ZoraFest

Noted Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston spent her final years in Florida, creating the first black baby doll, covering the Ruby McCollum murder trial as a reporter, writing the biography of a famous Dade County judge and writing columns for the local black newspaper in Fort Pierce.

These were just a few of the stories Hurston author Lynn Moylan shared with Vero Beach residents attending a Florida Humanities Council presentation at The Emerson Center. Moylan is the author of Zora Neale Hurston’s Final Decade, recognized by the Florida Book Awards with a Silver Medal for Nonfiction.

Moylan, a teacher in the Palm Beach County School District, spent nearly 10 years researching Hurston and her many activities throughout the state before she died on January 28, 1960 in Fort Pierce. She is buried in Sarah’s Memorial Garden on North 17th Street.

Hurston came to Fort Pierce in 1957 to work as a reporter / columnist at The Chronicle, the local black newspaper owned by publisher C.E. Bolen. He had known Hurston’s family from Eatonville, an all black community northeast of Orlando, and knew she was looking for a job. Her job consisted of stories from the community, but also her experiences collecting black cultural songs and oral histories while working for the Federal Writers Project and on various anthropological fellowships.

Hurston also taught 9th grade English at Lincoln Park Academy when it was an all-black school.

Moylan’s presentation at The Emerson explained Hurston’s final 10 years and her many friendships that were established as she came to appreciate her life in Fort Pierce. Among those friends were noted Florida landscape artist A.E. “Bean” Backus, Miami Herald reporter Anne Wilder and others.

Moylan was a guest speaker at the 2013 Zora Fest! in early March and a guest speaker for the Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando following her Vero Beach program.

Pictured above at The Emerson Center are, from left, Center host Susan Granpierre, Marine Bank President and CEO and Humanities program sponsor Bill Penney, author Lynn Moylan and Zora Fest! committee member Adrienne Moore.

Zora Scholars / Zora Fest!
Saturday, March 9 / Lincoln Park Academy
1806 Avenue I / Fort Pierce
Presentation at 1 p.m.

Lynn Moylan, author of Zora Neale Hurston’s Final Decade, will discuss the last 10 years of Hurston’s life in Florida, including her final years in Fort Pierce. This presentation will be part of the afternoon discussions at Lincoln Park Academy on Saturday, March 9.

Among the stories are Zora’s life in Eau Gallie before moving to Fort Pierce, her work as a maid in Miami Beach which led to her writing a biography of the late U.S. Senator George Smathers’s father, a long-time Dade County judge, and a black baby doll project that brought Zora and Sarah Creech in touch with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Lynn is a teacher in the Palm Beach County School District. Since her book was published, she is a recipient of the Florida Book Awards in Non-Fiction and a speaker at the annual Amelia Island Book Fair.

Loquacious and Bodacious / Starring Karen Stephens in a one-woman play
Presented by the Bob Carter’s Actors Workshop & Repertory Company
Friday, March 8 / 7 p.m. / Indian River State College Black Box Theatre
Admission is FREE / Seating is limited / RSVP at (772) 971-1744.

Karen Stephens, Actress, Performer, Writer, Director
Known for her portrayals of author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Karen has performed as Zora in Loquacious and Bodacious, The Life and Times of Zora Neale Hurston on stage and the Actors Workshop and in the St. Lucie Film Society documentary “that’s livin’.”

A theatre graduate from the University of Florida, Karen has also appeared in the Maltz Jupiter Theatre’s production of Doubt, and in the award-winning Carbonell Award ensembles in Chicago, Little Shop of Horrors and West Side Story. She was also a Carbonell Award nominee for her role in the Florida Stag’es production of Spunk, one of Zora’s popular plays. She has many other honors to her credit.

For three seasons, Karen has directed productions at The Kravis Center for the Performing Arts education department and has worked on several other teenage workshop projects through her acting talent. In 2004, she was honored with the Clyde Fyfe Award from the Palm Beach Cultural Council for artistic development and community service and Delta Sigma Theta’s 2009 Woman of Excellence in the Arts.

Loquacious and Bodacious was written by the late Bhetty Waldron of West Palm Beach.

Celebrate Zora Neale Hurston’s Love of Hats

At Annual Hattitude Luncheon

The Zora Neale Hurston Florida Education Foundation will be celebrating the famed Harlem Renaissance author’s love of hats during its annual Hattitude luncheon – Tea Time with Zora.

The luncheon is Saturday, June 30, 2012, beginning at 2 p.m. at the Fort Pierce Yacht Club, 700 No Indian River Drive in Fort Pierce.  Tickets are $35 per person and can be obtained from Foundation Chair Linda Henderson at (772) 971-1744.  Hats are required for each guest.

Hurston, named the Queen of the Harlem Renaissance, was known for her love of hats.  In fact, it is difficult to find photos of the famed author without a hat.  Hurston’s most famous book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, celebrates the 75^th anniversary of its printing in September.

Hurston came to Fort Pierce in 1957, following a lengthy career as an author and an anthropologist.  Many of her books concentrate on her anthropological studies.  Locally, she was a part-time 9^th grade English teacher at Lincoln Park Academy, an all-black school at the time, and she worked as a columnist for The Chronicle, an all-black newspaper, in Fort Pierce.

She died on January 28, 1960 and was buried in Sarah’s Memorial Garden in Fort Pierce.  Her gravesite is a dedication to her life and is one of the stops on the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail.  She was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1990.

For additional information and luncheon reservations, contact 772-971-1744.

Zora Fest! Authors

Zora Fest! Authors