Under the tutelage of anthropologist Franz Boas (her former Columbia professor) and “Harlem Renaissance” arts patron Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston spent nearly two years, from 1927 to 1929, studying the folkloric customs, work songs, spirituals, and the vernacular language of African American communities along the River Road and from New Orleans to Florida.
Zora Hurston
Zora Hurston was a world-renowned writer and anthropologist. Hurston’s novels, short stories, and plays often depicted African American life in the South. Her work in anthropology examined black folklore. Hurston influenced many writers, forever cementing her place in history as one of the foremost female writers of the 20th century. According to an essay by Gloria Gibson, Zora Neale Hurston could be the first African American woman filmmaker.
