Hurston's 'Folklore'

Hurston wrote once that folklore is the boiled down juice of human living. While she touches on other themes like race and domestic violence, her aim is ultimately to depict the inner life of the people whose lives shape and are shaped by folklore. She explained this decades later in an essay called what white publishers won't print. Hurston was perfectly placed to explore this corner of black experience and demonstrate its value. Traditional black music was a subject of intense fascination for the thinkers of the harlem renaissance.