The Department of Afroamerican and African Studies Proudly presented The Annual Zora Neale Hurston lecture for the Humanities on September 26, 2019. Dr. Gloria House's lecture was titled "400 Years: A People’s Pursuit of Justice". 

Dr. Gloria House is a poet, educator, activist and 2019’s Kresge Eminent Artist, an award reserved for those who’ve made distinguished contributions to the arts and the community and one of the biggest arts honors bestowed on Detroiters for a lifetime of work. Dr. House’s  many accomplishments include her four collections of poetry (her most recent, “Medicine,” was published in 2017 and written under her chosen African name, Aneb Kgositsile), her career as a professor at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and her wide impact on social justice movements in Detroit and beyond.

Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist known for her contributions to African-American literature, her portrayal of racial struggles in the American South, and works documenting her research on Haitian voodoo. Of Hurston's four novels and more than 50 published short stories, plays, and essays, she is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.