Art Works Podcast Valerie Boyd on Zora Neale Hurston
We’re marking Women’s history month by replaying my in-depth interview with the late Valerie Boyd who wrote the acclaimed “Wrapped in Rainbows: the Biography of Zora Neale Hurston.” Zora Neale Hurston is now recognized one of America’s great authors whose work opened doors for writers like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. When we heard that Valerie Boyd who wrote the acclaimed biography of Hurston “Wrapped in Rainbows: The Biography of Zora Neale Hurston” died on February 17, it seemed appropriate to honor both women by revisiting my 2006 in-depth interview with Valerie Boyd about Hurston and “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” In this podcast, Boyd talks about the impact Hurston and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” had on literature, the significance of Hurston’s hometown of Eatonville to her life and work, Hurston’s place in the Harlem Renaissance, and her final years out of the public eye but deeply embedded in her community. Boyd brought years of research, her writer’s eye, and a keen curiosity to the biography and to our conversation.