“Women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth.”

What about showing our respects for the classics this #FlashbackFriday?

If you haven’t heard of Zora Neale Hurston, you’re in for a treat. This remarkable woman was born in Notasulga, Alabama, in 1891, and died at the age of 69, in 1960. She was a novelist, anthropologist, essayist, and even a filmmaker, and one of the central female figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Her published work influenced a whole generation of writers after her, including Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. What a woman!

You should read:

Her most famous work must be Their Eyes were Watching God (1937). In this novel, we follow the footsteps of Jane Crawford – a woman in search of her true self and real love. And as the quote says, women “remember everything they don’t want to forget,” Jane takes us to the most critical moments of her life. At the opening of the book, when we meet her, she’s coming “back from burying the dead.” From then on, she takes us on her journey, remembering and telling her story, how her mother and grandmother were sexually abused, her marriages (yes, three!), and her resilience and willingness to survive.

If you’re looking for a book that can make you experience a bit of love and self-determination, female empowerment, and a lot of pride, this is a must-read. All our respect for these two self-made women – Zora and her beloved character Jane.

Other fiction and non-fiction by Hurston include:

Mules and Men (1935),

Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934),

Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939),

Telly My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938)