Zora Neale Hurston | A Life in Playwriting

Our Mission

Zora Neale Hurston was a well-known writer of the Harlem Renaissance. However, she was also an accomplished and well-traveled anthropologist and ethnographer. After much research, we have compiled a timeline of Hurston's life and accomplishments, a visual map of her travels, demographic information of those locations, as well as identical information for each of her plays. This was done with the intent of examining how Hurston's anthropological work contributed to her playwriting and representation of life and women in Southern, rural, black communities during the early 20th century.

The Map

This map marks the places Hurston lived, where she conducted anthropological research, and the settings of her plays.

Click on the points to learn more about each location, as well as why and when Hurston herself was there. Each point has a link for you to explore with demographic information for that location.