The keynote address of this year’s Big Read, “A Great Fish-Net: Metaphor and Memory in Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God,’” will be given by SUNY Buffalo State Professor Jennifer Ryan-Bryant on Wednesday, March 9, 7 p.m., at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House.
In her talk, Dr. Ryan-Bryant will explore the author’s background in anthropology and her approach to literary composition as well as the peaks and valleys of her career in order to conceptualize her position as the most historically significant woman writer to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance during its peak in the 1920s. Ms. Hurston is best known for “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” published in 1937.
Also to be discussed will be Ms. Hurston’s posthumous contributions to the history of American feminism. Ryan-Bryant, coordinator of the English M.A. program, has taught courses in African-American literature and gender and women’s studies.
An essay, “In search of Zora Neale Hurston,” published by Ms. Magazine in 1975, revived interest in the author, who wrote four novels and two books of folklore based on extensive anthropological research. They are viewed today as invaluable sources of the oral cultures of Black Americans.
Reed Library, in cooperation with the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System and the National Endowment for the Arts, announced the selection of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” for the 2016 Big Read. The annual initiative is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.
Big Read programming and activities will be held from mid-February through mid-March throughout the county and are free and open to the public.
