On February 20, literary stardust exploded on Barnard’s stage when renowned writer Edwidge Danticat ’90 presented a personal and performative lecture on another famous alumna, “‘All Geography Is Within Me’: Following in Zora Neale Hurston’s Travel-Dusted Tracks.”
Danticat — the Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor of the Humanities in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, author of 18 books, MacArthur Fellow, and two-time National Book Critics Circle Prize winner and current nominee — spoke on how Hurston’s autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road inspired her. The lecture is part of a series of events to launch the College’s Zora Neale Hurston Centennial and 100 Years of Black Students at Barnard multiyear project.
Now in its seventh year, the increasingly popular Lewis-Ezekoye Distinguished Lectureship Series in Africana Studies continues its focus on subjects from the African diaspora and African scholarship, artistic creation, and community-centered commitments. The series was endowed by longtime collaborators Denise Lewis ’66 and Adaeze Otue Ezekoye ’66, who met on campus as first-year students.
“In gathering each year, we as founders of the lecture join the Barnard community in reaffirming our commitment to honoring and respecting the contributions of those that descended from the continent of Africa,” said Lewis. “We demonstrate with the Barnard community our openness to acknowledging all cultures that are part of the human family — the human family that includes Africa and peoples of color across the globe. As founders, we are so proud that our Barnard College has led the way in showcasing the scholarship of people of color.”
“This is an immensely important year for scholarship at Barnard,” said Ezekoye, who told her story of being recruited to Barnard, from Nigeria, the year after Hurston’s death. “Professor Danticat will center us as we celebrate the indelible contribution of our first black graduate, Zora Neale Hurston, and we will continue in the coming months to celebrate the legacy left over 100 years by Black graduates who contributed to enriching the fabric and soul of this College. It is significant that Professor Danticat hails from one of the places that Zora Neale Hurston visited as a participant-observer anthropologist.”
“This centennial is more than a celebration, it’s a recognition of 100 years of Black students at Barnard and the lasting influence of Zora Neale Hurston,” said President Laura Rosenbury (right). “We honor this history with a multiyear tribute that highlights both Hurston’s legacy and the contributions of generations of Black students who followed in her footsteps. At Barnard, we champion leadership and bold change-making, and Zora embodied both. Her courage, brilliance, and unwavering belief in her own path continue to inspire Barnard students today.”
To prepare the audience for Danticat’s lecture, Monica L. Miller — professor and chair of the Africana Studies Department — began with a 1922 poem by Hurston called “Reveries,” a fitting tribute that spoke directly to the moment.
Addressing the packed audience, Danticat — who wrote the foreword for the 2006 reissue of Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God — said, “Dust Tracks was the first book of hers that I read on my own, and I wanted to center her own words [in this lecture].” She then announced that the lecture would be presented as a dramatized discussion between her and Obie Award-winning performer Pascale Armand, using Hurston’s own words.
Many students who were in attendance reveled in what it means to follow in the footsteps of both alumnae. “I’m feeling a lot of emotions, knowing that I come from the same lineage of Black students at Barnard and knowing that without the first there couldn’t have been many more,” said Gabi Ogando ’27, an anthropology and cognitive science major. “I just feel very excited, grateful, and ecstatic to even be here in this room and seeing this. Personally, I’m also a fan of Professor Danticat.”
“There’s something really unique about the Black community of Barnard,” mused Shaya Godycki ’25, an Africana studies and comparative literature major. “The fact that Ms. Lewis and Ms. Ezekoye were willing to create this space for creatives who aren’t from Barnard, but also for fellow alumnae to be able to share their stories and their work, is really powerful, and I love that the Black alumnae community here are willing to do that.”
Read below for highlights from Danticat’s moving lecture, edited for clarity and length.
‘All Geography Is Within Me’
For me, that means a child of Haiti, Florida, and Barnard, so all geography is within me. It’s been said that when Zora was a girl, she loved a myth about a wrestler named Antaeus. Antaeus would challenge others to wrestling matches, which he would win as long as his feet touched the ground. Hercules was intelligent enough to defeat him by raising his feet off the ground until he lost his strength. The idea that being rooted to the earth could empower even a god might have fascinated her. That rootlessness could lead to death may have also frightened her; allowing one to fleetingly have one’s feet on some ground, even if not one’s own. From grateful quests to worldly explorations, as an anthropologist and novelist, wanderlust became central to Zora’s life and work. Antaeus was weakened when he was raised towards the sky, but Zora Neale Hurston could use her travel dust to famously jump at the sun.
Zora and Zombies
In speaking about the botanical drugs that might have caused [suspended animation], Zora took zombies out of their racist horror movie tropes, so prevalent in Hollywood at the time, and brought them into a scientific realm — work which was later explored by others. In March 2004, I would think of Zora and Felicia Felix-Mentor in the car on my way home with my mother after her doctor had told her that she had stage four ovarian cancer. Like Zora’s mother, mine also gave me a list of instructions. Stopping at a red light, my mother spoke up and warned, “Don’t you dare turn into a zombie.” This was a common expression in our home when we heard bad news, and my mother was telling me: You’ve got this. We’ve got this. Keep your head on your shoulders.
Travel Dust
During my time at Barnard, because I always longed to travel, my mother used to tell me that I had feet sprinkled with travel dust. I also believe that my mother had it. She left Haiti in her 30s and came to the United States to escape a dictatorship, becoming an undocumented immigrant, looking for a better life for my brothers and myself. As my mother was dying, she would often say, “We came into the world head first, and we will leave feet first.” As my mother’s travel dust started turning to stardust, I took pictures of her feet with my phone. I took pictures of her feet and my feet together. I took a picture of her feet right before and right after she took her last breath.
Check out photos from the event below:
ZNH
