Beyond her novels, Zora Neale Hurston was a pioneering anthropologist

Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space is a new documentary from the PBS series American Experience. The film explores the life of the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God and reveals that in addition to her work as a novelist, Hurston was also an anthropologist whose methods were ahead of her time. Tracy Heather Strain, the director, writer and producer of the film, joins us. We also listen back to a conversation with Dr. Stacey Close about the impact of the Connecticut tobacco fields where prominent figures like the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked.

GUESTS:

• Tracy Heather Strain: director, writer and producer of Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space; Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies at Wesleyan University
• Dr. Stacey Close: History Professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, contributor to the book African American Connecticut Explored

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