“As the grimy globe spins”: Zora Neale Hurston, Care, and Making a Place
Day 1
I originally had not planned on taking the tour of Eatonville because I imagined it to be much like the place my father grew up. To my surprise, it was even smaller. Roanoke Rapids has a Walmart. Eatonville has a Family Dollar.
Rise Mural (Zora Side), Eatonville, FL
Rise Mural (back)
key takeaways:
Black laborers “rising and returning to the mist”
J. Andre Smith (Black Jesus murals) & Josiah Eaton (put the money up to found Eatonville)
what’s with all the white boys having Black names?
A.M.E.:
African, because of the Africans who sat in the “nigga pews”
Methodist, the denomination
Episcopal, the order of the bishop
“LIMITATIONS GIVE BIRTH TO CREATIVITY”- Trent Tomengo
In the evening there was a presentation at Rollins College, ‘Vignettes from ‘Let My People Sing’’ a play the students created about Zora. No shade, it was… what it was lol. I know there are limitations to educational theatre, particularly at the undergraduate level and I’m always hesitant to truly critique these things because they’re essentially children, but really they aren’t to blame anyway. I blame the faculty. I blame the education system.
For some reason, especially in undergraduate productions people feel the need to make everything multicultural and “for all.” Though Zora’s academic life outside of Eatonville included white people, many of these were strictly essential relationships where Zora said and did whatever she needed to in an effort to get what she needed to survive. It was strange to watch young white girls cry about ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’— for them to say they never saw the transformative value or power of performance until they were 18 on a PWI campus doing a student driven production about Zora Neale Hurston. It was actually kind of comical and… disrespectful? My existence has always been political. I’ve never known the art I created or participated in to be anything but that. Even in show choir, my existence was representation— it didn’t matter that we were singing a Disney medley.
Day 2
Day 2 was presentation day for me. I am extremely proud of what I accomplished and I feel like this presentation was even better than the last. I’m still working on pacing and lifting my head up but I think people still appreciated what I was able to share. The day began at St. Lawrence AME where we got to hear Dr.Ruthe T. Sheffey (in her 100th year!) speak about Zora and the festival and it reminded me so much of my grandmother. She told us the same story three times— like the exact same thing— in the way that only elderly people can. Grateful to have that experience.
Our moderator, Trent Tomengo called me Dr. Jefferies all morning. I told him I was not a doctor, but he insisted and I accepted it. Language is powerful. It was spoken (it is written).
During the Q&A portion of my session, we were asked how care shows up in our classrooms and I didn’t get a chance to answer so I’ll do it now:
I introduce myself: name, pronouns, and how I’m feeling. I tell my students that in order to work together, we must consider and respect each other. It is important that everyone knows where we’re starting— if I’m having a bad day, my students need to know that my behavior isn’t personal or about them, I’m just having a bad day. And vice versa. When my students talk over each other, I tell them that what they have to say is important and I can’t hear those important things if they’re all talking at once. I emphasize that I want to hear them. I model care, and I let them know that taking care of each other/considering each other is the first step to creating collaboratively.
reading list from “Zora for Kids: The Place of Hurston in Children’s Literature” by Kenneth Kidd (University of Florida):
The Brownies Book (W.E.B. DuBois)
‘Drenched in Light’ (1926)
‘Dust Tracks on the Road’ by Zora Neale Hurston
‘Lies and Other Tall Tales’ adapted and illustrated by Christopher Myers
Dr. Ibram Kendi: ‘Magnolia Flower’ and ‘The Making of Butterflies’
key takeaways:
Waadi Festival “Beautiful Feast of the Valley” (2055 - 1650 BCE)
connecting and honoring ancestors (remembrance)
ran several days in Kemet/Ancient Egypt
ancestral resurrection: calling a name 3x
After those two sessions we hit the streets. We roamed Eatonville, did a scavenger hunt & trivia in the library, and then later we went out in DTO. I was hungover the next day so… you know it was a good time lol.
Care isn’t a concept but an embodied practice. It is in everything I do— in every interaction, every conversation. It is the worry before I speak/the worry after I speak/the consideration of my words.
Care is making a place for myself and for others.
As the world burns,
“as the grimy globe spins,”
I find solace in spaces like these— where we are valued, commemorated, defied and encouraged. I am so grateful to know Zora and truly honored to contribute to her legacy in this way.
Big Zor Zor the conduit you are! The force you are! I can only hope my archive will be as decadent.
