11:00 am ~ On Zora Neale Hurston and the Oral Tradition
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 AL – 1960 FL) was an American novelist, short story writer, part of the Harlem Renaissance, folklorist, and anthropologist. 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.
“Gods always behave like the people who make them.
And gods always love the people who make ’em.”
Rachael Falu is an English instructor at Chattanooga State Community College.
9:30 Forum (downstairs) ~ Why Public Charter Schools and Recent Outcomes
Elaine Swafford EdD is Executive Director of the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy in Highland Park on Bailey Avenue (the old TN Temple campus), the first single-gender public charter in Tennessee and the largest charter school in Hamilton County, serving 350 young women grades 6-12 and completing its 7th year. Swafford has also been vice president of student affairs at Chattanooga State Community College, an area superintendent for the Hamilton County Schools, and the executive principal at Howard School.