good evening everyone. thank you for being here if us. i'm the executive producer of the green space, and we have been on an extraordinary journey over the last month. the green space is honored the 75th anniversary of zora kneel hurston's book posterior their eyes were watching god by "we

hope to connect, to inspire and transform our zora celebration has been an embodiment of our hopes and as separations. i want to acknowledge two visionaries who are here with us who have been fiercely supportive of the green space, laura walker, president and ceo of new york public radio. [applause] >> and -- thank you, laura. and noreen watson, vice president of integrated marketing. [applause] >> all of the video from the festival, including tonight, you can find and share on greenspace.org. our celebration began on february 24th with a look at the relationship between lang stong hughes and featured a pianist. one week later the green space presented the american premiere of the richly powerful radio

adaptation by author young of "their eyes were watching god." reuben's passion and unparalleled skill for telling stories that matter inspire us. reuben is right there in the front row. [applause] >> also of note, please stay tuned for the radio broadcast. the humor and wit brought us the literary salon. with us this evening. [applause] >> and my take away from the last 30 days, pure gratitude. so please bear with me when i thank the people behind the

scenes, whose support has made the difference. [applause] >> thank you so much. i'd also like to acknowledge edward hurston -- do i see him -- they'll be joining us later. my colleagues have allowed this project to take flight and reach a widespread audience and cross community engagement engagementd marketing efforts. if you're here, please wave. [applause] >> finally, last but certainly not least, is my greene space team. a team i get to spend me days and most of my evening with, prized of truly beautiful human beings who never respond to a dream with why? but, rather, why not? nickie johnson, ricardo fernandez, eric heyman, tyler,

norman small, david mcclain, chase culpone and james legary. and to help me introduce tonight the panel, women on the horizon, will be author -- >> lucy anne hurston. the life of zora neil hurston. lucy has over her lifetime come piled a detailed knowledge of her aunt0s life and work with an historian0s observant eye. her own work as an academic sociologist with field research in jamaica, among a operations,

provides he with a unique perspective of her aunt's life. she us the producer and hosts of two documentaries on zora and a high school production. she currently teaches sociology at manchester community college in connecticut. lucy anne hustoon begins her work, speak and speak again. she ignites passion. once introduced to her stories, those she told and those told about her, people want more. >> ellis walker is an internationally celebrated author poet, and activists, whose books include seven novels, four collections of sort -- short stories, four children's books and volumes ofes says. best known for "the color

purple" for which she won the pulitzer prize. and the national book award. her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages and her books are sold more than 15 million copies. walker's most recent works are overcoming speechlessness. eastern congo, and palestine, israel. hard times required furious dancing. the world has 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 the work of zora when she travel to florida and put a headstone at her unmarked grave. walker is one of the world's most prolific writers, yet tirelessly continues to travel

the world to literally stand on the side of the poor, and the economically spiritually, and politically opposed. quote from alice walker. we belong to the same world. the 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 the one who stands and does nothing. [applause] >> ruby d's acting career has spanned more than 50 years as included theater, radio, television, and movies. on stage, miss dee was the first black woman to play lead roles at the american shakes spear

festival. her life has not been acting. she has been active in a variety of movements. she trained to nigeria as goodwill ambassadors and eulogized malcolm x in 1965. and later himself widow, in 1997. join joined the silver circle award in 1994 -- dee and davis game national temperatures when they received the national medal of art in 1995. in 2001 they -- they are inductees in the teeter hall of fame and the nam hall of fame in she received a award for best supporting actress and received

academy award nomination, she stated, the kind of beauty i want most is the hard to get kind that comes from within, strength. courage, identity. [applause] >> considered one of the most important writers of the black movement sanchez held a lower cornell chair in english. also at the forefront of the black studies movement and taught the first course in the country on black women, teaching the novel, their eye are watching god. the author of over 16 books, the most recent, a book of poetry. nissan chez's extraordinary

voice has earned her various awards and a finalist in the national book critics circle award. having lectured and read poetry to over 500 universities, colleges and organizations all over the country, sanchez and the world, sanchez has established a reputation as a highly renowned voice in the 20th century. freedom sisters, national tour from the smithsonian brings to life 20 african-american women from the last 200 years who have fought for equality for all americans. sister sonya is one of the 20. in 2011 sanchez was tapped as the fort poet -- first poet laureate. join me in welcoming to the stage alice walker, ruby dee,

and sonia sanchez. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> good evening everyone. >> good evening. >> now i'm going to scare everybody. i'm going to come off script. and i'm going to say, i sit at the feet of the masters. [applause] >> mo, my -- oh, my goodness. [applause] >> i am losen hurtston, and i'm

honored here to join you through a conversation with three extraordinary womens whose voice have blazed trails and created a pattern in the fabric of our global tapestry. the greene space at wnyc and wqxr is honoring the 75th 75th anniversary of the hurston's, their eyes were watching god, and tonight is the final installment of the series. >> let's begin with zora's writings. throughout this evening's conversation you'll hear passages from posterior their eyes-watching god" selected and read by each of us. we begin with award-winning actress, ruby dee. who takes us to the opening passages of the novel. >> thank you.

thank you. [applause] >> oh, my goodness. uh-huh. ships, she begins. in the production. ships at a distance have every man's wish onboard. for some they come in with the tide. for others they sail forever on the horizon. never out of sight. never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in regs nation. his dreams mocked to death by time. that is the life of men. now, 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. 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

at the pillar and the feet. she had come back from the bloat and the sudden end. their eyes flung wide open in judgment. the people all saw her come because it was sundown. the sun was gone. but it had left -- but the sun hat left it footprints in the sky. it was a time for sitting on porches, beside the road. time to here things and talk. these sitters had been timeless, conveniences all day long. had occupied their skins but now, the sun and they were gone

so the skin, so powerful and human, became lords of sounds and lesser things. they passed nations through their mouths. they sat in judgment. this is zora. [applause] >> a no one else could do it. thank you. miss ruby dee. >> my aunt zora wrote this novel in seven weeks. while doing anthroo'logical field work. i found zora in the attic of my house at 55 hull street in brooklyn, new york. and looking through an old book, with frayed pages, i began to

read posterior their eyes are watching god" for the first time at age nine. and here is the passage that i found most inspiring. for the multiple times i have read porsche their eyes were watching god" and it's about the power of a woman to play hell with a man. ain't no use getting all mad because i mention you ain't no young gal no more. nobody in here ain't looking at you for no wife. out of you. old as you is. no, i ain't no young gal no more, but i ain't no old woman, neither. i reckon i look my age, too. but i'm a woman every inch of me, and i knows it. that's a whole lot more you can say, you big belly's around here, and put out a lot of brags, but ain't nothing in it

but your big voice. hmm. talk about me? looking old? well, you pull down your britches, you look like the change of life. great god from zion, sam watson gasped, you really plays the dozens tonight. what? what you done say? hoping his ears fooled him. >> you heard her. you ain't blind. she taunted. i'd rather be suffering taxes than hear that about myself. then joe stock realize all the meaning and his vanity bled like a flood. janey robbed him his illusion of irresistible manness that all men cherish. jamie cast down his empty armor before men and they laughed.

would keep on laughing. when he paraded his possessions hereafter, they would not consider the two together. they look with envy at the things and pity the man that owned them. when he sits in judgment, he would be the same. good for nothing like dave and jim. wouldn't change place with him. for what can excuse a man the eyes of other men the lack of strength? ragged good behinds, 16 and 17 would be giving him merciless pity and their mouth said something hum below. nothing to do in life anymore. amibition was useless, and the cruelness of janey, scorning him all the time. laughing at him, and now putting the tallon up. joe stock didn't know the words for awful -- for all this but he

knew the feeling so he struck janey with all his might and drove her from the store. [applause] >> i'm going to ask each of you to share with us your relationship to this writer, zora neal hurston, and the novel, and the characters, in particular janey. alice? i'll start with you. you have said there is no book more important to me than this one. it was august 1973. and you journeyed through ft. pierce, florida, in search of zora's unmarked grave, and you marked it with a headstone that read "genius of the south." >> yes. [applause] >> let's 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 finally saw zora's name in a footnote in the book of the most racist anthropologists, and i started leaking 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 the same week received a shipment of

clothes from relatives in the north, and relatives in the north, even though the north wasn't what they thought it was they still had nicesser clothing so she put them on and -- my mother was very beautiful, and she put on these clothes and went to ask for food, and the woman in charge of the commissary said, how dare you come here asking for anything looking better than me. my mother would have looked better than her anyway, but she really -- so, i felt the humiliation of that moment for my mother. and i needed a story to tell since i'm not violent. i don't -- many in my family are violent, but i don't seem to have that gene. so i have a creative gene and i decided to write a story that would use voodoo, which people knew about, to take care of this woman.

but it had to be authentic. it had to be the real deal. it couldn't be -- 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 the eyes were watching god, fell in love with it. started teaching is. talking about it. learning her very deeply. and so when i found out that she was buried somewhere -- nobody knew quite where and she had an ending that wasn't so good, and i was embarrassed. i couldn't fathom that someone who had given us so much beauty could be left just so unacknowledged, and that was the reason i took that journey, and the story there was i went with someone who lived in florida and we got to the cemetery of the heavenly rest, and it was full

of these very tall weeds, and i said, well, charlotte, you going to go with me? she was kind of hanging close to the car. and she said, well, no. and i said, well, why not? she said, well, i'm from florida. i know what's out there. so i had to get back to -- i was in mississippi and had to get back there fast because my daughter was small, and so i started calling your aunt, and i called her and i just started walking towards the middle of this place, and i pretty much fell into her grave. and so that was that. [applause] >> miss ruby. >> oh, yes. you had a one-woman show entitled, zora is my name.

you also did the audio recording for the eyes are watching god for the national endowment for the arts, and played the part of manny for the presentation of "their eyes are watching god" television special. you have so connections. will you share hem? >> oh,ey, and thank you for finding that grave. what a gift to us all. and i know that i had met zora. i said nora because i have a daughter named nora, but i wanted to name my daughter nora zora but i thought, you know what -- but i call her the nearest thing i could. i thought i should get permission or something. i don't know. i since asked my daughter, change is to zora like i wanted

to do when you were born? but i really didn't -- i didn't know i had met zora when i was a very young -- i don't know -- at the library. i won some prize in a poetry contest. anyway, my mother kept the scrapbook of all the things we did, and my mothers one of those women who started writing when i could hold a pencil. and one day when i was older, she gave me this scrapbook to go through and -- i 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 didn't know that i had met her. and so i was -- i just wished

could i have -- i wish i had been aware at that time i was meeting zora. and because she has been one of most important women in the life. i have a daughter named zora, i dream about zora, i adopted for a show on pbs. i read all of alice walkers book. everything i could richmond met people who have written about zora. and the people who come to my house, one of the places is -- zora is such a part of my life. and what was the -- was i answering the question? >> you did, and you did it thoroughly. thank you. >> and the first -- i wrote a television show, and also i read --s' so many people who

wrote about zora, you know, professors and such a connection she had with so many people. thanks to alice's discovery. but so many people in literature know zora and she is seminal. she is like the bible. >> yes, she is. >> bring her to the world has been sonia sanchez. you have taught -- sonia, you have taught this book, their eyes are watching god, all over the country, for the last few decades. beginning in the 1960s and '70s with the emergence of the black studies program.

where did your journey begin with this book? >> we have to all, i think, sitting on the stage, have to pay homage to sister alice, who did something for another black woman writer that we all need to understand we must always do with our women writers. that is, if they have been lost, we rediscover them, and we put up tombstones and we celebrate them, and she did that, and we all stopped in our tracks and sent out love to sister alice. so we should really -- [applause] >> i got out of hunter college, you know -- went to hunter conditional because i was part of the generation we could not board private schools so i went to hunter. i was accepted at hunter and

city, but at city you had to pay for books and at hunter conditional you got books for 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. but he said you are going to teach because you come from a line of teachers. i said, okay, dad, he said, because you're not going to get a job writing. i got the times every sunday and those of you who are looking for jobs sometimes, how they say respond to "new york times" xzy12456, whatever, and send your c.d. and a sample of your writing, and i did that, where i -- a week later i got a telegram. and i know -- for you you can people you say what is a telegram, right? once upon a time there was a telegram where they rang your doorbell and hand you this little yellow thing, and it says, report to work on monday. well, i got in my father's face.

held up the telegram and said, see, see, see, i can get a job writing someplace because they wanted someone to write for the firm. and my father just looked at me and said, uh-huh, because he came from the south. the southern blackman, although he lived all these years in new york city. he said, are you still going to be teaching in september? i put on my blue suit, my blue shoes me, blue bag, my white gloves and my blue hat, and i went down and they said show up apt 9:00 and i got there at 8:30 because i figured i couldn't just lose time for this job. so, i got there 8:30. and in comes the receptionist, and she looked ate me and opened the door and i took out the telegram, and i said, here. have you ever had someone look at something and then look at you and then look at something and then look at you? she did it three times and i'm smiling all the time and she said, come in, sit down, and she

goes out and there must have been another entrance in that office because she goes out, and shes gone for ten minutes and sits back down, takes the think off a type writer and begins to work, and then a head came around like this, right? and -- i smiled real fast and another head came around like that. at 10:00 to nine a guy walked out and said, i'm sorry, the job is taken. i said, oh, no. coming from new york, i decided to use my new york hum mayor i said, got here too early. i said i'm going to come goh outside and come back at 9:00 because the telegram said record to work at 9:00 a.m. so i know i'm early. i'll go back outside and come back in. the never never laughed, smiled, whatever. but i hand him the telegram. he did the same. the looked at the telegram and looked at me. the whole thing was like, how in the world did this happen? he says the job is taken, and so he turned his back and walked away, down the hallway. i said, i know, it's

discrimination. i'm going to report you to the urban league, and the turned around and just shrugged and i took my hat off and gloves off and got on the subway. throats from now, know if you're downtown and you want to really get on the west side you have to stay on and make sure you take the number 1 train, but i was so mad, it got to 96 and i'm still sitting there and the door closes and i'm on the number 2 and number 3 and all of a sudden it starts doing the shaking thing and you know you're going to the east side. so i get off on 136th street. i crossed the avenue and there's a guy outside about a quarter into the block, smoking a cigarette, and there was this thing that says -- i said to him, what a -- he said, lady, if you whatnot to know, go inside and sign it. so the old shamberg has the book you sign in almost right outside the door and i walked inside and you walk into the old shawmberg,

there's a long table and all these men in there, writing, books on their table, and there was a glass compartment there. i knocked on the glass door and she opened the door, said, yes, dear? gentle woman. i said, what is this? she said, oh, my dear. this library has books only by and about black people and my smart 20-year-old mouth said there must not be many books in here. whenever i brought my classes to the shamberg, which is every semester, she would look at me with that very sly smiling are right? and say, i have an interesting story to tell about your professor, and she told that story. and you know how students say, we got something on you, and i would disappear. but she said, come, sit down. i want to bring you some books, and she eased me into this thing, and the scholars looked up like, who is this woman?

and she came back with three books. on the bottom, a little book sold to black folks, and on top, their eyes were watching god. i have no idea why shoe put that on top -- i do have an idea, and i opened it, and i started to read, oh, this is smooth sailing. and then i got to the english and i said, oh, ah-ha, and i kept going through it. whatever i brought back into my southern roots, and continued on. i got up, i eades out. i knocked on the glass door and said, what's your name again? she said, d i said, how could i be considered an educated woman, right? and i have not read this book. she said, i know, my dear. don't worry. i'm going to feed you all kinds of book. sit back down. so i eased back in and read some more. by the time i was -- i read

almost a third of the book, i was crying and i knocked on the door and she gave me a tissue. and i -- she thought, who in the world is this young woman who has come to this library. she says go sit down, i'm going to help you, and i sat down, and the scholars said she has to sit still or leave, and i sat still, and instead of looking for work i came every day to that shamberg and they gave me book after book after book, and she said i'm going to take you to m-mr. show and m-richard moore because this is what people who are involved in the community will do. they will finally look at you and see something 0y n your eyes and say, okay, i'm going to help you continue this, and i went to mr. misch shade's store, and he had two paper bags full of

books. i had to take a cab home. but i couldn't afford it. so we started blade black studies i had the books already. and i came back the next day to mr. moore, who was -- he was an amazing man. he had store so narrow you had to go in sideways to get in. what i loved, he said -- he was up on one of those ladders saying, who are you? i am an ex-stutterer. i almost stuttered. he said, oh,ow are the one to help me. and he started feeding me west indian writers. i said, i haven't read them. he said, you call yourself educated? and came down off the roller, and then he brought -- he had two bags of books for me, and i came back to mr. moore's book store because he always had all the students from columbia, and city college, and he talked

about great things', and i'm the quiet one. i sat there in that little place and listened to this man talk. that was my first, first introduction. also to all those great writers, and years later i asked her, you know, -- whew. i asked her, why -- what did you see in my eyes that would send me out to these book stores? she said, i knew we would continue this, and i was on the brothers tv show some years ago, and she was still alive, and he asked me who are your influences. i named all the people that i had traveled with, you know, in terms of dividers, alice and tony and people, malcolm,

marvin, whatever, and i stopped in my tracks and i said, a woman i had never, ever mentioned outloud. i said, sister hudson is the one who directed me and kept me going and she is he one i call in san francisco, and i called him -- aim going on too long? >> i'll ask you this, sonia. miss hudson, may you please share with us your favorite passage from that book and take us through the significance of that passage. >> that meant i wanted to read the whole book to you. and i realize -- >> i'm out of time. >> and this is a book i taught

all those yearsing are right? so it's all falling apart. but since started, i shall continue it, okay? i wasn't sure what other people had, because it's like i remembered what i -- when i stumbled at the beginning, and the chewed up the back parts of the minds and swallowed will relish. they made bushing statements with questions and killing tools out of lives. it was cruelty. a mood come alive. words walking without masters. walking all together like harmony and a song. what is she doing coming back here in them overalls? can she fine no dress to put on? where all that money her husband took and died and left center what that old 40-year-old woman doing with her air -- hair

swinging down her back like some young child. going off with some young boy, why show don't stay in her class. i loved, why she don't stay in her class. she god to where they were, she turned her face and spoke. and left their mouths setting open and their ears full of hope. her speech was pleasant enough and kept walking straight on to her gate. the men noticed her firm buttocks like she had great -- in her pin pockets. i tell you -- he great hair swinging to her waste and unraveling in the wind, and her breasts trying to bore holes in

heir shirt. the the come took the shirt and muddy overalls and made them a way for remembering. a weapon against her strength, and if it turned out of no significance, still it was hope she might fall to their level some day. but nobody moved. nobody spoke. nobody even thought to swallow spit until after her gate slammed behind her. [applause] >> did i mention that i stood at the feet of the masters here again? this novel has been called a love story. a womanist, feminist. are there other interpretations? hurston wrote, their eyes, in six weeks, while doing

anthropologic research in haiti. when zora wrote, eyes, first published in 1937, it did not receive the acclaim or recognition it receives today. white critics were in some ways more accepting of the novel than black writers and intellectuals. one of the most prominent richard wright said that eyes war seamless and meaningless. he thought that by betraying his people -- portraying her people as quaint that she has exploited them. explain to us this initial reception of the work. >> well, i think that as people of color we have been under siege and just of course gets into some quite discarded self-conceptions, and we can't really see ourselves.

so i think that we have been looking for ways to be in this incredibly toxic culture so we can be healthy and survive and we have often gone to things like not so well digest marxism, which is richard wright's followings, and i love richard wright. one of the great things about loving your people is that you just love them. and they have god knows we all have so many shortcomings, and -- but we have made a really good struggle here. we have done as well in this mess of a civilization as anybody could possibly do and we should remind ourselves of that on a daily basis. [applause]

>> but where it's so painful is that our distortions, that the culture has caused, we cause ourselves, can lead us to inflict such pain on people who are just trying to express how they see us. and just trying to express how they feel. and often just trying to express their love. you cannot read this book without just being drenched in love, and the love of your people. you see them in their, all their foibles, their weird ways and sayings and funny haircuts, and baggy pants and people with weird names. on and on and on. that's us. that's us. and there's so much beauty in being authentic, whatever you are. so the beauty of this work was lost on these people, because

they were afraid. they were afraid that if people saw essentially all this unstoppable joy -- you can't be joyful when you're wrenched. you're supposed to be always picketing something. and if you're not picketing, at least be sending out leaflets and fighting and all of that. but to actually have joy in your life is a great victory. and that is something i feel she left to us, this ability to understand what true success is. true success is about being happy, and it's about doing what you have to do to survive. but you have your good times. you have your music. you have your dances. and this is it. this is of value to a human life. so, she shared this with us. at great cost to herself.

and i just feel so grateful, and i wish the people who maligned her -- i feel so sorry for them. they just missed an opportunity to enlarge themselves, to grow the kind of self-acceptance, the kind or irrepressible courage, wisdom, just that -- just being happy with who you are. what a joy. >> say to that, instead of amen, awoman, okay? everybody, awoman. [applause] >> their eyes was written to represent an oral tradition of story telling, of telling history, or as sonia would refer to it as her-story.

goes on a journey of what life is and comes home to herself in peace. what is the significance of this female character in the american literary cannons? miss ruby dee. >> oh, i was a professor -- the mother of my friend here. but i love zora because she brought us to -- she brings us to essences, she brings us to beginnings. she defines in a sense a reason that we haven't considered why we had to come to this country. that we have a job to do. and we're still in the process of doing that job. that is to particularize the

absolute stirling -- stirring nature of the human character, the human being, because we are -- she made me feel when -- no matter what religion you come from, and venally -- eventually i find out, oh, yes. zora described human beings and telling us something about ourselves. she was telling us that we are the god stuff. the god -- and she was egging us on to become -- she was trying to point out the richness of who we are as human beings, as living creatures on this earth. and zora made me believe in mortality. she made me -- because of what

she -- the characters she wrote about, the characters that she passed on and lived was us. we're still working with them. we're still dealing with them in our society, and in the world, and we wi still have -- we have a lot to offer the world because she delves so deeply into the core of these people that she worked with, and not one dimensionally. and that whole group of people around who founded that -- the magazine she did, and she gave us -- she was the platform, the springboard, the jumping off point, for us as human beings in this country, in this part of the world. she taught us a new value for the human being.

that is -- when i talk to people, when i was doing the thing for -- zora is my name, and i researched everything that was written about sierra. i -- about zora. i couldn't believe it. the people who has written about this woman. i wish i were capable enough of remembering some of these names. they were white, black, and that magazine. she was a woman who was -- she was pulling from the -- did i answer your question? [applause] >> sonia. what, in your opinion, is the significance of the keynote

character, jane in the american literary canyon. -- cannon. >> one of the questions i would have given one of my students, right? you know, when i first started to teach this book, you know, they teach you that you do these things systematically, but you feel uncomfortable because this is more than just separate things. and then you began to look at this woman who is saying to her nanny, give me a minute to grow up before i get married. give me a minute to experience a quick kiss where i don't go to bed with someone. just a quick kiss. let me experience a little romance before you saddle me with a man so old he could be my grandfather. right? give me a minute just to kiss

the air. or just to stretch out some do nothing, and you read that, you think, yeah, that's what we did sometimes. you know. we stretched out and kissed the air. didn't move. didn't do anything at all. but you also understand that was a nanny who was saying, i got to protect you. i got to make sure you have the protection because i ain't going to be here forever, and so much of african-americans in the place callsed america how we determine what our children do to make them safe. so they're saying you can't be a poet because you got to make money. got be a teacher, a doctor, a dentist, but you cannot be an artist. so she was this woman as artist. from the very beginning, when you listen to her talk and her thinking, that this is a woman as artist that we're looking at. so that's how i identified with her as this artist, as this poet, this writer, this painter.

she sees the earth as an artist, and i think -- maybe i'm just being a little biased by i think women do see the earth as an artist. because we paint our bodies, our bellies with babies, you know what i'm saying? and they come out black, green, purpose -- purple, blue. we spill blood on this earth and pill birth on this earth and joy. so the this woman you know from the very beginning, she looked up and saw someone else, you nye she was going to leave and you knew she had to leave, and you championed that leaving, so you go on, girl, get out of dodge, whatever. and then on the other hand, this society, you don't make quick decisions about marriage like that. sometimes you have to make quick decisions at life, and she recognize at some point, making

a quick decision about marriage was about life. her life. her life. and she goes off and then that great consequence when you're reading that book, and you read if with your students, students fall down on the ground in the classroom laughing and the men stood and just stare quite often. you know what i mean? and you talk about why they stare. and you talk about why they can't fall down and laugh at themselves also, too. because at some point we all have to laugh out ourselves do we not? and we understand this man, this young man, this man she goes off with, you understand the fears she has. she had all the normal fears any woman out there on this earth. if she even thinks about having a man ten years younger than. she all surfaces in no uncertain terms but i used to have one of

the questions is this a love story, and one year i walked into class and i said this is a murder story. and my students, the grad students in there whatever, looked at me like i was insane, right? i said, yeah, murder. i shade because everytime she touched somebody they died. everytime she loved somebody, they died. i mean, everytime she went in the back. from the first husband to the second husband the third husband, they died, and what does that mean? it means in no uncertain terms that she in a sense understood life and death. she moved in life and death. she navigated it. and she came back and the section that ruby read so beautifully, she comes back and says i can't talk to you because i haven't put death in perspective yet. i can't talk to you because i just survived a trial, you know,

where people step by me, okay, you're free. you can go home. i had to go and tell the story so i can understand it. and quite often we don't tell our stories. so we never understand it. and the joy of being a writer, is that you tell stories in order understand what life and death are really all about. we told stories to truly understand what it means to walk on this earth, and this is a holy woman we're talking about. she finey comes at the end -- we do a close reading. she is holy. you know. and she made us holy also, too. >> very good. very good. [applause] >> alice walker. >> the 1990 edition of this novel has sold more than five million copies, and has become

the most widely read and highly acclaimed novels in the canons of african-american literature. janey has been called a heroine. she learns what love is, experiences life's joys and sorrows and comes home to herself in peace. what is it about this novel that connects the masses to this work? >> everybody wants to be free. you know, it's wonderful to be loved. and it's even better to be loving. but without freedom, it's not the best. and so i think that we connect with the story because at the

end, we find a woman alone and happy to be by herself, at peace with being by herself. she has had many adventures and gone on many journeys, and there she is at the end, you know, combing out her hair, and sitting on her own porch, and she is autonomous, and she will choose her community. she will choose her family. she will choose her lovers. she is herself. she is just free as probably anyone could be. on this planet. and especially in a place like eatonville, and this is for all of us. we would like to connect directly with life. we have to do it in freedom. you cannot connect directly with life with somebody telling you when to wash the dishes. you cannot do it.

in fact i remember someone who -- this is an aside, but i was so in love with someone once, and we came back to our place, and i was busy because -- well, i was busy. and this person, in this case man -- he was annoyed, and he took that opportunity to remind me that actually our bathroom really could use a big cleaning. and i said, oh. you know. i'll help you find the place in another place, not here, because i could see that his programming was that he would be able to direct and that i was expected to follow direction. i cannot follow direction. except my own direction.

my earth-given divine direction. i am the last person to be told when the bathroom needs to be cleaned and neither is janey. this is part of what is happening. during this book. she is learning that she is not here to be somebody's decoration. ... it takes all that we have to really step up to it.

one springtime i was walking in central park and looking at the tulip trees and those other trees that have those really quite flowers. i was just overwhelmed by where we are. we are in this amazing history and if you have ever tried to inhabit and major major mistreat you want somebody telling you, clean the bathroom, learn to cook, what to wear, how old do you look, you know, any of that. you cannot have it. you are on a sacred journey and it is yours. it is yours to make. i love our old songs because they always just hit it right on the head. the one that i really love is the one, hold my hand while i run this race. we are not talking about --

it's about the divine itself, hold my hand while i run this race. i do not want to run this race in vain. that is what we see happening to people. they are running the race in vain because they are not connected to the actual source, and this is part of what we love so much in zora. she is talking about the pear tree. she is talking about life and she is talking about nature and she is doing that wonderful thing. i love a movie called immortal -- about beethoven for you see for so many of us come in nature is a sanctuary. nature is the place we are safe in and that is one of the reasons we have to fight to keep nature with us, because without it we are lost. >> thank you. [applause] >> in a few moments, let me

emphasize that again, very brief questions from our audience but before we do, will you share with us one of your favorite passages in the novel and tell us why this passage resonates with you? >> okay, i would be very happy to do that. this is at the very end of the novel and janie has had to kill decay. i so love him. he is so important to all of us because, maybe not all of us but so many of us are programmed to go for the guy in the suit and the one who is bringing home major bacon or whatever. but he has -- [inaudible]

[laughter] >> sometimes it takes a long time to get it, you know like boy, i have been had. this guy brings in $100,000 a year or whatever and we haven't danced in years. so, away with all of that. we don't want that. we want to have some fun here. my feeling about this planet, you know, the people who run the world and who are destroying it have no idea what this planet is for. it's for joy. if you haven't killed it, this planet says every single minute that this is the planet that is made for joy and its joyful. we should eat too. so anyway, she has had to kill takaik because he was bitten by the mad dog. and then she was put on trial

the same day which is really a remarkable thing when you think about it. talk about. >> justice. we could use some of that at stanford -- sanford florida today. [applause] and by the way i don't know if you realize this but sanford florida is 10 miles from eatonville and these are the same people. these are zora's people that are down there, so that family, the martins, they are her people and our people. >> two of those lived and died there. >> here she is, the black people in the courtroom really courtroom really are mad at her and they want to do terrible things. there are some white women who are sympathetic. and then cheney just gets up when they call her and put her in the chair. she says, they all leaned over to listen while she talked.

the thing you have to remember was she was not at home. she was in the courthouse fighting for something and it was not death. it was wisdom. it was lying thoughts, it was lying thoughts. she had to go way back to let them know how she and takaik had then with one another. so they could see she could never shoot them out of malice. she tried to make them see how terrible it was that things were fixed so takaik could not come back to himself until he had gotten rid of the mad dog that was in him and he couldn't get rid of the mad dog and live. he had to die to get rid of the dog. she had not wanted to kill him. command is up against a hard game when he much -- must die. she made them see how she couldn't ever want to be rid of him. she didn't plea to anybody. she just sat there and told than when she was through.

she had been true through for some time before the judge and the rest seem to know what. but she sat down in the trial chair until the lawyer told her she could come down. so then you know, they found her not guilty of murder. so she was free and the judge and everybody up there smiled at her and shook her hand. they stood around her like a protecting wall and they shuffled out and away. the sun was almost down and janie had seen the sun rise on her troubled love and she had shots of nine and had been in jail and tried for her life and now she was free. nothing to do with the mood of the rest of the day but to visit the kind white friends who realized her feelings and tangled them. so the sun went down. janie buried takaik and palm in

palm beach. she knew he loved the glades but it was too low for him to lie with water may be washing over him with every heavy rain. anyway, the glades where the waters that killed him. she wanted him out of the way of storms so she had a strong vault built in the cemetery at west palm beach. janie went to orlando for money to put him away. takaik was the son of the evening sun and nothing was too good. the undertaker did a handsome job and takaik slept poorly on his white silken couch among the roses she had lot. he looked almost ready to grin. janie bought him a brand-new qatar and put it in his hands. he would be thinking up new songs to play to her when she got there. they had tried to hurt her but she knew it was because they love to takaik and did not understand. so she sent word to all the

others through him so that they at the funeral they came with shame and apology on their faces. they wanted her quick forgetfulness, so they filled up and overflow to attend sedans that janie hired and added others to the line. then the band played and takaik rode like a pharaoh to his tomb. no expenses of failed at this time. she went on in her overalls. she was too busy to dress like grief. and then, the last part, she had come back and gone back to her house and closed the her gait and gone upstairs. soon everything around downstairs was shot and fastened.

janie mounted the stairs with her lamp. the light of her hand was like a spark of sun stuff washing her face and fire. her shadow behind fell black felt black and headlong down the stairs. now in her room, the place tasted fresh again. the wind through the open windows had burned out all the defeated feeling of absence and nothingness. she closed in and sat down, calming road dust out of her hair, thinking. the day of the gun and the bloody bloodied body and the courthouse came and commenced to sing a sobbing side out of every corner in the room. out of each and every chair they commenced to saying, commenced to sob and side singing and sobbing. then takaik came prancing around herb, where she was and flew in

the window and lit in the top of the tree. takaik with the sun for a shawl. of course he wasn't dead. he can never be dead until she herself had finished thinking. the kiss of this memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. here was piece. she pulled in her horizon like a great fishnet, pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. so much of life in its meshes. she called and her soul. she called in her soul, her sole. to come and see. [applause] [applause]

>> we will now take brief questions and i say brief questions, from our audience. we have at the corner of the stage and microphone and you can approach. >> greetings everyone. >> good evening. >> i just had a brief question. you ladies have given me so much inspiration throughout my 26 years and the stories you have told, the essence that you have experienced help me to be the woman that i am now so i would like to ask, where do we get our stories from? where do we get our inspiration? you draw from your own experience but we have few.

is 2012 so what story still need to be told and where do we find them? >> the sociologist in me says that you need to be social activists and to be active, you need to be aware. everything that happens, whether it be an issue in sudan, whether it be an issue in stanford florida, requires a response and the sociology department in my college in connecticut community college, we do things like habitat for humanity, because the quickest way out of poverty is homeownership and the poor people are people of color who own their own homes. we do things like hoodie day

next thursday to bring awareness to issues of racial and social inequality in the world. we do things like voter registration because even now, three bills later in our government, we still have issues people being able to have equal and legal access to voting perk i would say it be aware of what's going on and even more so be activists of what needs to be done and look to the generation before you hear, pay homage but even more importantly, pay homage to the generation behind you so there is no break in the link so they know from where they came.

[applause] >> carl dix. hi alice, hi sonia, higher ruby and lucy. i have met the other three. i am sorry. i wasn't trying to -- but just coming over here i was thinking about the point that alice made about sanford is where soro was from and thinking about the way in which the zora was disrespected among a lot of the black riders for being a woman who revealed the lives of black people as they were. and then i was thinking about trayvon's werder and the way in which it is pierced a feel for the society that hides what happens to a lot of ordinary, everyday black people. that murder has opened a veil and will people actually see beyond it, to see that, how

regular this is? this isn't an isolated incidents and can they see all of that? then i'm wondering, is there a connection between outwork the zora did to reflect everyday black people. and doing it from a female perspective. that was another thing that a lot of the men were writing that they didn't like. a lot of the men had some trouble fashioning women characters in their art that were real, you know. i have got some other problems but that was one of the questions. let me stop there in line with -- and it's good that people are out in the street but we have to keep on this question because it is not just one case and it doesn't die with one case because this happens all the time. >> i am definitely going to differ to the master as soon as i get my say in this.

>> zorro during her lifetime as we endure presently, has to deal with the double jeopardy. it's not an issue of race, which is one thing to deal with. everything that is nonwhite so it's not a black thing so we don't want to get caught up in the dilemma of black and white because that leaves brown, yellow and red not even in the discussion. so we need that, but we also need to consider the double jeopardy of issues of women. i think that was the thing that was contentious between zora and her contemporaries. while she was attempting to simultaneously deal with women's issues, she left the issue of race to the men thinking there would be a two-pronged attack against theisms. they didn't see it that way and

she thought they weren't in her camp given the sexism and the other, is something she was doing was an important. we have got to make sure that this same issue, that same double pronged attack takes place today. and now i will turn it over. >> i was -- it was very hard for me to look at what had happened to trayvon, because of course those of us, or my generation, have had to look at anfield this over and over and over again, and to feel the endlessness apparently of it. but i finally you know, got myself together and what i really feel is that there is a

certain amount of hypocrisy in a country and in the leadership of the country that can see this happen and say how horrible it indeed is, without admitting at the same time that while we -- children and other countries it is exactly the same thing. we are chasing them as they are running from the drones and chasing them as they are running from whatever defense force is after them, for instance palestine. we are chasing them around the globe and really abusing them and murdering them. and i think that our children and our young people, and not so young, copy this behavior and they feel that on some level it's okay. this is where we have gotten to as a culture.

to our shame really, you know, that human life, the weaker person or whoever is perceived as weaker will start to be fair game. whoever can be stigmatized is fair game for the person who can pretend to have authority over that person. so, i really would like very much for us as we are linking these issues to link the murder of someone like trayvon to the murder of children in the rest of the world, by our support, by that which i mean we pay for this. we pay for those murders. all these children are our children. they are all our children. they live somewhere else but that doesn't mean they are not ours. we are adults. we are the parents of the planet and it's part of our responsibility to take care of the youth and to make them feel

like they are safe. we have failed. unfortunately, the more things change, the more they are the same. several hundred years ago, parents of slave children, predominantly children of slave lawyers had to teach them how to live within the black code to save their lives. that they don't make eye contact. they keep their eyes down, that they keep their armor down and they show humble and diminish behavior, subordinate behavior. and here we come, 2012 and as the mother of two young men, here we have to teach our young boys, don't put your hands in your pocket, keep your hands at your side, keep your eyes and contacts so you don't look

shady, that we still have to live within this transformation of a black hold -- black code to save your life because you have an label this danger is by nothing more than the presence that you have on the planet. that is shameful. [applause] >> time is our enemy. oh way, we have one more. we have one more. okay. >> i am an off. of all of you ladies. i've push to get her from the office and i'm happy i've made it. i want to make a quick comment for ago i wrote a book, not that i'm pushing it. and people kept telling me, your book is not a book. i said, is self-published. they said it's not a book.

so, for a year i walked around with sonia sanchez look, three of them from the 60's and i said, it's a book for every time people would say to me, it was almost as if i was seeking permission for confirmation and i walked around. when i would present my book, they would say, it's not a book. and i said there were works from the 60's and they were books. i was always seeking permission from strong women. even gloria steinem. >> yes she is here. [applause] >> oh my. i just wanted to find out from you ladies, i know god has given

me permission because everything everything -- i almost didn't make it here tonight and he said keep going. i was looking for permission from other people but i wanted to ask you ladies, what events in your lives got you to stop seeking permission from others? >> alice, alice, alice. >> i stopped being a lady. [applause] actually i never was a lady. [laughter] and i will add a little bit of history to that. in the south the white women with the ladies and the black women were women and i actually preferred to be a woman. i preferred to be a woman, not a lady and i don't believe in a god necessarily has to be he. and so i know for many people,

it was deeply embedded, but i really feel that unless you liberate yourself from what you have inherited, you know as truth, in a religious or spiritual sense, until you liberate yourself you cannot really connect with what is actually here. there's a reason why the programming has been so intense, is to make you a beating at and do you want to be a radiant to the kind of craziness that this world is showing us? i don't think so. >> my father was probably the first -- told me in, do not let anyone else tell you how to be happy or how to be good because that is power. do not give away that power to

anyone else. i was a young girl when he told me that in i was kind of like what? yeah, yeah, yeah and then i started reading and schooling in educating and i read from the work of gloria steinem, alice walker, sonia sanchez. i watched the works of ruby dee and i learned do you know what? we don't need permission, okay? we don't need permission. others need permission from us. [applause] and to add on to that my dear sister, so much of this -- i talked about teaching love and a murder story to get people to think, but also i teach the book as a movement towards peace. the reason we like that book so

much is we realize in the end she had discovered piece. she really did no peace. the books you're carrying with you where the books we responded to when we finally realized we had been displayed in america so you could couldn't say by golly by gee i think we were inflamed. you came out by sight or site or whatever. the point that i really think you must understand is that you must never let people bring you to their level. sometimes i come up with -- someone a q&a with asset question i hear the negativity. sometimes i say okay, whatever, right? but i always say excuse me my brother or my sister, could you please tell me how i have offended you? and if you do that, then maybe i can correct it because you always must make that person come to where you are.

you must never go to where they are. one of the things we begin to truly understand is from joe on, they all tried to bring her to their level. but with takaik that didn't happen. you have really got to hear that. at some point this thing called peace that we will finally get at some point, it means you can turn around and talk about angst that are peaceful on this earth and how you move in a peaceful fashion and how we teach our children peace. how we move them and how we teach them. so it's not just about wearing a hoodie, and we all wear the hoodies and say okay we are protecting our children. no, no, no, no, in our homes we have to teach peace in our homes. that is necessary and i always say, we need to go in teach

peace in the congress and peace in the police department. we need to teach peace all over this earth at this particular time. my sister, if you don't do this, this is so important for us to understand that i have seen and alice has seen and ruby has seen and art dear sister has seen, we have seen so many of these young brothers being killed. how do we respond? we always respond in the same fashion. there is a big uproar. we go and beget justice sometimes and sometimes we don't get justice. then we go back to our usual lives. by golly, by gee ain't got nothing else going on. life is going on. the world is going on in sister alice said alice stein is going on. iraq is going on. men are coming home from wars killing themselves and going on easy so just to rise up from

this one occasion means we must rise up for every occasion that it happens. we must rise up in this country when a supreme court justice would conveniently forget how bad inauguration happen. he said by golly, by gee -- but i ended up in a place called washington d.c.. the nonpeaceful scene has begun. when republicans will come out the next day and say we are going to make sure that this man will not succeed as the first black president, i said you are here for the american people. we the people, not for yourselves, not for your unbelievably sick cells. this is about america, not what you believe in all that time. when a child, be the child is black, green, purple, blue or

red, and america overseas wherever, we must respond to it and it's odd not always in the usual way. we must respond to it as editorial, by going to the congress, by going to the police stations, by going to that community and sitting in and talking to them and saying let me tell you what a black child is all about, a black male child or a white male child is all about or brown male child and let me tell you about the children we have the cannot walk the streets because you're carrying a gun. >> thank you so much. thank you. [applause] >> i have one question. >> they are talking about "their eyes were watching god," "their eyes were watching god" and i think about a photograph. if your eyes are really on god,

because you tend to gravitate toward that on which you focus and if your eyes are on god, why isn't the focus returned? what is keeping the focus from returning? when we might end up talking about what is happening, the stupidity of the antithesis of their eyes are watching god. i wonder about that title because i wonder what they were trying to tell us. i really do believe that, our eyes are watching god, then god is watching us, there is an exchange between the forces that we desire. i am beginning to see the

glimpse of progress you know, and i'm beginning to see the glimpse of the joy. i'm trying to find it in the book too, you know what i mean but their eyes were watching god. when your eyes are watching god, and those senses that we acknowledge, watching and when we are watching god and god we know is watching us, what is happening in terms of the exchange? i would like us to and on that note. "their eyes were watching god." [applause] >> at the end of this wonderful stimulating and intellectual evening, i would like to thank you for joining us as we honor

the 75th anniversary of the novel, "their eyes were watching god." ladies and gentlemen, alice walker. sonia sanchez. ruby dee. [applause] thank you. >> thank you, thank you, thank you so much. [applause] [applause] oklahoma city is known for the 1995 attack of of the mara building by timothy mcveigh.

booktv this is the city to share the local literary culture of the area. >> my name is joe and ann i am the african curator of the john and mary nichols rare books and special collections at the university of oklahoma. this is a wonderful collection that was named in honor of john and mary nichols on behalf of a longtime service to the university university and the library. and with the generous support we were able to establish this fourth of several special collections on the campus at the university of oklahoma. what i found as i brought up some books for the collection which is coming up to about 13,000 books. the collection itself highlights and has important work in british-american european literature from the 16 centuries to the present and what i have shown you here are some of the most beloved authors of the english language, written and english and american.

one of the core parts of the question is the dickens collection which is really remarkable. we have first editions of the print work but also the installments of his work. for many of these authors you will see today like charles dickens, jane austen and other authors that i will show, mostly those in paper and back at editions but it is remarkable to say of the contemporary reader would have experience reading a challenge city for example in these weekly installments or even from 1843, a christmas carol. this is one of my favorites with these wonderful illustrations. and these are some of the other editions of dickens we have the came out in these installments. one reason for doing this is that they were cheaper for the buying public and also a kind of white at the appetite of the reader to see what would happen next with their character.

dickens was a master at creating these wonderful characters. what will you see are some depictions of a collection we have from joseph clark, also known as kid who will have these wonderful watercolors in the late 19th century of some of dickens characters. there we have begin and also mr. bumble from the poorhouse and this is a copy of oliver twist. it is one of dickens works that came out in book form first before the installment. you see a wonderful image of oliver's reception by fagan and the boys. again many of these books were in media first or film and it is rich to see them as the contemporary reader did. there is a gee aesthetic emotional aspect is seen above but there is also a scholarly reason. tells us something about how the publishing business was, how

authors worked and how people read books. these are the kinds of things that people maybe are interested in doing research on a history of the book, english literature. we are happy to open this collection to scholars, two students and in fact on this campus we really want to promote the use of collections and graduate students. another one of my favorites which again many of you may have counted in a paperback penguin classic, here is "pride and prejudice." it is in a small 3-volume set with probably one of the most famous lines there is in literature. it is a truth universally knowledge that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be -- and we have all faith editions of jane austin, one of my particular favorite offers so in addition to some of these classic -- classic authors we

have arthur conan doyle many of the sherlock holmes editions and this particular edition is one in which he uses the idea of a fingerprint to solve a crime for the first time in his 1905 and also a copy of hg wells invisible man. moving over here, the collection is also represented by a american literature and authors. mark twain, we have a very interesting of collection work in mark twain and here is tom sawyer first edition. herman melville, the whale which is actually the 5 millionth volume from the university of oklahoma. and it's in the library. and a collection of reason may all cod, little women. one thing i want to point out a special election, it's wonderful to see these original first editions but special collections are special because they also have unique serial so something that would only exist in that particular book. not everything is on the

internet so sometimes a book will have something very unique that would be helpful in research for the topic or it just tells you something about the origin of the book. for it since this book by the poet robert frost that actually has a handwritten copy of one of his poems on the boat. it's a presentation copy. most of the books in our collection, most of the materials in this collection are printed but we do have materials like this and we also have any script material. sometimes those are inserted in books that might tell us something about the book. i talk a little bit about the literary classics we have put the but the collection is also strong in general in rare books in rare books dating from the 15th century. that could be something like the drama 10. this is the second folio of 1632. it's a really beautiful coffin as copying is part of a collection we have on stagecraft, books on plays and a

history of the stage and it's really valuable to scholars who are doing the history of the states. from the 1600. over here i have a few examples of some of the different plays that we have. these are theme of love. we had a valentines that highlighted some of these a few months back so from 1694, from 1728 and from 1735 by dryden, fielding and some others. this is something that people who are doing research in that area can look at. again a special collection is important because it may have unique material. this is something i discovered on the shelf recently that is basically, someone had put together a collection from the early 1800's, some productions. this may be something also if

you're interested in looking at the history of theater would like to utilize. in addition to the history of the states we have work that can be considered political theory, sa, travel books, songs and political tracks. we are also very strong and biblical materials. this when i wanted to take out again because it's something that is very recognizable. you may be familiar with go over his travels. here is the original edition from jonathan swift from 1726 which is really not a children's story and it has a lot to say. is a satire on the culture of the period so it is relevant in a lot of areas. in fact if you look at the table of contents, they are critiquing some of the academies of the times other interesting connections with the history of science and literary life of the times. he was interested in critiquing. again, and the collection we

have not only poets, spencer and dramatist and let wary work, so we have works on history, collected works like king james and things like that. is a well-known political leviathans that has the beautiful well-known picture over here and 1651 is as when it was published. again some of you may have counted this in the paperback edition. in addition to this kind of book which is a treatise, we have a lot of pamphlets which are religious, political where authors are dealing with contemporary issues and one thing i brought out, the topic is the idea of having a standing army and is that consistent with the principles of a free government? the first pamphlet is the initial publication in 1697 in

and the second one you will see replied to that. i brought these out to emphasize the idea of thinking about a special collection and the works in it as a conversation. authors and individuals are talking to each other but there is also continual conversation about ideas and values that comes up to the present. that is one reason we are still compelled to look at these works. moving on, i have some of the last works that i want to show that are some of the oldest materials we have. two of these are printed in the 1400's, right after the beginning of printing and because of that, they look very much like a manuscript, which i actually have a copy of here of a 13th century bible. so when printing as a technology began in the