Zora Neale Hurston - TAMPA

Today, Hurston is better known as a major literary figure, but she was also a trained anthropologist, including studying under Franz Boaz. A native of Eatonville, Florida, Hurston fell upon hard times during the Great Depression and eventually sought out relief work with the Federal Writers Project (FWP). Having already conducted fieldwork for her own studies, Hurston worked with Herbert Halpert and Stetson Kennedy in the FWP. Her work on Floridas turpentine camps is still considered authoritative. For more on Hurston and her fieldwork, go to the Florida Memory Project: http://www.floridamemory.com/OnlineClassroom/zora_hurston/

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) after 1939, the Works Projects Administration was a work-relief program created in 1935 by the President Franklin Roosevelts Administration that had employed over 8.5 million people by its demise in 1943. One of its programs was the Federal Writers Project (FWP), which included a Folklore Section. This section conducted fieldwork, recording songs, traditions, and stories across the nation. Originally created to gather material for the American Guide Series, later emphasis was placed upon fieldwork for the preservation of folk traditions for future generations.

In Florida, the FWP was based out of Jacksonville, and directed by historian Carita Doggett Corse. Folklorist Stetson Kennedy directed the Florida Folklife section. Seven fieldwork recording expeditions were conducted in Florida. Two were conducted between 1935 and 1937, before the creation of the Florida Folklore Section: one by Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston, and the other by John and Ruby Lomax. After 1939, five more were conducted by Floridas FWP staff: Kennedy, Hurston, Robert Cook, Alton Morris, Corse, Robert Cornwell, John Filareton, and Herbert Halpert (of the Joint Committee on Folk Arts Southern Recording Expedition.)

Recording equipment was loaned to Floridas WPA program by the Library of Congress Archive of the American Folk Song (later the American Folklife Center). The field recordings were made on acetate disks, usually recorded at 78 rpm (although occasionally at 33 rpm). Because these disks were shipped from Washington DC to Florida, then to the recording site, and then back to Washington, they often were not of the highest sonic quality. Several had surface scratches and many had various recording speeds. In 1986, the Florida Folklife Program staff made copies of many of these recordings onto reel to reels for inclusion in the Florida Folklife Archive.

Many of these recordings are also available online at the Library of Congress American Memrory Project at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/flwpahtml/flwpahome.html

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[wotpho]

This song was recorded by Alan Lomax of Jelly Roll Morton singing it for the Library of Congress.

[KeyMaker7]

Same Az It Ever Was ..UniVers@l Keym@ker 4 LYFE !