Zora Neale Hurston

#OnThisDay, anthropologist, folklorist and author Zora Neale Hurston, was born January 7, 1891 (d. 1960).

This is a recording of Hurston introducing and singing the song "Oh Mr. Brown," a Bahamian song used in a fire jumping ceremony: https://www.loc.gov/item/flwpa000042/?locr=fbafc

Recorded by Herbert Halpert, Florida, 1939.

Hurston attended Howard University and Columbia University, where she worked with anthropologists Franz Boas, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead. She wrote novels, folklore collections, plays, an autobiography, and a wealth of short fiction and essays.

Much of Hurston's collecting was done in writing. She did not have access to recording equipment, especially early in her carrier. However, she learned songs from her informants and sometimes sang these for colleagues who recorded her voice. Because of this, we have fascinating recordings of Hurston singing traditional work songs, jook songs, and blues, and explaining the contexts for those songs in the American Folklife Center collections, such as the example at the link above.

Hear more field recordings Hurston made of others as well as recordings folklorists made of her talking about her fieldwork and singing songs she collected at this link: https://www.loc.gov/search/?q=zora...

Image description: detail of Zora Neale Hurston playing a hountar, or mama drum, 1939. NYWT&S staff photo. Photographer not identified on photo. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

See the full image here: https://www.loc.gov/item/flwpa000042/?locr=fbafc