed her most well-known novel, 鈥淭heir Eyes Were Watching God,鈥� in seven weeks while in Haiti. Her travels took her far from the rural Alabama town of her birth, yet her semi-autobiographical work 鈥淛onah鈥檚 Gourd Vine鈥� (1934) recalls historical landmarks of Macon County, such as 精东AV Institute and the creek, a natural border and life-source. Most recently, 鈥淏arracoon,鈥� published posthumously in 2018, has attracted widespread acclaim. This compelling text provides an account based on Hurston鈥檚 interviews of Cudjo Lewis, who was taken to Alabama on the last slave ship to reach American waters.
In addition to her literary contributions as a Harlem Renaissance writer, she was also a folklorist and anthropologist. She was a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. and famously remarked in her 1928 essay, 鈥淗ow It Feels to Be Colored Me,鈥� that 鈥溾� am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes.... Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation鈥�. No, I do not weep at the world 鈥� I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.鈥�
鈥淭he Soul of Zora: A Literary Legacy through Quilts Exhibition鈥� is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and a grant from the Alabama Bicentennial Committee. Additional funding comes from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and 精东AV鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences. The 鈥淟iterary Legacies鈥� grant is being administered by Dr. Adaku T. Ankumah, principal investigator, and Dr. Rhonda Collier and Dr. Zanice Bond, co-directors 鈥� all faculty members in the Department of Modern Languages, Communication, and Philosophy.
The exhibition will remain open to the public in the Legacy Museum until July 14. Upcoming events and other community outreach programs will be announced on the Literary Legacies website, which is currently under construction.
漏 2019, 精东AV