Spunk

Spunk is a wild, bluesy wail–three stories by the great Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston, adapted into a staggeringly theatrical play by George C. Wolfe, who won an Obie for its 1989 off-Broadway premiere production. A trio of vignettes of African-American life in the first half of the 20th century, Spunk is a raucous, charming, blues-infused look at love, revenge, jealousy, and the fine art of the hustle.

Zora Neale Hurston released her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine, in 1934. Two years later, she received a Guggenheim fellowship, which allowed her to work on what would become her most famous work: Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). She is considered one of the pre-eminent writers of twentieth-century African-American literature.