This week's episode begins with a song from Zora Neale Hurston, "Shove it Over." Throughout this week's show we'll be hearing songs from Hurston which can be found in the State Archives of Florida. To learn more about Zora Neale Hurston, Craig and Chadd Scott talk to Kristy Anderson, writer and director of the documentary film, "Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun," which you can watch on Amazon. Zora Neale Hurston was a Florida author and anthropologist. While a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, she spent little time there, Her novels explored the lives of ex-slaves living in the Deep South. Although she died penniless in Ft. Pierce, Florida in 1960, with her books out of print, Black feminists resurrected her work, particularly the 1937 novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God."
Craig Pittman is the award-winning author of Oh, Florida!: How America’s Weirdest State Influences the Rest of the Country, The Scent of Scandal, Cat Tale, Manatee Insanity and The State You’re In, and co-author of Paving Paradise. Born in Pensacola, he graduated from Troy State University in Alabama, where his muckraking work for the student paper prompted an agitated dean to label him “the most destructive force on campus.” Since then he has covered a variety of newspaper beats and quite a few natural disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and the Florida Legislature.