I love the following quote from Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), a Harlem Renaissance writer who was also an anthropologist and a folklore scholar. The quote was published in the July 2009 issue of The Sun, a North Carolina-based culture magazine, in its "Sunbeams" section, a roundup of quotations by prominent people.
"Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company?"
Isabel Wilkerson, the author of two nonfiction books, The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste, was asked by The New York Times Book Review (August 2, 2020) which three writers, living or dead, she would invite to a literary dinner party. She named Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and Zora Neale Hurston.
I've read the biographies of all three writers and read some of their work. I wouldn't mind being present at a dinner party that included them. No doubt such a gathering of powerful intellects would be a mind and life altering experience. Hurston would especially be a joy with her down home humor, playful inventiveness (she coined the term "niggerati," to describe the Harlem literary set of the 1920s), and knowledge of African-American folklore.
How indeed could anyone with any sense deny themselves Zora Neale Hurston's splendid company?
