Preserving African American Funeral Traditions and Cultural Heritage in Cold Keener

Abstract

Zora Neale Hurston’s Cold Keener is a pleasant folk drama about the importance of African American funeral rites in preserving cultural traditions. But Hurston does not merely depict death as a time of sorrow. She describes the funeral as a community event that brings people together in sorrow, music, story, faith, and shared memories. The play depicts the close social ties of the African American community. It demonstrates that traditional funeral rites enable people to cope with loss and to give them a cultural identity. As a folklorist, Hurston meticulously documents the traditions, dialects, songs, and religious rituals that make up the lived experience of Black people in the American South. In this paper, I discuss how Cold Keener celebrates these traditions as a form of resilience, dignity, and collective memory. It also discusses the play's contribution to preserving African American oral culture during the Harlem Renaissance. In examining community, spirituality, grief, and the persistence of culture, Hurston re-imagines death as a powerful celebration of life and cultural identity, according to the study. However, ultimately, Cold Keener makes a compelling case for viewing funeral rituals not just as sites of grief but as significant cultural practices that forge social cohesion, preserve historical memory, and reaffirm the living legacy of African American folk traditions.