African American dialect at the heart of Penumbra's "Spunk"

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MPR’s Dan Olson presents an episode of Minnesota Sounds and Voices with a profile of the langauge in the play “Spunk.”

“Grab a hot" -- means to get a meal. Here's another example -- "Collar a nod," is get some sleep. Those are both examples of the African American dialect anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston wrote down during the early 1900's. Many of the expressions are gone. But they have new life on stage at the Penumbra Theatre production of “Spunk” in St. Paul.

Funders

Digitization made possible by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.

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