Listen "Zora Neale Hurston's Story of the Last Slave Ship Survivor"
Episode Synopsis
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" is one of Zora Neale Hurston's most important works of non-fiction that has never been published until today. Hurston recorded the story in Alabama in the late 1920s. It's a collection of interviews with a man named Kossola, also known as Cudjo Lewis, one of the last known living survivors of the Atlantic slave trade. To discuss the book's history and Hurston's legacy, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture welcomed Dr. Cheryl Sterling, Director of the Black Studies Program at City College of New York, to moderate a conversation featring: Hurston scholar and editor of Barracoon, Deborah G. Plant; founder of book club Well-Read Black Girl, Glory Edim; and Dr. Sylviane Diouf, an award-winning author and historian of the African Diaspora.
More episodes of the podcast Library Talks
Margalit Fox: The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum
24/12/2025
Irin Carmon with Melissa Murray: Unbearable
26/11/2025
Gish Jen with Weike Wang: Bad Bad Girl
29/10/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.