ACTIVITY 8 SATISFY MY SOUL W&I pp 200-207
1. Zora Neale Hurston was one of the leaders of a movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
a. What was the Harlem Renaissance?
b. Who were some of the other leaders of the movement?
2. Lowe refers to Hurston’s "biological-insider status" as the component that allowed her to gather tales and information that were denied to white researchers.
a. What does the term biological insider mean?
b. Is biological-insider status a stereotype or a form of racism, or does it reflect a truth of human nature? Explain.
c. Does this sort of status apply to any subgroup? Explain.
d. What are two examples of Hurston’s comments that would be unacceptable if spoken by an "outsider"?
3. The Florida Negro is a book Hurston compiled for the Federal Writers Project.
a. What was the Federal Writers Project?
b. What well-known writers other than Hurston were involved in it?
c. Much of the work from the Federal Writers Project was tucked away until recently. What is the lasting significance of the project in general and Every Tongue Got to Confess in particular?
4. The author likens the creation stories to the oral tradition of Native Americans. Rudyard Kipling did something quite similar in Just So Stories.
a. In what other traditions or cultures do you find explanations for why things are as they are?
b. Read "Creation" by James Weldon Johnson. How does this poem reflect the culture for which it was written? How does it compare with the creation stories in the Book of Genesis?
5. One of the stories Hurston collected answers the question of how women balance the physical power of men. What other stories can you find that deal with similar issues?
6. Lowe refers to "De Flying Negro" as a "trickster like figure" that "permits corrective humor that might help educate youngsters." In what other tradition(s) do you find trickster tales?
7. Another tradition that Lowe reports is that which he calls a sequence of one-liners, such as "He is so ugly," or "She is so mean."
a. Are you familiar with a contemporary form of these humorous insults?
b. What is it called?
c. Who practices it?
