Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 novel THEIR EYES ARE WATCHING GOD is considered by many to be among the finest American novels of the century. Her vibrant personality enlivened Harlem Renaissance parties, whether they were held in uptown railroad flats or Park Avenue apartments. She studied anthropology with Franz Boas at Columbia and collected folklore in the American South, Haiti and Jamaica. "Sweat," her story in FIRE!!, stands as a classic folk yarn, authentic in its nuances, specific to the black milieu but also a powerful portrayal of the oppression of women generally and a brilliant variation on the myth of Eve, Adam, and the Snake. Hurston's work is very much alive today; she is revered as a foremother by feminists. "Sweat" was incorporated into George C. Wolfe's 1991 production, SPUNK, presented at the Public Theatre in New York City.
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