I learned many more things about Zora from Alice, Hemenway, Boyd and other writers who had emoted with her work and been moved by her.

I learned that she liked gardenias and the colour red.

That she frequently wrote letters that were thoughtful and vibrant, post-marked from all over the world (in a letter to Harry Hanson, she sends him a snuff box from Haiti with the preface: “I know your mama must have raised you right, but now that you are on your own you are liable to get habits…”)

That she had a number of relationships with men (and probably some women) and modeled her characters after them. But that her work always came first.

That she had strong political views and is often heralded as “America’s favorite black conservative.”

That she was falsely accused of molesting a 10-year old child, an accusation which is said to have ruined her career (she later disproved this claim by proving that she was out of the country at the time).

That she loved to eat and became “heavy” in her later years.

That she had once spent 69 hours lying naked…on a snakeskin.

But mostly I learned that if this many people are writing about you and concerned with your life, you must be doing something right. And that love and kinship transcend time.

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When Their Eyes Were Watching God was reissued in 1978 it sold 75,000 copies in a month. Today, Zora Neale Hurston is a household name in most places and an icon of Black feminism. An Arts and Humanities festival called ZORA! is put on every year in her honor in Eatonville. None of this would have been possible without Alice Walker. And none of this would have been possible if Zora had not left such a strong legacy.

Zora in “flapper” outfit

“As far as I’m concerned, she is my aunt—and that of all black people.”

Alice Walker