In Response to Fear: Inspired by Zora Neale Hurston’s Quote, “The thing to do is to grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.”, by Nadia Daniels-Moehle. 2019. Ink on paper.
A year ago, I first met Zora Neale Hurston tucked away on a bookshelf. Their Eyes Were Watching God (WorldCat / Bookshop) stared at me, making me recall high school reading lists, and I began to read without knowing much about the story itself.
If I had known what the book held in store, I would have read it sooner. This was a story of a woman finding her personal liberation in spite of and despite the smothering relationships men threw at her, a story of finding the complexity of life in waves of sorrow.
A few months ago, I was reminded of Hurston’s heroine Janie, when I came across a quote from Hurston as I read Rebecca Traister’s book Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger (WorldCat / Bookshop). In her autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road, (WorldCat / Bookshop) Hurston writes,
“The thing to do is to grab the broom of anger and drive off the beast of fear.”
And with these words, Hurston’s stories and people, her imagery and lyricism, her universes will stay with me long after I’ve closed the covers of her books.
293 days done, 72 to go.