New Course Highlights Zora Neale Hurston

Novelist, anthropologist, collector of folklore. These are just a few of the achievements of Florida's proud daughter, Zora Neale Hurston. A new four-week course offered by the Tampa Bay History Center and USF’s Osher Lifelong Learning Center will explore Hurston’s life and work.

Beginning Wednesday, July 14th at 10:00 a.m., the class will view Jump at the Sun, a new documentary written and produced by St. Petersburg resident Kristy Andersen, and explore Hurston’s work as a novelist, WPA field worker in 1930s-Florida and her role in the Harlem Renaissance, of which she was a key figure.

Andersen and various guest speakers will lead the class through an illuminating look at the uncompromising life of Zora Neale Hurston. Class members will also receive a copy of the film.

Jump at the Sun: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston is a four-week course offered each Wednesday from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. beginning July 14th. Cost is $40.00. Pre-registration is required. For more information and to register, visit http://www.usfseniors.org/.

In addition, the History Center will also host a special evening screening of Jump at the Sun on August 5th at 7:00 p.m. The screening will be open to the public and include a talk-back session with the filmmaker and Dr. Lois Gaston, Hurston’s great-niece and former president of Hillsborough Community College’s Ybor City campus. Cost is $10.00. Registration in the OLLI course is not required to attend the evening screening.

For more information on the August 5th screening, contact the Tampa Bay History Center.