"I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow damned up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about it. . . No, I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife."

Zora Neale Hurston
"How it Feels to be Colored Me"
World Tomorrow, 1928

 
     Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was a novelist, folklorist, playwright, essayist, anthropologist and a participant of the Harlem Renaissance. She attended Howard University and Barnard College. She was a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Despite these accomplishments, Ms. Hurston died penniless in 1960 in Fort Pierce, Florida and was buried in an unmarked grave.
     The play’s setting is her gravesite in Florida. She has invited you (the audience) to witness her dramatization of her struggle to be an anthropologist and writer. Ms. Hurston dramatizes how she used her extraordinary intellect to research and immortalize African-American folklore, language, songs and dances in her writings. But to her astonishment, she is chastised and ridiculed. She is accused of portraying the Negro as lazy, and shiftless people that only want to sing and dance.
     Zora Neale Hurston used her intellect and talent to save and preserve Black culture; yet, she was ridiculed, humiliated and eventually punished severely for it. Why? Because she wanted to let the world know that Black folk’s language, songs and dances were phenomenal.

TO EXPERIENCE THE LIFE OF ZORA NEALE HURSTON
LET KELSEY PRODUCTIONS COME TO YOUR SITE AND
PRESENT THE PLAY:
ZORA SPEAKS

KelseyProduction@aol.com
Kelsey Productions
College Station, P.O. Box 1054
New York, New York 10030
212-368-6398