Their Eyes Were Watching God
Photos...
Pear Tree
Eatonville, Florida is still as much alive today as it was in the 1930s.
African Americans in the South during the Great Depression often had to grow their own food because their wages were much lower than whites and as a result, they could not buy food at the store.
During the Great Depression, many people found it very hard to buy food for their familes, so lines like these were often seen outside of soup kitchens.
Lake Okeechobee's massive circumference resembles more of a sea than a lake. It also plays an intrical part in the story.
Here are some key leaders of the Harlem Renaissance. They include Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, and Josephine Baker.
Videos...
- This is a video showing some of the music, art, pictures, and key figures from the Harlem Renaissance.
This lyrical masterpiece is a ballad that conveys the raw emotion, vulnerability, and sincerity of Tea Cake and Janie during the "big storm".
The Storm
Trains of people left the Everglades.
Tea Cake and Janie stayed.
Sunny days turned into darkest nights
as the muck itself seemed to sway.
Torrential rain poured down
and Janie asked Tea Cake, “should we leave?”
The wind’s fury stirred big Lake Okeechobee,
the warnings of nature they did not heed.
“Help us, help us” people cry out.
The monster in the lake does no longer listen.
Death, destruction, and mayhem follow.
The beauty of the Everglades does no longer glisten.
“I’m tired Tea Cake, I can no longer swim,
the leaves are fallin’ and the ground is quakin’
my eyes are on God, in you I take refuge.
Help me baby, my heart is achin’.”
“Don’t worry baby, I’m here tuh save ya.
Nothing on Earth can come between us.
This storm ain’t nothin’ but a lil’ blow.
There ain’t no reason tuh cause such a fuss.”
But the problems did not end when the storm blew over.
The dog’s sickness had slowly taken in.
No medicine, no doctor could do the job,
only Janie’s love and patience.
The sickness, however, had ended Tea Cake.
Tea Cake had done and gone left this world.
The storm seemed to take everything from Janie
but his death allowed new thoughts, new ideas to be unfurled.
Trains of people returned to the Everglades.
Tea Cake and Janie no longer stayed.
Darkest nights turned into sunny days
as the muck itself no more did sway.
Trains of people left the Everglades.
Tea Cake and Janie stayed.
Sunny days turned into darkest nights
as the muck itself seemed to sway.
Torrential rain poured down
and Janie asked Tea Cake, “should we leave?”
The wind’s fury stirred big Lake Okeechobee,
the warnings of nature they did not heed.
“Help us, help us” people cry out.
The monster in the lake does no longer listen.
Death, destruction, and mayhem follow.
The beauty of the Everglades does no longer glisten.
“I’m tired Tea Cake, I can no longer swim,
the leaves are fallin’ and the ground is quakin’
my eyes are on God, in you I take refuge.
Help me baby, my heart is achin’.”
“Don’t worry baby, I’m here tuh save ya.
Nothing on Earth can come between us.
This storm ain’t nothin’ but a lil’ blow.
There ain’t no reason tuh cause such a fuss.”
But the problems did not end when the storm blew over.
The dog’s sickness had slowly taken in.
No medicine, no doctor could do the job,
only Janie’s love and patience.
The sickness, however, had ended Tea Cake.
Tea Cake had done and gone left this world.
The storm seemed to take everything from Janie
but his death allowed new thoughts, new ideas to be unfurled.
Trains of people returned to the Everglades.
Tea Cake and Janie no longer stayed.
Darkest nights turned into sunny days
as the muck itself no more did sway.
