Speak, So You Can Speak Again
On MLK Day, we’d like to revisit Harlem Renaissance writer, Zora Neale Hurston, and this intimate biography of her life.
Do you know the feeling of sitting among a loved one’s left behind things; digging into boxes, opening old letters as your fingers gingerly thread through the brittle artifacts of a life lived? It is the most lonely yet intimate conversation you will ever have. I occasionally revisit some of these artifacts from my mother or my grandmother and almost always find something newly interesting, whether it’s a page from a journal that I hadn’t noticed before or a small trinket that finds its way into my hands. I cherish the constant unfolding of these lives and what they reveal to me as I grow older.
When I picked up Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston in a small New England book store, I had the feeling of being transported into that room of artifacts. Speak, So You Can Speak Again is a labor of love by Zora’s niece, Lucy Anne Hurston. Lucy seems to understand how important Zora’s work, both as a writer and ethnographer, is to history (as well as arm chair anthropologists!) and this biography of her aunt is a faithful expression of love and respect. In addition to the delicately placed artifacts, there is also an audio CD with interview excerpts and folk songs sung by Zora.
Nearly every page invites the reader into Zora’s world and makes one feel as though they’ve stumbled upon some long forgotten treasure, whether a tucked away torn page of a poem with written annotations or a carefully replicated scorched page from Their Eyes Were Watching God that was saved from fiery annihilation. As I pull out a letter from a tattered, yellowing envelope, I am fearful of tearing the letter because it feels so authentically fragile.
In the same way that I revisit my grandmother’s things, I find myself coming back again and again to Speak, So You Can Speak Again. I have not read straight through or even pulled out every attached artifact. I want to learn something new every time I visit Zora Neale Hurston.
~ Deanna Glaze
Also see post on Medium