And the influence that she has had on africanamerican culture. Good evening, everyone. Think you so much for being here with us. Im the executive producer of the green space. We have been on an extraordinary journey over the last month. The green spaces honored the 75th anniversary of Zora Neale Hurstons novel, their eyes were watching god. One month from today is the threeyear anniversary of the green space. Our hope and mission is to take audiences on a soul stirring journey to connect, to inspire, and to transform. I want to acknowledge two visionaries who are here who have been ears lee supportive of the green space. Laura walker, president and ceo of new york public radio. [applause] thank you, laura. And marina lackland, Vice President of integrated marketing. [applause] all of the video from the festival, including tonight you can find and share on the green space. Org. Our celebration began on february 24 with a look at Langston Hughes hosted by culex our house, and a feature pianist, randy weston and scholar arc primus. One week later the green space presented the american premiere of the richly powerful radio adaptation of their eyes are watching god, directed by ruben sent iago hudson. The unparalleled skills for stories that matter continue to inspire me. They are right here in the front row. [applause] also of note, please stay tuned for the radio broadcast in september 2012 on wnyc 93. Carl hancock brought us the amazing music and literary salon featuring toshi reagan, nonie hendrix, Patrice Johnson and more. Karl is with us this evening. [applause] and my take away from the last 30 days is pure gratitude. So please bear with me as they as i thank the people behind the scenes for the project. Victoria sanders and associates, whose support has really made all the difference. Thank you so much. Id also like to acknowledge edward hurston. He may be joining us later this evening. My colleagues have allowed this project to take flight and reach a widespread audience through the Creative Process and press Community Engagement and marketing efforts. If you are here, can you please waive . [applause] last but not least is my green space team, a team that i get to spend my days and most of my evenings with, comprised of truly beautiful human being to human beings who never respond with why, but rather why not . Nikki johnson by ricardo fernandes, eric heymans, esau tyler norman, david maclean, please join me in thanking them. And to help me introduce tonights esteemed panel, women on the horizon, [applause] lucy ann hurston, is the author of speed, so you can speak again, the life of zora Neale Hurston. Though only three years old then zora died, lucien thurston has over her lifetime compiled a need to have knowledge of her aunts life and work. Lucianne hurstons own work as an academic sociologist with Field Research in jamaica and other places provides her with a unique connection to her aunts perspective and life. Shes been a producer and host of two documentaries on zora and directed a High School Production of the play. Lucianne hurston teaches at Manchester Community college in connecticut. Lucianne hurston begins her work , speak so you can speak again. Zora Neale Hurston ignites passion. Once introduced her story does she told and those told about her. People want more. [applause] alice walker is an internationally celebrated author, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, for collections of short tories, four short stories childrens , four books and volumes of essays and poetry. She is best known for the color purple, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize and the first africanamerican woman to win the bullet surprise for fiction and the National Book award. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages in her books have sold more than 15 million copies. Walkers most recent works are overcoming speechlessness, a poet encounters the horror and in rwanda, from eastern congo in palestine israel, hard time requires furious dancing, the world is changed, conversations with alice walker and the chicken chronicles, sitting with the angels who have returned with my memories, a memoir. In 1973, alice walker resurrected a work of zora Neale Hurston which he traveled to port pearce florida can put a headstone after unmarked graves. Walker is one of the worlds most prolific writers, yet tirelessly continues to travel the road to literally stand on the side of the poor and the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed. A quote from alice walker. We belong to the same world, a world where grief is not only acknowledged, but shared, where we see injustice and call it by its name, where we see suffering and know the one who stands and sees is also alarmed. But not nearly so much as someone who stands and sees and says and does nothing. [applause] ruby dees acting career spanned more than 50 years and is included theater, radio, television and theaters. On stage, ms. Dee was the first black woman to play lead roles at the american shakespeare festival. Although she has appeared in over 50 films, her life is not all been just that. She has long been active in a variety of movements. She along with ossie davis traveled to nigeria as goodwill ambassadors and eulogized malcolm x in 1965 and later his widow, Betty Shabazz in 1987. Jointly presented with the academy of arts and science silver circles award in 1994 coming dee and davis officially became National Treasures when they received the National Medal of arts in 1995. In 2000, they were presented the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award. They are inductees in the theater hall of fame as well as the naacp hall of fame. In 2008 ms. Dee was awarded the best supporting actress for her role in the film, american gangster. She also received an Academy Award nomination for this role. Ms. Dee is proud of her onewoman show, zora is by name about zora Neale Hurston. She stated, the kind of beauty i want most is the hard to get kind that comes from within, strength, courage, identity. [applause] sonia sanchez, poet, activist, and scholar, was the first president ial fellow at Temple University and was also at the forefront of the black studies movement and tout the first course in the country on black women. Teaching the novel, their eyes were watching god. Shes the she is the author of over 16 books. Her most recent, morning haiku. Ms. Sanchezs extraordinary voices arent heard the american book award, the Langston Hughes poetry award and she was a finalist for the National Book critics circle award for does your house appliance . Does your house have lions . Having lectured amid poetry to over 500 universities, colleges and organizations all over the country, sanchez and the world has established a reputation of the highly renowned voice in the 20th century. Freedom sisters coming National Tour exhibit from the smithsonian brings to life 20 africanamerican women from the last 200 years who have fought for equality for all americans. Sister sonya is one of the 20 and in 2011 sanchez was tapped as the first poet laureate of philadelphia. She stated, i write to keep in contact with their ancestors and to spread truth to people. Please join me in welcoming lucianne hurston, alice walker, ruby dee and sonia sanchez. [applause] [cheering] good evening, everyone. Good evening. So no i am now i am going to scare everybody. Im going to come off script and im going to say, i sit at the feet of the masters. [applause] i am lucianne hurston and im honored to join you here at the green space to take you through a conversation with three extraordinary women whose voices have blazed to trails and created an indelible pattern in the fabric of our global tapestry. The green space at wnyc, and wqxr is honoring the 75th anniversary of zora Neale Hurston, their eyes were watching god. And tonight is the final installment of that series. Lets begin with zoras writings. Throughout this evenings conversation, youll hear passages selected and read by each of us. We begin with awardwinning act dress, ruby dee, who takes us to the opening passages of the novel. Yes, thank you, thank you. [applause] oh my goodness. Ships, she begins. This is from the introduction. Ships at a distance have every mans wish on board for sunday, and others they sale river on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the water turns his eyes away into resignation, his dreams locked to death by time. That is the life of men. Now women, forget all of those things they do not want to remember, and remember everything they do not want to forget. The dream is the truth. They act and do things accordingly. So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead. Not the dead of sick and ailing and defeat. She had to come back from the so dden and bloated, eyes flung wide open in judgment. The people all saw her come because of the sun down. But the sun had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, your list, earless, eyeless inconveniences all day long, but now the sun and the boss man were gone, so the skin felt powerful and human. They became lords of sound and let things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment. [applause] this is zora. No one else could do it. Thank you. My on zora aunt zora wrote this novel in seven weeks while doing anthropological work in haiti. I found her in the attic of my house on 51st st in brooklyn, looking through an old book with freight pages, i began to read their eyes were watching god for the first time at age nine. And here is the passage that i found most inspiring for the multiple times that i have read their eyes were watching god. And it is about the power of a woman to play hell with a man. Aint no use in getting all mad, janie, because you are no young gal no more. Nobody in here and looking at you for no wide out a few. Old as he lives. Now, i ate no young gal no more, but i know old women either. I reckon i look my age, too. But i am a woman every inch of me and i knows it. Thats a whole lot more you can say, your big bellies around here. That aint nothing in a pitcher but voice. Talk about me looking old, when you pull down your purchase, you look like the change of life. [laughter] great god from zion. You really read the dozens tonight. What you dont say joes challenge, hoping his ears have fulltime. You heard here. There is a talented. Id rather be shot by myself like most commiserated. Then joe start realized all the meaning, and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his allusion, but all men share it, which was terrible. The thing that god had done to david, but janie had done worse. She had cast down his empty armor before the men, and they had left, laughed, would keep on laughing. When he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. They look with envy at their things and pitied him man that owns them. When he said in judgment, he would not be the same. What can excuse a man in the guise of other men for lack of strength. Works of 16 and 17 would be giving him their merciless pity out of their eyes, while their mouths said something humble. There was nothing to do in life anymore. Ambition was useless, and the cruel deceit of janie, making all but sure of humbleness and scorning him all the time and laughing at him and now putting the town at the same. Joe start did not know the words for this, but he knew the feeling, so he struck janie with all of his might and drove her from the store. [applause] i am going to ask each of you to share with us your relationship with zora Neale Hurston and this novel and the characters in particular, janie. Alice, ill start with you. You have said theres no book more important to me than this one. It was august, 1973. And you journeyed to fort pearce, florida in search of her unmarked grave and you marked it with a headstone that read genius of the south. [applause] lets start with what led you to that moment. To back up a bit, i was writing a story myself that needed voodoo information, and all of the anthropologists i came across were hideously racist and painfully racist. And i felt very strongly that all of our work has to be underpinned by facts and real things as much as we can manage that. And so i kept looking and i find finally saw zoras name in a foot note in the most racist of the anthropologists. And i started looking for her because the story i needed to tell was based on a story that my own mother had told us about being in the depression and being hungry and needing food and going to the commissary to ask for food. But my mother that same week had received a shipment of clothes from relatives in the north and relatives in the north, they still had nicer clothing. So so they sent her some really nice clothes and she put them on. My mother was very beautiful. And so she put on his clothes. She went to ask for food and the white woman said how dare you come here asking for anything looking better than me. Now, my mother wouldve looked better than her anyway, but she really, you know so i thought felt the humiliation at that moment for my mother. And i needed a story to tell since i am not violent. Many in my family are violent, but i dont seem to have that gene. So i have instead a creative g ene, so i decided to write a story that would use voodoo, to take care of this woman. But it had to be authentic. It had to be the real deal. So i found zora and i found exactly how you do this and i put it in the story. And then from that, i went on to read their eyes were watching god, fell in love with it, started teaching it, talking about it. Loving her very deeply. And so, when i found out that she was buried somewhere and nobody knew quite rare and she had an ending that wasnt so good, i was embarrassed. I could not fathom that someone who had given us so much beauty could be left so unacknowledged, and that was the reason i took that journey. The story there was that what i went with someone who lived in florida, got to the country and the cemetery was filled with these tall weeds. I said charlotte, are you going to go with me cry if she was kind of hanging close to the car. And she said, well, no. And i said why not . She said i am from florida. I know what is out there. So i had to get back there really fast because my daughter was small. So i started calling your aunt and i called her and i just started walking towards the middle of this place and i really pretty much fell into her grave. And so that was that. [applause] ms. Ruby, oh yeah. You had a onewoman show entitled zora is my name and did the audio recording or their eyes were watching God Television special. You have many connections to this book as well. Will you share with us at least some of those . Where to begin . First of all, thank you, alice, for finding that grave because what a gift to us all. I didnt know that ive met zora. I said nora because i have a daughter named nora. I wanted to name my daughter nor a zora, so i called her nearest and i could because i felt i should get permission or something. I dont know. Do you want me to change it to zora like i did when you were born . But i didnt know that i had met zora when i was very young. I dont know at the library i won some prize in a poetry contest. Anyway, my mother kept a scrapbook of all the things that we did and my mother was one of those who started writing when i could hold a pen and pencil. So one day when i was quite older, she gave me this book to go through because i hadnt really looked at it. And there she showed me an article where i had met zora in the library where i had gotten this award. But i didnt know that i had met her. So i just wish i could have you know, i wish i had been aware at that time that i was meeting zora. Shes been one of the most important women in my life. I dream about her, i adapted some of the work for a Television Show that i did for great performances on pbs. So everything i could read. Ive written about zora. And people who come to my house, one of the places they stay is in the zora room, so that is a part of my life. What was i answering . Was i answering the question . [laughter] [applause] and you did the relay. And i wrote a Television Show, and so many people that wrote about zora, professors and such a connection she has had so many people next to alices discovery. For so many people in literature know zora Neale Hurston. She is seminal. She is like the bible to us. Shes root lady. Bring her to the world. Sonia sanchez, you have taught [laughter] sonia, you have taught this book, their eyes were watching god all over the country for the last few decades, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of the black studies program. Where did your journey began with this book . We have to all sitting on this stage pay homage to sister alice, who did something for another black woman writer that we all need to understand they must always do with their women writers on this earth. If they have been lost, we discover them and we put up tombstones, and we celebrate them, and when she did that we all stopped in our tracks and send out love to sister alice. So we should really [applause] i got out of Hunter College, went to Hunter College because i was part of a generation we could not afford to pay in these private schools. In city you had to pay for books, but at Hunter College you got books free. And so, i graduated january 55 and my dad said you should go out and get a job before you start teaching in september because he said you are going to teach because you come from a line of teachers. I said, ok dad, and he said you will not get a job writing. Because i went to the right. So i got the times every sunday and those of you who is looking for a job sometimes know how they say respond to the new york times, xp, debbie 12456, whatever. And send your cv and a sample of your writing and i did that. What a week later i got a telegram. For the young people you say what is a telegram . [laughter] there was once upon a time a telegram when they ring your doorbell and handed you this yellow thing, and i opened it on monday. I got my fathers face and i said, see, i can get a job writing it someplace. My father looked at me and said uh huh because he came from the south. So southern black man, although he lived all these years in new york city. He said youre still going to be teaching in september. I put on my blue suit, my blue shoes. White clouds and white hat. And they said show up at 9 00 and i got there at 8 30 because i could not do ct time for this job. So i got there at 8 30 and this kind receptionist looks at me and opened the door, and i took at the telegram. Have you ever had someone look at something and then look at you and then look at something. There mustve been another entrance of the office, because she goes out and she was gone for 10 minutes, takes out her typewriter and starts to work. I had came around like that, and another had came around like that. Around 10 minutes to 9 00 a man said im sorry, the job is taken. I had come from new york, so i decided to use my humor. I said i know i got here too early. Im going to go outside and come back at 9 00 because the telegram said reports work at night and so i know im early. Ill go back outside and then come back in and everything will be ok. I never laughed, smiled, whatever. But again he did the same name. Look at the telegram, looked at me. The whole thing was like how the how in the world to the he seven. Said the job is taken. So he turned his back and walked away down the hall. I said i know its discrimination. I am going to report you to the urban league. She turned around and looked at me and just shrugged. I took my hat off, gloves off and got on the subway. Those of you from new york no know you have to take the number one train. But i was so mad i got to 96 so i get off at 135th street. Across lenox avenue, and there is a guy outside about a quarter into the block smoking a cigarette, and there was this thing that says schomburg. I said to them, whats the schomburg . He said lady, if you want to know, go inside. So the old schomburg has the book that you sign almost right outside the door. I walked inside into the old schomburg and theres this long table in all these men with their heads down writing and there was this class compartment there. Ms. Jean hudson, and she opened the door, and she said, yes, dear . Gentlewoman. I said, what is the schomburg . She said my dear, this library has books only by and about black people. I smiled my 20yearold smile and said there must not be many books in here. Every semester she would look at me with that very sly smile, so i have been interesting story to tell about your professor, and she told that story. You know how students are. Ive got something on you, professor. And she would disappear and say sit down, i am going to bring you some books. The scholars looked up and said who is this woman, because they were all male in there. It took us 30 minutes, and she came back with three books. On the bottom, up from slavery, little folks sold for black folks, and of the top their eyes were watching god. I have no idea why she put that on top, but i do have an idea we should put that on top. I opened it and said this is smooth sailing across then i got to the black english. I kept going through it, whatever. I brought back into me my servant roots for that, by the way. Southern roots for that, by the way. I backed up and she said what is your name again . How can i be considered an educated woman, right, and i have not read this book. She said, no, my dear, do not worry. I will feed you all kinds of books. I eased back in. I got up, eased out, knocked on the door, and she gave me a tissue. As she said who in the world is this young woman, right, who is come to this library . She said to go sit down dear. I will really help you. This time this fellow said, ms. Hudson, either tell this woman to sit down and sit still or she has to be. I came every day, and ms. Hudson sent me book after book after book and she said im going to send you to two people, because you see this is what people involved in the community will do. They will finally look at you and see something in your eyes and say, ok, im going to help you continue this. I went to the bookstore and it had two paper for the books. I had to take a cab home. I had the books already. I came back to mr. Richard moore. Richard moore was an amazing hand. He had a store so narrow that you had to go in sideways to get in. But what i loved about it, he said he was up on one of those getting some books and was they who are you . He said youre the one ms. Hudson sent me and i said yes. He started this litany of west indian writers. I havent read them. He says and you call yourself educated . And he came down off this big roller and then he brought in two bags of books for me. And i came back to mr. Morris bookstore because the arafat because he always had students from columbia and city college, and they talked about great things, and i am the quiet one. I sat there and this little place and listen to this man talk. That was my first introduction, not only to zora Neale Hurston, but also to all of these great writers. And years later, i asked her, you know i asked her what did you see in my eyes . That you would send me out to these bookstores . She said i knew you would continue this. I was on the brothers tv shows some years ago and she was still alive and he asked me, who were some of your influences. I did not name all of the people i traveled with in terms of the writers, alice and tony, veronica, malcolm, martin, whatever. I stopped middrive, and i sent a woman i have never, ever mentioned out loud. I said ms. Jane hudson, sister hudson is the one who direct to directed me and kept me going. And she is the one i call in san francisco. Am i talking too long . [laughter] [applause] ill cut you off when its time. Ill ask you this, sonia. Ms. Hudson directed you to their eyes were watching god. Right. May you please share with us your favorite passage from that book and take us through the significance of that passage . That meant that i really wanted to read the whole book for you. [laughter] and i realize. This is a book that i taught all of those years, so it is falling apart, so since she started, i figured i should continue it, because i was not sure what other people had. I remembered, when i stumbled after that beginning, seeing the woman as she would make them remember at the that would store up from other times so they chewed up the bad parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made to burning statements with questions and killing out of lives. It was lies, cruelty, a mood, life, words walking without masters, walking together like harmony and a song. What is she doing coming back here in those overalls . Cant she find a dress to put on . Where is that blue satin dress she left here in. What is that 40yearold woman doing with her hair swinging down her back like some young gal . Where should she left that led up a boy . Well, he left here. What is he done with all her money . She even got no hairs. Why she dont stay in her class . I love that. Why she dont stay in her class . When she got to where they work, she turned her face and spoke, they scrambled a noisy good evening and let their mouths setting open and their ears full of folk. Her speech was pleasant enough, but she kept walking straight on. Ports couldnt talk. The men noticed her firm buttocks like she grapefruits in their hip pockets. I tell you, the gray world of black hair swinging to her waist in unraveling the win like a a plume, then her breasts trying to put holes in their shared, demand were saying with a mind with this last with the guys. The woman took the shirt and baggy overalls and and a good way for remembrance. It was a weapon against training syndicate turned out of no significant, so it was a hope that she might fall to their level someday, but nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Nobody even thought to swallow until after her gate slammed behind her. [applause] did i mention that i sit at the feet of the masters. This novel has been called a love story, a woman, feminist novel. Are there other interpretations . Hurston wrote their eyes in 1936 in only six weeks while doing Anthropological Research in haiti. When Zora Neale Hurstons their eyes were watching god was First Published in 1937, it did not receive the acclaim or recognition that it receives today. White critics were in some ways more accepting of the novel than black writers and intellectuals. One of the pros one of the most prominent, richard wright, said that the novel was seamless and meaningless. He thought that by betraying his people as quaint, that hurston has exploited them. Explain to us this initial reception of the works. Well, i think that, you know, as people of color weve been under siege and that has forced us under distorted self conceptions. And we cant really see ourselves. So i think that we have been looking for, you know, ways to be and this incredible incredibly toxic culture so that we can be healthy and safe eyes survive and so we have often gone to things like you know, not so well adjusted marxism, which is Richard Wrights problem among some others. And we tried. And you know, i love richard wright. One of the great things about loving your people is that you just love them. We all have so many shortcomings, but weve given a really good struggle here. We have done as well in this mess of a civilization as anybody could possibly do, and we should remind ourselves of that on a daily basis. [applause] but where it is so painful is that our distortions, the culture causes, we cause ourselves sometimes, for various reasons can elude us to inflict such pain on people who are just trying to express how they suggest and just trying to express how they feel, and often just trying to express their love. You cannot read this book without being drenched in love. In the love of your people you see in them all their foibles, weird haircuts, aggie pans, and people with weird names and on and on and on. That is us. And there is just so much beauty in being authentic whatever you are, so the beauty of this work was lost on these people, because they were afraid. You know, they were afraid that if people saw essentially all this unstoppable joy i mean, you are not supposed to be joyful. You are down there being lynched. You are supposed to be picketing something. If you are not picketing, you need to at least be sending out leaflets and fighting and all that. But to actually have joy in your life is a great victory, and that is something i feel she left it was, this ability to understand what true success is. True success is about being happy and it is about doing what you have to do to survive, but you have your good times. You have your music. You have your dances. And this is it. You know, this is what is of value to human life. So she shared this with us at great cost to herself. And i just feel so grateful. And i wish the people who maligned her, i feel so sorry for them. You know, they just missed an opportunity to enlarge themselves, you know, to grow the kind of self self acceptance, the irrepressible courage, the kind of wisdom, you know, just being happy with who you are. I mean, what a joy. I think we should say to that instead of amen awoman. [applause] it was written to represent a tradition of storytelling, of telling history, whereas im sure they would refer to it as herstory. Janie has been called a heroin. Her quest for identity takes them on a journey during which she learns what love is, experiences lifes joys and sorrows and comes home to herself in peace. What is the significance of this female character in the American Literary canon . This would be dee. My friend here. I love zora because she brings us to essences. She brings us to beginnings. She defines in a sense a reason that we have not considered why we had to come to this country, was that we have a job to do, and we are still in the process of doing that job. That is to particularize the absolute stunning nature of the human character, the human experience, of the human being, because she made me feel, no matter what religion you come from and eventually i find out zora was describing human beings and telling us something about ourselves. She was telling us that we are the god stuff. And she was egging us on to become, she was trying to point out the richness of who we are in this world. Zora made me believe in immortality. Because of what the characters that she wrote about, the character she passed on. Were still working with them. Were still dealing with them in our society and we have to offer the world because she felt so delved so deeply into the core of these people that she worked with, and not one dimensionally. And that whole group of people around the magazine that she did , she gave us she was a platform. She was the springboard, the jumping off point for us as human beings in this country, in this part of the world. She taught us a new value for the human being. And when i talk to people when i was doing the thing for zora is my name and i researched all the people that wrote about zora i couldnt believe it. That is another weakness. I wish i could remember some of these names. Theyre white, black. I mean, she was a woman pulling from the elements. You know, that is what she was doing. Did i answer your question . [applause] sonja, what in your opinion is the significance of the female character janie in the American Literary canon . That is a question i would have given some of my students, right . [laughter] you know, when i first started to teach this book, the teaching that you do these things thematically, you feel uncomfortable, because this is more than just separate things, and then you begin to look at this woman, this woman who is saying to many nanny, give me a minute to grow before i get married. Give me experience with a quick kiss. Let me get a little romance before you saddle me with a man so he could be my grandfather, right . Give me a minute just to kiss the air. Just stretch out into nothing. That is what we did sometimes. We stressed out and kiss to the air, did not move, it did not do anything at all. We also understand that was a nanny that wanted to protect her. We have always determined what our children do in order to make them safe, so they say to you you cannot be a poet because you cannot make money. You have got to be a teacher, doctor, dentist, you cannot be an artist. So she was this woman as artist. From the very beginning when you listen to her talk after thinking that this is a woman as artist at some point, but that is why you identify with her as this artist, poet, painter, because she is seeing the earth as an artist. Maybe i am being a little biased , but i think that women do see the earth as an artist, because we paint our bodies. We paint our bellies quite often with babies, and they come out black, green, purple, blue, all kinds of colors. We spill blood on this earth, right . And to be spill birth on thie earth, right. So you knew from the very beginning that when she looked up and saw someone else, you knew she was going to leave. And we champion that leaving. So get out of dodge, whatever, better. And on the other hand, this site society teaches you you dont make qwik decisions quick decisions about marriage like that. But sometimes you make quick decisions about life. And she recognized that some point that about making a quick decision about marriage was life, her life. And so she goes off and that great passage you were reading with the book, students all done on the ground in the classroom laughing, and the men sit and just stare, you know . And you talk about why they stare, and you talk about why they cannot fall down and left themselves too, because at some point we all have to left at ourselves, and you go on, and you understand this man, this young man, this man she goes off with. She had all of the normal fears that any woman out there on this earth might think about having a man 10 years younger than she, it is always surfaces in no Uncertain Terms. I used to give one of the questions is this a love story . One year i walked into class and said this is a murder story, and my students, the grad students in their looked at me like i was insane. Professor sanchez, and i said yeah, murder. Because every time she touches someone, they died. Every time she loves someone they died. Every time she went through someone in the book, from the first husband of the second has been to the third husband, they died. It means in no Uncertain Terms that she in a sense understood life and death. She moved in life and death and navigated it and came back, and the section will be read so beautifully ruby read so beautifully, she comes back and says i cant talk to you because i have to survive. I have to go and tell the story so i can understand it, and quite often we do not tell our stories, so we never understand it. And the joy i love being a writer with us just sitting here is we have told stories in order to understand what life and death are really all about. We have told stories to truly understand what it is truly like to walk on this earth. And this is a holy woman we talked about. We do a close reading. She is holy and she has made us holy too. [applause] miss alice walker, the 1990 edition of this novel has sold more than 5 million copies and has become the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of africanamerican literature. Janie has been called a heroine. Her quest for identity takes her on a journey, during which she learns what love is, experiences lifes joys and sorrows and comes home to herself in peace. What is it about this novel that connects the masses to this work . Everybody wants to be free. You know, it is wonderful to be loved, and it is even better to be loving, but without freedom, it is not the best. And so i think that we connect with this story because that the end, we find the woman alone and happy to be by herself at peace with being by herself. She has had many adventures and gone on many journeys and there she is at the end, you know, combing out her hair sitting on her own porch, and she gets autonomous. You know, shell choose her community. She was choose her family. She will choose her lovers, you know . She is herself. She is as free as probably anyone could be on this planet. And especially in a place like eatonville, and this is what is before all of us. We would like to connect directly with life. We have to do it in freedom. You cannot connect directly with life with somebody telling you when to wash the dishes. You cannot do it. In fact, i remember someone, who this is quite a little bit of an aside, but i was so in love with someone and we came back to our place and i was busy because well, i was busy. And this person in this case the men was annoyed, so he took that opportunity to remind me that actually our bathroom really could use a good cleaning. And i said, you know, ill help you find a place in another place, not here because i could see that his programming was that he would be able to direct and that i was expected to follow direction. I cannot follow direction, except my own direction. You know, my earth given, the divine direction. I am not here to be told when the bathroom needs to be cleaned. And neither is janie. This is part of what is happening in this book. She is learning that you are not here to be somebodys declaration. You are not your to be somebodys plaything. If you enjoy it for a couple of weeks, but [laughter] the miracle, the miracle, the absolute miracle of our being here takes a lot of attending. We are not just floating around here. Many of us are, of course, but actually to be here in this place is such an amazing experience and gift that it takes all that we have two really step up to it. One spring time i was walking in central park this morning looking at the tulips and the other trees that have the White Flowers and i was just overwhelmed by where we are. We are in this amazing mystery, and if you are trying to inhabit a major mystery, do you want somebody telling you clean the bathroom, winter coat, when to cook, what to wear, how old you look, any of that . You do not need any of that. You were on a sacred journey. It is yours to make. I love songs because they always sit on the head. The one i really love. It is about the design itself, hold my hand well i run this race, because i do not want to run this race in vain, and that is what we see happening to people. They are running the race into vain, because they are not connected to the actual force, and this is part of what we love so much in zoras she is talking about the tree, life, nature. And shes doing that wonderful thing where you see that for so many of us nature is the place we are safe in, and that is one of the reasons we have to fight to keep nature with us because without it, we are lost. Thank you. [applause] in a few moments, we will take two to three very brief questions. Let me emphasize that again. Very brief questions from the audience, but before we do, would you share with us one of your favorite passages in the novel, and tell us why this passage resonates with you. I would be very happy to do that. This is at the very end of the novel, and janie had to kill tea cake. He is so important to all of us, because we are all maybe not all, but so many of us are programmed to go for the guy in the suit and the one who is bringing home major bacon or whatever, but he is no fun. [laughter] [applause] i think sometimes it takes a long time to get it, you know. Boy, i have been had. This guy brings in 100,000 per year, and we have not danced in years, so our way with all of that. Away with all of that. We went to have some fun here. The people who run the world and are destroying it have no idea what this planet is for. It is for joy. Everything if you havent killed it, this planet says every single minute that this is a planet that is made for joy, and it is joyful, and we should be too. So anyway, she has had to kill tea cake because he was bitten by the mad dog, and then she was put on trial the same day which is a remarkable thing when you think about it. Talk about speedy justice. We could use some of that in samford, florida today to. [laughter] [applause] and by the way, i dont know if you realize this but samford is 10 miles from eatonville, and these are the same people, these are zoras people that are down there, so that family, martins are her people. They lived and died in samford. So the black people in the courtroom really are mad at her and they want to do terrible things and there are some white women who are sympathetic. And janie gets up when the butter and chair and she says they leaned over to listen while she talked. The first thing she had to remember what she was not at home. She was in the courthouse fighting something and it wasnt death. It was worse than that. It was lying thoughts. She had to go way back to let them know how tea cake had been with the one another, so you see, she could never shoot tea cake out of malice. She tried to see how things were fixed so that tea cake couldnt come back to himself until he had gotten rid of that mad dog that was in him and couldnt get rid of mad dog and live, he had to get rid of the dog, but she had not wanted to kill them. She did not ever want to be rid of him. She just sat there, and when she was through, she hushed. She had been through for some time before the judge and the lawyer and the rest seem to know it. They told her she could come down. They found her not guilty of murder. So she was free, and the judge and a property up there smiled with her and shook her hand, and the white women cried and set around her like a protecting wall, and the negros with their heads down shuffled out and away. The sun had she had seen the sunrise under trouble love, and then she had shot tea cake and had been jailed and tried for her life and now she was freed. Nothing to do with the little that was left of the day that to visit the friends who have realized the feelings and thank them, so the sun went down. She buried tea cake in palm beach. She knew that he loved the glades, but it was too low for water to be washing over him with every heavy rain. The glades in the waters killed him. She wanted him out of the way of the storm, so she had a strong vault built in the cemetery at west palm beach. Janie wired to orlando for money to put him away. Tea cake was the son of the evening sun and nothing was too good. The undertaker did a handsome job, and tea cake slept royally on his white couch among the roses she had bought. He looked almost ready to grant. Janie bought him a brand new guitar and put it in his hands. He would be thinking of new songs to play for her when she got there. His friends tried to hurt her, but you knew it was because they loved tea cake and didnt understand, so she said soft words to all the others when the band played and tea cake rose like a pharaoh to his home tomb, no expensive veils for jenny this time. She went on in her overalls. She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief. And then the last part. She had come back and gone to her house and closed her gate and gone upstairs. Soon everything downstairs was shut and fastened. Janie went up the stairs with her lamp. The light in her hand was like a spark washing her face in a fire. Her shadow fell black down the stairs. The rain tasted fresh again. The wind through the open windows had balooned out all of the feelings of absence and nothingness. She closed in and sat down, coming just out of her hair thinking. The day of the gun and the bloody body and the courthouse came and commenced to seeing a throbbing sigh out of every corner in the room, out of each and every chair and thing, commenced to sing, commenced to sob and sign. Singing and sobbing. Then tea cake came prancing down around here where she was in the song flew out in the sky out of the window. Of course he was not dead. She could never be he could never be dead in this she finished demand breathing. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fishnet, pulled around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes. She called in her soul to come her soul. Her sould to come and see. [applause] well. We will now take a few weeks questions. Brief questions from our audience. We have at the corners of the stage a microphone and you can approach. Greetings everyone, good evening. I just had a brief question. You have given me so much inspiration throughout my 26 years, and the stories you told, the essence that youve experienced help me to be the woman that i am now. I would like to ask where do we get our stories from . Where do we get our inspirations from . You draw from your own experience but have you. It is 2012, so a black woman writer now with stories to be story still need to be told in way to be fine customer hereby to be told . And where do we find them . Thank you. The sociologist in me says you need to be social activists, and to be active you need to be aware. So everything that happens, whether it be an issue in sudan, whether it be an issue in sanford, florida, requires a response, and the department at my college and connecticut, Manchester Community college, we do things like habitat for humanity because the quickest way out of poverty is homeownership, and the poorest people are people of color who do not own homes. We do things like hoodie day next thursday to bring awareness to issues of racial and social inequality in the world. We do things like voter registration, because even now, three bills later in our government, we still have issues of people being able to have equal and legal access to voting. I would say be aware of what is going on and even more so, be activists of what needs to be done and look to the generation before you here, pay homage, but even more importantly pay homage and respect to the generation behind you. So there is no break in the link and they know from where they came. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2023] announcer this fall, watching cspans new series books that you did america. Join us as we embark on a captivating journey in partnership with the library of congress which first greeted the list to be explored key works of literature from american history. The 10 books featured in a series have provoked thoughts, won awards, led to the pickens societal changes and i still talked about today. Here from Renowned Experts who will shed light on the profound impacts of these iconic works and virtual journeys to Significant Locations across the country intimately tied to the celebrated authors and their unforgettable books. Common sense by thomas payne. Huckleberry finn by mark twain. Their eyes were watching god by zora new kirsten, and free to choose by milton and rose friedman. 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