We honored that time period with a banquet celebrating Zora N. Hurston and other literary artists of the Harlem Renaissance.  

The history of the Harlem Renaissance movement started on March 21, 1924, when a group of Black and white artists and intellectuals got together at New York’s Civic Club for a dinner party to celebrate author Jessie R. Fauset’s debut novel, “There Is Confusion.” Organizers Charles S. Johnson and Alain Locke thought bringing these brilliant minds together – while generally unheard of – would provide Black artists with new opportunities and inspire a creative movement.

The first Black student at Barnard College, author Zora Neale Hurston came to Harlem in 1925 and went on to become one of the most important voices in the Harlem Renaissance. The author, known best for her novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” is well-respected in literary circles for being able to capture the essence of the Black experience in her work.