Stewart will deliver "Feast, Flood, and Famine: Zora Neale Hurston's Search for African American Folk Culture," at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, as part of The Big Read, a grant-funded initiative from the African American Museum of Iowa intended "to restore reading to the center of American culture.
Published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God chronicles the fictional life of Janie Mae Crawford. Janie narrates her life story to her best friend, Pheoby Watson. Although this novel is not an autobiography, it is inspired by Hurston's life, including the hurricane Hurston survived in 1929.
"She sounds like she's very interesting," said library director Gayle Trede. "I'm hoping she'll be able to talk about the Harlem Renaissance."
Stewart gathered the knowledge for her speech from an interview with a primary source. In 2005 she interviewed the humanitarian and social justice activist Stetson Kennedy about his work as Director of Folk Life Studies for the FWP in Florida back in the 1930s, and his memories of Zora Neale Hurston.
The program will last approximately one hour. No pre-registration is required, and the program is free of charge.
"I'm thinking older teens and families would enjoy coming to this, Trede said. "It's really hard to find stuff that's free of charge nowadays." She added a hope that the forecast fair weather wouldn't keep people away.
Stewart is associate professor and chairwoman of the history department at Cornell College. She received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1999.
For more, see our Feb. 5 print edition.
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