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Who is Zora Neale Hurston? Why is she important?

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Zora Neale Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, on January 7, 1891, but she was raised in Eatonville, Florida, the first all-Black incorporated town in the United States, and her early exposure to African American oral traditions and folklore greatly influenced her storytelling. She later attended Howard University before receiving a scholarship to Barnard College, where she became the first Black woman to study anthropology. She impacted Harlem Renaissance by bringing Black Southern culture into mainstream literature.

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The revolutionary novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) chronicles Janie Crawford's quest for self-discovery, freedom, and love. It is renowned for its in-depth examination of Black women and its extensive usage of African American slang.

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Hurston's 1935 book Mules and Men is a compilation of Hoodoo customs and African American folktales she discovered while conducting anthropological studies in the South. Black oral traditions are honored and preserved in this work.

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reveal attitudes about slavery, faith, race relations, family, and romance that have been passed on for generations

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Zora Neale Hurston enriched the Harlem Renaissance through folklore, dialect, and Black storytelling. Rediscovered later, her work inspired writers like Alice Walker, influencing literature, Black identity, and feminist thought.

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dance with the wind, unchained and free,
A story in rhythm, a song in me.
My laughter rings where roots run deep,
Where rivers whisper and willows weep.

I walk unfearing, head held high,
Color proud beneath the sky.
No need for sorrow, no cause for shame—
I sing my truth, I name my name.