Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston

by Valerie Boyd

“No one around me knew how often I rode my prancing horse,” she recalled, “nor the things I saw in far places.”

no more fear of the fury of Reconstruction.

Then, too, Eatonville seemed to be the kind of place where a man like John could stretch out his limbs without the irritation of some plantation boss’s foot on his neck.

my stomach burned and turned and I yelled out, upset that after fighting against rape and overcoming it, I feel like I’ve been abandoned by everyone I. I yelled out, “you’re harassing a rape victim,” as some people talked loudly in the yard behind me apartment. Then I got some food and sat down.

“From mine, my stomach pains were the least of my sufferings. I wanted what they could not conceive of. I could not reveal myself for lack of expression, and then for lack of hope of understanding, even if I could have found the words.”

She wanted education and excitement and adventure. She wanted a big life.

With her secret-keeping grin and frank eyes, she was a lovely young woman—

Howard University yearbook, Zora contributed a couple of tongue-in-cheek pieces: “A Chapter From the Book of Life” and “An Academic Nightmare.” She was listed as a member of the Stylus, Zeta Phi Beta, and the Howard Players—the campus theatrical company. “Zora’s greatest ambition,” the yearbook divulged, “is to establish herself in Greenwich Village where she may write stories and poems and live an unrestrained Bohemian.”

From seventh grade on, all I wanted was to live amongst other writers and artists. I worked hard to have a career and a life. I was good and supportive to people when they asked me for advise or time. I didn’t hurt anyone and I made sure to report everything that I could about the people stalking me. Why am I denied everything I worked for, everything I earned, and everything I’ve ever owned.

As a daughter of the conjure-rich black South, Zora also believed in mystical forces, and often felt attuned to them, as her soothsaying dreams proved. Though Mason’s money was generations old, Hurston saw in the blue-blooded woman someone who was, as she put it, “just as pagan as I.” Convinced that Mason’s interest in black culture was genuine, Zora immediately offered to take her to the Harlem church that she and Hughes liked to attend. The “primitivism” that Mason held in such high esteem flourished at this church, where worshipers sang God’s praises in a raw, unrehearsed way—and welcomed possession by the Holy Ghost in keeping with an old-time religion that was more ancient than they themselves knew.

No longer under Mason’s thumb—or Locke’s watchful eye—Hurston was free to trust her own instincts, as a social scientist and an artist.

She had been hired by the Seminole County Chamber of Commerce to entertain the city of Sanford with a mobile version of her concert. A sound truck had been rented to drive up and down the city’s streets while her performers sang.

“I love myself when I am laughing. And then again when I am looking mean and impressive.”

Lead Belly,

Please see My Life by Meena Menon in the albums section of my Facebook page for what medication did to my life. I was an honors student at the top of my class when some doctor started prescribing Prozac and trazodone even though he stated that there was “ nothing wrong” with me. I was kicked out of my honors classes by the end of that school year, a few months at most. By the end of next year, I dropped out. Www.facebook.com/Meena.menon.18. There’s a link here in my goodreads page.