Four Voices That Changed American Literature

Four voices. One enduring throughline: language as liberation. We shine a bright, human light on Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker—women who transformed American literature and widened the world’s sense of what stories can hold.

We start with Maya Angelou, tracing a path from childhood silence to a global stage. Her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings broke barriers for Black women in nonfiction, while her poem On the Pulse of Morning echoed from a presidential inauguration. Beyond the page, we explore her work as a performer, civil rights organizer, and teacher, and how travel, mentorship, and ceaseless experimentation fueled a life where genre served the truth rather than confined it.

Zora Neale Hurston emerges as the folklorist who made field notes sing. From Harlem salons to Florida porches, Haiti to Jamaica, her ear for vernacular and eye for ritual shaped Their Eyes Were Watching God and a body of work that honored everyday Black life. We unpack the hard years—controversy, poverty, and an unmarked grave—and the later revival led by Alice Walker that returned Hurston to the canon, influencing generations of writers and readers.

Toni Morrison’s arc moves through scholarship, editing, and a breathtaking sequence of novels—The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved—that confront history’s hauntings with lyrical rigor. We talk about her Nobel Prize, her defense of free expression, and how her classrooms and editorial rooms became incubators for voices too often dismissed. Finally, we turn to Alice Walker, whose The Color Purple changed how tenderness and survival could live on the page, then leapt to film and stage. Her essays, poetry, children’s books, and activism reveal a writer committed to empathy and unflinching truth.

If you love literature, cultural history, or simply the kind of story that stays in your bones, this episode offers context, connection, and reasons to read deeper. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a reading spark, and leave a review telling us which book you’re picking up next.

Transcript

Maya Angelou’s Early Life And Trauma

Angelou’s Artistry, Activism, And Awards

Zora Neale Hurston’s Roots And Harlem Renaissance

Hurston’s Folklore, Novels, And Setbacks

Toni Morrison’s Education And Editorial Path

Morrison’s Major Works And Nobel Era

Alice Walker’s Early Struggles And Breakthrough

Walker’s Color Purple Legacy And Later Works

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Good afternoon and welcome to this uh edition of Native Drums. Today we want to focus on African American authors, specifically female authors. We'll concentrate on four and uh give you some history and background, and hopefully everything uh will be to your liking and uh you'll learn something that you didn't know before. The first author we want to concentrate on is Sister Maya Angelou. Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, writer civil rights activist Maya Angelou is known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African-American woman. In 1971, Angelou also published the Pulsar Prize-nominated poetry collection, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water Before I Die. She later wrote the poem on The Pulse of the Morning, one of her most famous works, which she recited at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Angelou has received several honors throughout her career, including two NAACP Image Awards in the Outstanding Literary Works Nonfiction category in 2005 and 2009. A little bit about Sister Angelou. Multi-talented, barely seems to cover the depth and breadth of Maya Angelou's accomplishments. She was an author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, and poet. Born Marguerite Ann Johnson, Angelou had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother Bailey were sent to live with their father's mother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. As an African American, Angelou experienced first-hand racial prejudices and discriminations in Arkansas. She also suffered at the hands of a family associate around the age of seven. During a visit with her mother, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Then, as a vengeful, as a vengeance for the sexual assault, Angelou's uncle killed the boyfriend. So traumatized by the experience, Angelou stopped talking. She returned to Arkansas and spent several years as a virtual mute. During World War II, Angelou moved to San Francisco, California, where she won a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School. Also during this time, Angelou became the first black female cable car conductor, a job she held only briefly in San Francisco. In 1944, a 16-year-old Angelou gave birth to a son named Guy through a short-lived high school relationship that had led to her pregnancy, thereafter working a number of jobs to support herself and her child. In 1952, the future literary icon weared Anistoposis Angiopoulos, a Greek sailor from whom she took her professional name, a blend of her childhood nickname Maya and a shortened version of his surname. Her career beginnings. In the 1950s, Angelo's career as a performance began as a performer began to take off. She landed a role in the touring production of Porgy and Bess and later appeared in the off-Broadway production of Calypso Heat Wave in 1957 and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso, also in 1957. A member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a civil rights activist, Angelou Arcus Angelou organized and starred in the musical review Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as the SCLC's Northern Coordinator. In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Janay's The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett, and Cicely Tyson. While the play earned strong reviews, Angelou moved on to other pursuits, spending much of the 60s abroad. She first lived in Egypt and then in Ghana, working as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou also held a position at the University of Ghana for a while. After returning to the United States, Angelou was urged by friend and fellow writer James Baldwin to write about her life experiences. Her efforts resulted in the enormously successful 1969 memoir about her childhood and young adult years, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. The poignant work also made Angelou an international star. Since publishing Cagebury, Angelou has continued to break new ground, not just artistically, but educationally and socially. She wrote the drama Georgia Georgia in 1972, becoming the first African-American woman to have her screenplay produced and went on to earn a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play, Lookaway, in 1973 and an Emmy Award nomination for her work on the television miniseries Roots in 1977, among other honors. Her later successes included several biographies throughout her career, including All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, which was written in 1986, and a song Flung Up to Heaven in 2002. But 1969's I Know Why the Carriage Bird Sings continues to be regarded as her most popular autobiographical work. She has also published several collections of poetry, including Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water Before I Die in 1971, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. One of Angelou's most famous works is the poem on the Pulse of the Morning, which she wrote especially for and recited at Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremony in January of 1993, marking the first inauguration recitation since 1961, when Robert Frost delivered his poem The Gift Outright at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. Angelou went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for the audio version of the poem. In 1995, Angelou was lauded for remaining on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list for two years, the longest-running record in the chart's history. Seeking new creative challenges, Angelou made her directorial debut in 1998 with Down in the Delta, starring Alfie Woodard. She has also written a number of inspirational works from the essay collection Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now in 1994, True Advice for Young Women, and Letter to My Daughter in 2008. Interested in health, Angelou has even published cookbooks including Hallelujah, The Welcome Table, A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes in 2005, and Great Food All Day Long in 2010. Angelou's career had seen numerous accolades, including the Chicago International Film Festival's 1998 Audience Choice Award, and a 9 from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999 for Down in the Delta, and two NAACP Image Awards and Outstanding Literary Works of Nonfiction Catory for her cookbooks and her letter to my daughter. Dr. Angelo passed away on March 24th, March 28th, excuse me, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies from 1982 until her death at Wake Forest University. Our second author is Zora Neal Hurston. Zora Neal Hurston was born on January 7, 1891, in Nostagula, Alabama. Writer Zora Neal Hurston created several acclaimed works of fiction, including the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. She was also an outstanding folkloreist and anthropologist who worked to record the stories and tales of many cultures, including her own African-American heritage. Her birthplace has been the subject of such some debate since Hurston herself wrote in her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road, that Edenville, Florida, was where she was born. But according to many other sources, she took some creative license with that fact. She probably had no memories of Nastagula having moved to Florida as a toddler. Hurston was also known to adjust her birth year from time to time as well, according to the Zora Neal Hurston Digital Archive. Her birth date, according to Zora Neal Hurston, a life in letters, may not be January 7th, but January 15th. Hurston was the daughter of two former slaves. Her father, John Hurston, was a pastor, and he moved the family to Florida when Hurston was very young. Following the death of her mother, Lucianne Potts Hurston, in 1904 and her father's subsequent remarriage, Hurston lived with an assortment of family members for the next few years. To support and finance her efforts to get an education, Hurston worked a variety of jobs, including as a maid for an actress in a touring Gilbert and Sullivan group. In 1920, Hurston earned an associate's degree from Howard University. She published one of her earliest works in the university's newspaper. A few years later, she moved to New York City's Harlem neighborhood, where she became a fixture in the area's thriving art scene. Her writing career started when she was living in Harlem in the 20s. Hurston befriended the likes of Langston Hughes and County Cullen, among several others. Her apartment, according to some accounts, was a popular spot for social gatherings. Around this time, Hurston experienced a few early literary successes, including placing a short-lived short story and playwriting contest in Opportunity Magazine. Hurston also had serious academic interests. She landed a scholarship to Barnard College, where she pursued the subject of anthropology and studied with Franz Boaz. In 1927, Hurston returned to Florida to collect African-American folktales. She would later publish a collection of these stories entitled Mugles and Men in 1935. Hurston also contributed articles to magazines, including the Journal of American Folklore. Also in the mid-30s, Hurston explored the fine arts through a number of different projects. She worked with Langston Hughes on a play called Mudbone, a comedy of Negro life. Disputes over the work would eventually lead to a falling out between the two writers, and wrote several other plays, including The Great Day and From Son to Sun. Hurston released her first novel, Jonas Gord Vine, in 1934. Two years later, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed her to work on what would become her most famous works, Their Eyes Were Watching God, in 1937. She wrote the novel while traveling in Haiti, where she also studied local voodoo practices. That same year, Hurston spent time in Jamaica conducting anthropological research. In 1942, Hurston published her autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road. The personal work was well received by critics, but her life and career soon began to falter. Hurston was charged with molesting a 10-year-old boy in 1948, despite being able to prove that she was out of the country at the time of the incident. She suffered greatly from this false accusation. Despite all of her accomplishments, Hurston struggled financially and personally during her final decade. She kept writing, but she had difficulty getting her works published. Additionally, she experienced some backlash for her criticism of the 1955 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown versus Board of Education, which called for the end of school segregation. A few years later, Hurston suffered several strokes and was living in the St. Lucie County welfare home. The once famous writer and folklore died poor and alone on January 28, 1960, and was buried in an unmarked grave in Fort Pierce, Florida. More than a decade later, another great talent helped to revive interest in Hurston and her work. Alice Walker wrote about Hurston in the essay In Search of Zora Neo Hurston, published in MS Magazine in 1975. Walker's essay helped introduce Hurston to a new generation of readers and encouraged publishers to print new editions of Hurston's long out-of-print novels and other writings. In addition to Walker, Hurston heavily influenced Tony Morrison, Ralph Ellison, and others, other African-American writers. Our third author is Tony Morrison. Born Chloe Anthony Walford on February 18, 1931, in Lorraine, Ohio, Tony Morrison was the second oldest of four children. Her father, George Waffert, worked primarily as a welder, but held several jobs at once to support the family. Her mother, Rama, was a domestic rec worker. Morrison later credited her parents with distilling in her a love of reading, music, and folklore. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not fully be did not become fully aware of racial divisions until she was in her teens. When I was in the first grade, nobody thought I was inferior. I was the only black in the class and the only child who could read, she later told a reporter from the New York Times. Dedicated to her studies, Morrison took Latin in school and read many great works of European literature. She graduated from Lorraine High School with honors in 1949. At Howard University, Morrison continued to pursue her interest in literature. She majored in English and chose the classics for her minor. After graduating from Howard in 1953, Morrison continued her education at Cornell University. She wrote a thesis on the works of Virginia Wolfe and William Faulkner and completed her master's degree in 1955. She then moved to Texas to teach English at Texas Southern University. In 1957, Morrison returned to Howard University to teach English. There she met Harold Morrison, an architect originally from Jamaica. The couple got married in 1958 and welcomed their first child, their son Harold, in 1961. After the birth of her son, Morrison joined a writer's group that met on campus. She began working on her first novel with the group, which started out as a short story. Morrison decided to leave Howard in 1963. After spending the summer traveling with her family in Europe, she returned to the United States with her son. Her husband, however, had decided to move back to Jamaica. At the time, Morrison was pregnant with their second child. She moved back home to live with her family in Ohio before the birth of her son, Slade, in 1964. The following year, she moved with her sons to Syracuse, New York, where she worked for a textbook publisher as a senior editor. Morrison later went to work for Random House, where she edited works for such authors as Tony K. Bombara and Gail Jones. African-American literary star, Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. It told the story of a young African-American girl who believes her incredibly difficult life would be better off if she only had blue eyes. The book received warm reviews, but it didn't sell well. Morrison continued to explore the African-American experience in its many forms and time periods in her work. Her next work, entitled Sulla, which was published in 1973, explores good and evil through the friendship of two women who grew up together. The work was nominated for an American Book Award. Her next work, Song of Solomon 1977, became the first work by an African-American author to be featured as the selection of the Book of the Month Club since Native Sun by Richard Wright. It follows the journey of Milkman Dead as he searches the South for its roots. Morrison received a number of accolades for this work. A rising literary star, Morrison was appointed to the National Council on Arts in 1980. The following year, her work Tar Baby was published. The novel drew some inspiration from folktales and it received a decidedly mixed reaction from critics. Her next work, however, proved to be her greatest masterpiece. Beloved, which was published in 1987, explores love and the supernatural. The main character, a former slave, is haunted by her decision to kill her children rather than to see them become slaves. Three of her children survived, but her infant daughter died at her hand. For this spellbounding work, Morrison won several literary awards, including the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Ten years later, in 1998, the book was turned into a movie star in Oprah Winfrey. Morrison became a professor at Princeton University in 1989 and continued to produce great works. In recognition of her contributions to her field, she received the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, making her the first African-American woman to be selected for the award. The following year, she published the novel Jazz, which explored marital love and betrayal. At Princeton, Morrison established a special workshop for writers and performers known as the Princeton ATEL in 1994. The program was designed to help students create original works in a variety of artistic fields. Outside of her academic work, Morrison continued to write new works of fiction. Her next novel, Paradise, which was published in 1998, which focused on the fictional African-American town called Ruby, earned mixed reviews. In 1999, Morrison branched out into children's literature. She worked with her son Slade on The Big Box, The Book of Mean People in 2002, and The Anna of the Grasshopper in 2003. She has also explored other genres, writing the play Dreaming Emmett in the mid-1980s, and the lyrics for four songs with composer Andre Previn in 1994, and Sweet Talk with composer Richard Danpore in 1997. Her next novel, Love, which was printed in 2003, divides this narrative between the past and present. Bill Cozy, a wealthy entrepreneur and owner of the Cozy Hotel and Resort, is the center figure in this work. The flashbacks explore his life, while his death cast a long shadow on the present part of the story. A critic for Publishers Weekly praised the work, stating that Morrison has created a gorgeous, stately novel whose mysteries are gradually unearthed. In 2006, Morrison announced she was retiring from her post at Princeton. That year, the New York Times book review named Beloved the best novel of the last 25 years. She continued to explore new art forms, writing the libretto for Margaret Garner, an American art opera that explores the tragedy of slavery through the true life story of one woman's experiences. The opera debuted in New York City at the New York City Opera in 2007. Morrison traveled back to the early days of slavery in the United States for her next novel, A Mercy. Once again, a woman who was born a slave and a mother must make a terrible choice regarding her child. As a critic from the Washington Post described, the novel is a fusion of mystery, history, and longing. In addition to her many novels, Morrison has written several books of nonfiction. She published a collection of her nonfiction writings entitled What Moves at the Margin in 2008. A champion for the arts, Morrison spoke out about censorship in October 2009 after one of her books was banned at a Michigan high school. She served as editor for Burn this Book, a collection of essays on censorship and the power of the written word, which was published that same year. She told the crowd gathering for the launch of the Free Speech Leadership Council about the importance of fighting censorship. And I quote The thought that leads me to contemplate with dread the erasure of other voices, of unwritten novels, poems whispered or swallowed for fear of being overheard by the wrong people. Outlaw languages flourishing underground, essays questioning, questions challenging authority, never be Being posed, unstaged plays, canceled film that thought is a nightmare. As though a whole universe is being described in invisible ink, Morrison said. Now in her 80s, Morrison continues to be one of literature's great storytellers. She published her latest novel, Home, in 2012. She once again explored a period of American history, this time the post-Korean War era. In choosing this setting, I was trying to take the scab off the 50s, the general idea of it as very comfortable, happy, nostalgic. Oh, please, there was a horrible war you didn't call a war where 58,000 people died. There was McCarthy, Morrison explained to the Guardian newspaper. Her main character, Frank, is a veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. While writing the novel, Morrison experienced a great personal loss. Her son Slade, an artist, died in 2010. The pair had collaborated together on a number of children books, including Big Box in 1999 and Little Cloud and Lady Wind in 2010. In addition to home, Morrison also debuted another work in 2012. She worked with opera director Peter Sellers and songwriter Rokia Treoi on a new production inspired by William Shakespeare's Othello. The trio focused on the relationship between Othello's wife Des Demona and her African nurse Barbary, and which Destimona premiered in London in the summer of 2012. Our final author is Alice Walker. A novelist, poet, and feminist, Alice Massinore Walker was born on February 9th, 1944, in Edenton, Georgia. Alice Walker is one of the most admired African American writers working today. The youngest daughter of sharecroppers, she grew up poor. Her mother worked as a maid to help support the family's eight children. When Walker was eight years old, she suffered a serious injury. She was shot in the right eye with a BB pellet while playing with two of her brothers. Whitish scar tissue formed in her damaged eye, and she became self-conscious of this visible mark. After the incident, Walker largely withdrew from the world around her. And I quote, for a long time I thought I was very ugly and disfigured, she told John O'Brien in an interview that was published in Alice Walker, Critical Perspectives, Past and Present. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults and slights that were not intended. She found solace in reading and writing poetry. Living in the racially divided South, Walker attended segregated schools. She graduated from her high school as the valedictorian of her class. With the help of a scholarship, she was able to go to Spellman College in Atlanta. She later switched to Sarah Lawrence College in New York City. While at Sarah Lawrence, Walker visited Africa as part of a study abroad program. She graduated in 1965, the same year that she published her first short story. After college, Walker worked as a social worker, teacher, and lecturer. She became active in the civil rights movement, fighting for equality for all African Americans. Her experiences informed her first collection of poetry entitled Once, which was published in 1968. Better known now as a novelist, Walker showed her talents for storytelling in her third debut work, Third Life of Grange Copeland, which was published in 1970. Walker continued to explore writing in all of its forms. In 1973, she published a set of short stories, one entitled In Love and Trouble, the poetry collection Revolutionary Petunias, and her first children's book, entitled Langston Hughes, American Poet. She also emerged as a prominent voice in the black feminist movement. Walker's career as a writer took flight with the publication of her third novel, The Color Purple, in 1982. Set in the early 1900s, the novel explores female African-American experience through the life and struggles of its narrator, Seely. Seely suffers terrible abuse at the hand of her father and later from her husband. The compelling work won Walker both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983. Three years later, Walker's story made it to the big screen. Steven Spielberg directed The Color Purple, which starred Whoopi Goldberg as Seely, as well as Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. Like the novel, the movie was a critical success, receiving 11 Academy Award nominations. Walker explored her own feelings about the film in her 1996 work, The Same River Twice, honoring the difficult. In 2005, the Color Purple became a Broadway musical. Walker incorporated characters and their relations from The Color Purple into two of her other novels, The Temple of My Familiar, which was published in 1989, and Possessing The Secret of Joy, which was published in 1992, which earned great critical praise and caused some controversy for its exploration of the practice of female genital mutation. Walker has proven time and time again to be a versatile writer. In 2004, she published Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. Two years later, in 2006, she published a collection of essays entitled We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Light in a Time of Darkness, and the well-received picture book, There's a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me. Continuing her work as a political activist, Walker also wrote about her experiences with the group Women for Women International in 2010. Overcoming Speechlessness, A Poet Encounters the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine, Israel. She published another poetry collection, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing the same year. After more than four decades as a writer, Alice Walker shows no signs of showing slowing down. In 2012, she released The Chicken Chronicles. In this latest memoir, she ruminates on caring for a flock of chickens. Following the release of The Chicken Chronicles, she began working on The Cushion in the Road, a collection of meditations on a variety of subjects slated to have been published in 2013. Walker married activist Melvin Liventhal in 1967, and the couple had one daughter, Rebecca Walker, before divorcing in 1976. Alice Walker continues to be a monumental influence in the literary world. We thank you for being with us today, and hopefully you learned something and gathered some information that you may not, may or may not have known about various African American female authors. For Native Drums, this is Daryl Page. We'll see you again on our next episode.