And the influence that she has had on africanamerican culture. Good evening, everyone. Think you so much for being here with us. Im the executive producer of the green space. We have been on an extraordinary journey over the last month. The green spaces honored the 75th anniversary of Zora Neale Hurstons novel, their eyes were watching god. One month from today is the threeyear anniversary of the green space. Our hope and mission is to take audiences on a soul stirring journey to connect, to inspire, and to transform. I want to acknowledge two visionaries who are here who have been ears lee supportive of the green space. Laura walker, president and ceo of new york public radio. [applause] thank you, laura. And marina lackland, Vice President of integrated marketing. [applause] all of the video from the festival, including tonight you can find and share on the green space. Org. Our celebration began on february 24 with a look at Langston Hughes hosted by culex our house, and a feature pianist, randy weston and scholar arc primus. One week later the green space presented the american premiere of the richly powerful radio adaptation of their eyes are watching god, directed by ruben sent iago hudson. The unparalleled skills for stories that matter continue to inspire me. They are right here in the front row. [applause] also of note, please stay tuned for the radio broadcast in september 2012 on wnyc 93. Carl hancock brought us the amazing music and literary salon featuring toshi reagan, nonie hendrix, Patrice Johnson and more. Karl is with us this evening. [applause] and my take away from the last 30 days is pure gratitude. So please bear with me as they as i thank the people behind the scenes for the project. Victoria sanders and associates, whose support has really made all the difference. Thank you so much. Id also like to acknowledge edward hurston. He may be joining us later this evening. My colleagues have allowed this project to take flight and reach a widespread audience through the Creative Process and press Community Engagement and marketing efforts. If you are here, can you please waive . [applause] last but not least is my green space team, a team that i get to spend my days and most of my evenings with, comprised of truly beautiful human being to human beings who never respond with why, but rather why not . Nikki johnson by ricardo fernandes, eric heymans, esau tyler norman, david maclean, please join me in thanking them. And to help me introduce tonights esteemed panel, women on the horizon, [applause] lucy ann hurston, is the author of speed, so you can speak again, the life of zora Neale Hurston. Though only three years old then zora died, lucien thurston has over her lifetime compiled a need to have knowledge of her aunts life and work. Lucianne hurstons own work as an academic sociologist with Field Research in jamaica and other places provides her with a unique connection to her aunts perspective and life. Shes been a producer and host of two documentaries on zora and directed a High School Production of the play. Lucianne hurston teaches at Manchester Community college in connecticut. Lucianne hurston begins her work , speak so you can speak again. Zora Neale Hurston ignites passion. Once introduced her story does she told and those told about her. People want more. [applause] alice walker is an internationally celebrated author, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, for collections of short tories, four short stories childrens , four books and volumes of essays and poetry. She is best known for the color purple, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize and the first africanamerican woman to win the bullet surprise for fiction and the National Book award. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages in her books have sold more than 15 million copies. Walkers most recent works are overcoming speechlessness, a poet encounters the horror and in rwanda, from eastern congo in palestine israel, hard time requires furious dancing, the world is changed, conversations with alice walker and the chicken chronicles, sitting with the angels who have returned with my memories, a memoir. In 1973, alice walker resurrected a work of zora Neale Hurston which he traveled to port pearce florida can put a headstone after unmarked graves. Walker is one of the worlds most prolific writers, yet tirelessly continues to travel the road to literally stand on the side of the poor and the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed. A quote from alice walker. We belong to the same world, a world where grief is not only acknowledged, but shared, where we see injustice and call it by its name, where we see suffering and know the one who stands and sees is also alarmed. But not nearly so much as someone who stands and sees and says and does nothing. [applause] ruby dees acting career spanned more than 50 years and is included theater, radio, television and theaters. On stage, ms. Dee was the first black woman to play lead roles at the american shakespeare festival. Although she has appeared in over 50 films, her life is not all been just that. She has long been active in a variety of movements. She along with ossie davis traveled to nigeria as goodwill ambassadors and eulogized malcolm x in 1965 and later his widow, Betty Shabazz in 1987. Jointly presented with the academy of arts and science silver circles award in 1994 coming dee and davis officially became National Treasures when they received the National Medal of arts in 1995. In 2000, they were presented the Screen Actors Guild life achievement award. They are inductees in the theater hall of fame as well as the naacp hall of fame. In 2008 ms. Dee was awarded the best supporting actress for her role in the film, american gangster. She also received an Academy Award nomination for this role. Ms. Dee is proud of her onewoman show, zora is by name about zora Neale Hurston. She stated, the kind of beauty i want most is the hard to get kind that comes from within, strength, courage, identity. [applause] sonia sanchez, poet, activist, and scholar, was the first president ial fellow at Temple University and was also at the forefront of the black studies movement and tout the first course in the country on black women. Teaching the novel, their eyes were watching god. Shes the she is the author of over 16 books. Her most recent, morning haiku. Ms. Sanchezs extraordinary voices arent heard the american book award, the Langston Hughes poetry award and she was a finalist for the National Book critics circle award for does your house appliance . Does your house have lions . Having lectured amid poetry to over 500 universities, colleges and organizations all over the country, sanchez and the world has established a reputation of the highly renowned voice in the 20th century. Freedom sisters coming National Tour exhibit from the smithsonian brings to life 20 africanamerican women from the last 200 years who have fought for equality for all americans. Sister sonya is one of the 20 and in 2011 sanchez was tapped as the first poet laureate of philadelphia. She stated, i write to keep in contact with their ancestors and to spread truth to people. Please join me in welcoming lucianne hurston, alice walker, ruby dee and sonia sanchez. [applause] [cheering] good evening, everyone. Good evening. So no i am now i am going to scare everybody. Im going to come off script and im going to say, i sit at the feet of the masters. [applause] i am lucianne hurston and im honored to join you here at the green space to take you through a conversation with three extraordinary women whose voices have blazed to trails and created an indelible pattern in the fabric of our global tapestry. The green space at wnyc, and wqxr is honoring the 75th anniversary of zora Neale Hurston, their eyes were watching god. And tonight is the final installment of that series. Lets begin with zoras writings. Throughout this evenings conversation, youll hear passages selected and read by each of us. We begin with awardwinning act dress, ruby dee, who takes us to the opening passages of the novel. Yes, thank you, thank you. [applause] oh my goodness. Ships, she begins. This is from the introduction. Ships at a distance have every mans wish on board for sunday, and others they sale river on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the water turns his eyes away into resignation, his dreams locked to death by time. That is the life of men. Now women, forget all of those things they do not want to remember, and remember everything they do not want to forget. The dream is the truth. They act and do things accordingly. So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead. Not the dead of sick and ailing and defeat. She had to come back from the so dden and bloated, eyes flung wide open in judgment. The people all saw her come because of the sun down. But the sun had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, your list, earless, eyeless inconveniences all day long, but now the sun and the boss man were gone, so the skin felt powerful and human. They became lords of sound and let things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment. [applause] this is zora. No one else could do it. Thank you. My on zora aunt zora wrote this novel in seven weeks while doing anthropological work in haiti. I found her in the attic of my house on 51st st in brooklyn, looking through an old book with freight pages, i began to read their eyes were watching god for the first time at age nine. And here is the passage that i found most inspiring for the multiple times that i have read their eyes were watching god. And it is about the power of a woman to play hell with a man. Aint no use in getting all mad, janie, because you are no young gal no more. Nobody in here and looking at you for no wide out a few. Old as he lives. Now, i ate no young gal no more, but i know old women either. I reckon i look my age, too. But i am a woman every inch of me and i knows it. Thats a whole lot more you can say, your big bellies around here. That aint nothing in a pitcher but voice. Talk about me looking old, when you pull down your purchase, you look like the change of life. [laughter] great god from zion. You really read the dozens tonight. What you dont say joes challenge, hoping his ears have fulltime. You heard here. There is a talented. Id rather be shot by myself like most commiserated. Then joe start realized all the meaning, and his vanity bled like a flood. Janie had robbed him of his allusion, but all men share it, which was terrible. The thing that god had done to david, but janie had done worse. She had cast down his empty armor before the men, and they had left, laughed, would keep on laughing. When he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. They look with envy at their things and pitied him man that owns them. When he said in judgment, he would not be the same. What can excuse a man in the guise of other men for lack of strength. Works of 16 and 17 would be giving him their merciless pity out of their eyes, while their mouths said something humble. There was nothing to do in life anymore. Ambition was useless, and the cruel deceit of janie, making all but sure of humbleness and scorning him all the time and laughing at him and now putting the town at the same. Joe start did not know the words for this, but he knew the feeling, so he struck janie with all of his might and drove her from the store. [applause] i am going to ask each of you to share with us your relationship with zora Neale Hurston and this novel and the characters in particular, janie. Alice, ill start with you. You have said theres no book more important to me than this one. It was august, 1973. And you journeyed to fort pearce, florida in search of her unmarked grave and you marked it with a headstone that read genius of the south. [applause] lets start with what led you to that moment. To back up a bit, i was writing a story myself that needed voodoo information, and all of the anthropologists i came across were hideously racist and painfully racist. And i felt very strongly that all of our work has to be underpinned by facts and real things as much as we can manage that. And so i kept looking and i find finally saw zoras name in a foot note in the most racist of the anthropologists. And i started looking for her because the story i needed to tell was based on a story that my own mother had told us about being in the depression and being hungry and needing food and going to the commissary to ask for food. But my mother that same week had received a shipment of clothes from relatives in the north and relatives in the north, they still had nicer clothing. So so they sent her some really nice clothes and she put them on. My mother was very beautiful. And so she put on his clothes. She went to ask for food and the white woman said how dare you come here asking for anything looking better than me. Now, my mother wouldve looked better than her anyway, but she really, you know so i thought felt the humiliation at that moment for my mother. And i needed a story to tell since i am not violent. Many in my family are violent, but i dont seem to have that gene. So i have instead a creative g ene, so i decided to write a story that would use voodoo, to take care of this woman. But it had to be authentic. It had to be the real deal. So i found zora and i found exactly how you do this and i put it in the story. And then from that, i went on to read their eyes were watching god, fell in love with it, started teaching it, talking about it. Loving her very deeply. And so, when i found out that she was buried somewhere and nobody knew quite rare and she had an ending that wasnt so good, i was embarrassed. I could not fathom that someone who had given us so much beauty could be left so unacknowledged, and that was the reason i took that journey. The story there was that what i went with someone who lived in florida, got to the country and the cemetery was filled with these tall weeds. I said charlotte, are you going to go with me cry if she was kind of hanging close to the car. And she said, well, no. And i said why not . She said i am from florida. I know what is out there. So i had to get back there really fast because my daughter was small. So i started calling your aunt and i called her and i just started walking towards the middle of this place and i really pretty much fell into her grave. And so that was that. [applause] ms. Ruby, oh yeah. You had a onewoman show entitled zora is my name and did the audio recording or their eyes were watching God Television special. You have many connections to this book as well. Will you share with us at least some of those . Where to begin . First of all, thank you, alice, for finding that grave because what a gift to us all. I didnt know that ive met zora. I said nora because i have a daughter named nora. I wanted to name my daughter nor a zora, so i called her nearest and i could because i felt i should get permission or something. I dont know. Do you want me to change it to zora like i did when you were born . But i didnt know that i had met zora when i was very young. I dont know at the library i won some prize in a poetry contest. Anyway, my mother kept a scrapbook of all the things that we did and my mother was one of those who started writing when i could hold a pen and pencil. So one day when i was quite older, she gave me this book to go through because i hadnt really looked at it. And there she showed me an article where i had met zora in the library where i had gotten this award. But i didnt know that i had met her. So i just wish i could have you know, i wish i had been aware at that time that i was meeting zora. Shes been one of the most important women in my life. I dream about her, i adapted some of the work for a Television Show that i did for great performances on pbs. So everything i could read. Ive written about zora. And people who come to my house, one of the places they stay is in the zora room, so that is a part of my life. What was i answering . Was i answering the question . [laughter] [applause] and you did the relay. And i wrote a Television Show, and so many people that wrote about zora, professors and such a connection she has had so many people next to alices discovery. For so many people in literature know zora Neale Hurston. She is seminal. She is like the bible to us. Shes root lady. Bring her to the world. Sonia sanchez, you have taught [laughter] sonia, you have taught this book, their eyes were watching god all over the country for the last few decades, beginning in the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence of the black studies program. Where did your journey began with this book . We have to all sitting on this stage pay homage to sister alice, who did something for another black woman writer that we all need to understand they must always do with their women writers on this earth. If they have been lost, we discover them and we put up tombstones, and we celebrate them, and when she did that we all stopped in our tracks and send out love to sister alice. So we should really [applause] i got out of Hunter College, went to Hunter College because i was part of a generation we could not afford to pay in these private schools. In city you had to pay for books, but at Hunter College you got books free. And so, i graduated january 55 and my dad said you should go out and get a job before you start teaching in september because he said you are going to teach because you come from a line of teachers. I said, ok dad, and he said you will not get a job writing. Because i went to the right. So i got the times every sunday and those of you who is looking for a job sometimes know how they say respond to the new york times, xp, debbie 12456, whatever. And send your cv an