Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and the Echoes of the Red Scare
by Taylor Marie Contarino & Rafiq TaylorZora & Langston offers a delicate view of the artists that fueled the Harlem Renaissance.
We saw the performance at the Zephyr Theatre located on Melrose Avenue.
The Zephyr Theater became the hotspot for culture and art to collide together in a collective resistance of cultural norms as we witnessed a stunning portrayal of two of our favorite authors: Hurston and Hughes.
The show was produced and presented by SheLA Arts, a 503c Non-Profit that fights for gender equity within the entertainment industry. They are an arm of the larger-scale non-profit, She NYC Arts, an organization committed to equity for women in entertainment.
The intimate and simple space became so much more than a black box at the start of the play. What was once a quiet, empty space transported audience members back to the Harlem Renaissance.
A simple set compliments the intimate theatre environment.
The play uses the artists’ collaboration on the co-authored Mule Bone to explore the blossoming and decaying of Zora Hurston’s (Imani Waweru) and Langston Hughes’ (Xzavier Marqueze Beacham) creative partnership. The show also highlighted the insidious influence of Charlotte Osgood Mason (Michelle Champoux), the cruel patron of the Harlem Renaissance.
The two writers were so deeply ingrained in one another’s lives that they ended up, unfortunately, parting ways due to personal conflict – something that seemed to pierce both of their souls deeply. The performance itself was nothing short of exquisite – the actors truly embodied the lives of two enigmatic, thorough, and complicated figures in the most intimate and emotional ways.
Hurston was portrayed beautifully – feminine, fiercely independent, exquisitely complicated, hurt, damaged and broken, but graceful in her standing. Hughes, on the other hand, was confident, spunky, and kind – deeply warm, personable, and inviting.
Reflecting on this show, there is a manifold of perspectives that warrant examination. The impact of race and gender on which artists were granted creative freedom during the Harlem Renaissance is a thesis in itself. Credit goes to playwright and director Imani Mitchell for capturing that tension through her words and her staging.
Jordan Simpson serves as the music director and accompanist for this performance.
In the play as in life, Langston Hughes severed ties with “Godmother” Charlotte, while Zora Neale Hurston remained attached. This division in perspective is notable because it hints at the ways the two artists navigated the Red Scare of the 1940s.
During this era, their ideological paths simultaneously diverged and mirrored each other. Black activists and artists were one of the targets of the national fear campaign against communist influence. Hurston deftly avoided this label, raising nuanced concerns about imperialist ambition and the Black identity being coldly used as a tool to serve it.
Hughes faced the label head-on, traveling with actress Frances E. Williams to California to conduct a series of speaking engagements. In 1948, Williams became the first black woman to run for the California State Assembly. It was through her that Langston Hughes met and befriended Charlotta Bass. All three were demonized as radicals. In spite of this, Charlotta Bass and The California Eagle supported Hughes during this time.
The central tension of Zora & Langston captures a moment in time when the internal politics of the Harlem Renaissance not only influenced the art, but the trajectory of the artists themselves. The play serves a reminder that while history rarely repeats itself in exact terms, it often echoes and provides insight into the trials of today. It is easy to be reminded of Zora & Langston as Red Scare rhetoric is once again being employed in current politics to malign the art produced by a nebulous, nonspecific “Left.”
Beautiful artwork decorates the wall just outside of the theatre space.