Hurston and Williams are both important writers of their times, and although the works I have you chosen to examine in this paper are 6 decades apart, one thing that they share in common is their turning of folklore and black vernacular, a language that was largely rejected by white mainstream society, into a powerful weapon and discourse in communicating rejections, desires, and change in the African American women's world. So in a way, what Sherley Anne Williams did with language in Dessa Rose is very much a continuation of what Hurston did in Sweat during the height of the Harlem Renaissance that celebrated black art and literature, and Hurston was indeed among the first black women writers who wrote in black vernacular and gained attention in the literary community. Born on January 7, 1891, in Notasulga, Alabama, Hurston moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, when she was still a toddler. Established in 1887, the rural community north of Orlando was the nation’s first incorporated black township. Her father, a three-term mayor, helped formulate the laws of the all-black community.
Their portrayals of poverty and the black experience through art were beautiful creations birthed from something once viewed as ugly. One of the liveliest personalities of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston was born in Eatonville, Florida. In 1924 she was encouraged by Howard University educator and philosopher Alain Locke to re-locate to Harlem, New York (Hine, Hine, Harrold 386). There she became active in folklore and anthropology, ultimately combing folklore language and culture in her novels. In the late 1920s Zora studied at Barnard College where she became famous for the attempt to disprove a theory that black people had smaller brains .She actually stood on a street corner measuring the heads of black people (Wall 22)!
Name: Alvin Schröder Tutor: Kerstin Shands Course: Women Writing in English Lorraine Hansberry - A prominent writer and dedicated fighter for civil rights Lorraine Hansberry had a brilliant career as a successful writer, among many things she was the first black woman to produce a play on Broadway, A Raisin in the Sun, which won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. She was the youngest and the first black writer to ever receive this particular award. Hansberry was an author who was deeply committed to the fight for equality and human rights for the black community whose life was unfortunately cut short. Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Her family consisted of her parents, Carl Augustus Hansberry and Nannie Louise Perry and her three older siblings, Carl Jr, Perry and Mamie.
The Lives of Angelina and Sarah Grimke Back in the 18th and 19th centuries, the chances of coming across a white abolitionist were pretty slim. The chances of coming across a white abolitionist who was also female were almost impossible. Angelina and Sarah Grimke defeated these odds by speaking to mixed crowds on a daily basis. These two sisters published some of the most powerful anti-slavery tracts of their era, even if it meant going against the beliefs of their father. Angelina and Sarah’s had unique experiences with slaves.
Robert Penn Warren happens to be the only person to win a Pulitzer Prize for both Poetry and Fiction. Rita Dove also won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for poetry. Ms. Dove, who happens to be African American, has written many poems and books, one in particular was On the Bus with 2 Rosa Parks. She has one so many awards that it would take a few pages to list them. So I will only give you a few, Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006, in 2003 the Emily Couric Leadership Award,
Suddenly Lee had a best seller. Fans wanted more but To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee’s only published novel. The last work under Lee’s name was an essay, over 20 years old now, that she read at the Alabama Heritage Festival in 1983. She has received many awards for her book. Bookstores say that High School and Middle School students account for most of the sales of the novel.
Hurston found herself being passed from relative to relative, while working as a nanny and a housekeeper. When Zora was in her teen years she became a wardrobe girl in a Gilbert and Sullivan repertory company touring the South. A novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Hurston was the prototypical authority on b lack culture from the Harlem Renaissance. In this artistic movement of the 1920’s black artists moved from traditional dialectical works and imitation of white writers to explore their own culture and affirm pride in their race. Zora pursued this objective by combining literature with anthropology.
When Anna Julia Cooper died at the age of 105 in 1964, she left behind accomplishments remarkable for anyone, let alone a woman of color at a time when social taboos, laws, and even attitudes of fellow African American activists were obstacles to achievement. Cooper declared herself "the voice of the South," speaking for black women, recently freed from legalized slavery when her best-known book was published in 1892. Scholars consider A Voice from the South by aBlack Woman of the South the first work by an African-American feminist. Most sources cite Cooper's birth year as August 10, 1858. Her mother, Hannah Stanley Haywood, was a slave; Cooper's father was probably her mother's owner, George Washington Haywood.
One of the things that makes this play stands out is that it was the first play written by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. It was also the first time that a Broadway play had a black director. The title of the play comes from the poem another well-known African American author, Langston Hughes. The name of the poem is “Harlem”, also known as “Dreams Deferred” (Brown 238). Lorraine Hansberry was an African American female author and this was her most well-know title.
About a year later, she became a drama critic for a Pittsburgh newspaper called the Leader. Beginning in 1901, Cather did a five-year stint as a high school English teacher, a job she hoped would give her plenty of time for her own writing. In 1903, she published a book of poetry called April Twilights. After she met S. S. McClure, editor of McClure’s Magazine, McClure offered her a job as an editor at the magazine, which was famous for its muckraking journalism. She accepted and moved to New York.