The inaugural Zora Neale Hurston Summit (January 31 – February 1), led by the Zora Neale Hurston Trust, will soon bring hundreds of excited Hurston fans to campus to celebrate her anthropological, literary, and theatrical legacy. Simultaneously, the College is kicking off its three-year Zora Neale Hurston Centennial (2025-2028), in recognition of her time at Barnard as the first Black student and the College’s 100 Years of Black Students at Barnard celebration.
Visit Barnard’s Hurston Centennial site to learn more about the centennial programming.
It was in my first year of graduate school that Their Eyes Were Watching God was republished, and I was so grateful for it. It gave me a safe haven I had never had. It gave me access to regional language and to ordinary people.
To mark this momentous occasion, the College is looking back at the myriad ways members of the community have been in conversation with Hurston’s work — from projects inspired by her to conferences and courses created in her name.
1979
Professor of English Quandra Prettyman (1933–2021) presented the paper “Visibility and Difference: Black Feminism in History and Literature,” in which she examined Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as other works by Black women authors. The session was part of the sixth annual Scholar and Feminist Conference, hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW).
1981
Longtime Barnard Board of Trustees member Marcia Lynn Sells ’81, P’23, opened her senior yearbook essay, “Black at Barnard,” by recognizing Hurston as her predecessor and as one of Barnard’s most distinguished alumnae.
1990
The Zora Neale Hurston Forum, along with other periodicals on women and feminism, was added to the expanded women’s studies literature section of Barnard’s Wollman Library (now the Milstein Library), thanks to a senior gift raised by the Class of 1989.
1991
The Barnard Organization of Black Women rededicated the Zora Neale Hurston Lounge in Reid Hall “as a safe meeting space for students of color.”
2003
Members of the Barnard Organization of Soul Sisters (BOSS) read some of Hurston’s best-known work at the event “My People, My People: Zora Neale Hurston in Performance” — Their Eyes Were Watching God, Color Struck, and “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (below) — showcasing the writer’s “dynamic, polyphonous language.”
2004
Francine Sadler ’72, former president of the Alumnae Association of Barnard College (AABC) and current Board of Trustee member, raised funds to establish the Zora Neale Hurston ’28 Scholarship for a Black student.
2005
Hosted by the BCRW, the “Jumpin’ at the Sun: Reassessing the Life and Work of Zora Neale Hurston” conference “gathered together the most exciting names in Hurston scholarship for a daylong examination of a principal figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of Barnard’s most extraordinary alumnae.” Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker — whose 1975 Ms. magazine article “In Search of Zora Neale Hurston” went a long way toward rescuing Hurston from obscurity — presented views of Hurston’s life and legacy and contributed essays to The Scholar & Feminist Online, edited by Monica L. Miller, chair of the Africana Studies Department.
2006
“[Hurston’s] were among the books in a glass case in the Barnard library that also highlighted other famous alumnae authors, including the poet, playwright, and novelist Ntozake Shange. Each time I walked by that case, I felt my dream of becoming an author growing more and more attainable, partly because Zora and Ntozake were black women, like me.” —Edwidge Danticat ’90, in the foreword for Their Eyes Were Watching God reissue
2012
Barnard Magazine marked the 75th anniversary of the publication of Their Eyes Were Watching God and what would have been Hurston’s 85th Reunion year with essays by Miller and author-scholar Sharon Johnson ’85.
2016
BCRW sponsored the symposium “Hurston@125: Engaging with the Work and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston” to honor the alumna’s birthday. The program brought together emerging scholars whose work builds on Hurston’s training in anthropology and interdisciplinary modes of analysis and expression and included a screening of her ethnographic work. The Black Theater Ensemble and BOSS sponsored the “In the Spirit of Zora” research-performance on the history of Black women on Barnard’s campus, presented by Vanessa Messan ’17 and DaMonique Ballou ’17.
2019
Corinth J. Jackson ’20 — in collaboration with and supported by Barnard Archives and Special Collections and the Digital Humanities Center (DHC) — launched the Black @ Barnard project to analyze and statistically map out Black student life on campus, beginning with Hurston.
2020
On loan from Kathryn Boberg ’09, the painting Zora Neale Hurston, 2020 hangs in the lower level of campus’s Diana Center and was created by artist Chinon Maria, who is known for threading feminist narratives throughout her works.
2021
Term professor of First-Year Foundation Quincy Scott Jones performed his poem “How to Talk With Zora Neale Hurston When No One Else Can Hear” as part of the College’s Pandemic Poets Society series.
2021
Miller taught the course Home to Harlem: Hurston and Hughes in the 1920s, providing students with close readings of the poetry, fiction, essays, and plays created by the famed writer and her equally famous Harlem Renaissance friend Langston Hughes, who was a Columbia student during her time at Barnard.
2023
At Reunion, alumnae and Hurston-inspired faculty gathered for the “Zora Neale Hurston ’28 Centennial Reading and Conversation,” where the College’s Zora Neale Hurston ’28 Centennial Committee was introduced. The Committee — which included alumnae, faculty, students, and Barnard Board of Trustees members — was tasked with developing a plan to mark the matriculation and graduation centennial of Hurston (2025-2028), as well as 100 years of Black students at Barnard.
2024
For the spring term, Miller introduced the College’s first class to focus specifically on Hurston’s work. “I have been thinking about this class for the 23 years that I’ve been at Barnard,” she said. Students partnered with the DHC to produce projects sourced from the Barnard Archives and Special Collection and looked at the works of other Black alumnae, such as the archival holdings of Ntozake Shange ’70.
2024
Alice Reagan, professor of professional practice in the Theatre Department, taught the seminar Zora Neale Hurston & Black Performance and intends to teach it every fall coinciding with Hurston’s centenary years at Barnard. “Hurston saw the inherent value in Black folktales, songs, dances, and culture, going back to her childhood in Florida [as] material perfectly suited to the stage and adapted stories that she gathered during her anthropological trips to the South,” said Reagan.
2025
The Milstein Center for Teaching and Learning will host the Free Black Women’s Library’s multimedia installation “Black, Brilliant and Free,” January 21-May 5. In February, acclaimed author Edwidge Danticat ’90 will speak on Hurston for the Lewis-Ezekoye Distinguished Lectureship Series.
