Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

In this video from 2019, Florence Turcotte and Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn discuss the significance of UF’s Zora Neale Hurston Papers.

Throughout the summer, curator Florence Turcotte and Digital Services Specialist Caleb Del Rio worked with a team from PBS’ American Experience to help support a new documentary on the life and work of Zora Neale Hurston. The documentary brings together materials from our Zora Neale Hurston Papers and other academic library collections, with the commentary of national experts in African-American studies and anthropology.

Directed and written by Tracy Heather Strain, a two-time Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, this episode is a new in-depth biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century. 

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space airs Tuesday, January 17th on PBS at 9:00 PM EST. It can be streamed through PBS’ website as well as their app. Please click the button below to visit the American Experience website.