When the Emerson Theater Collaborative presents "A Celebration and Reading of Zora Neale Hurston's Writings" on Saturday, it will host two of the late Hurston's young relatives.

On hand will be her niece, Lucy Anne Hurston, who will read, and her nephew, Edward Hurston, who will play his blues harmonia.

Lucy Anne Hurston is a professor of sociology at Manchester Community College and is also an author and speaker. Edward Hurston works at a large law firm in New Haven as an office administration coordinator - and, in his off hours, he plays the blues harmonia. He has played at The Apollo in Harlem, The Bushnell in Hartford, and on season five of "America's Got Talent."

Other participants include poets Attallah Sheppard and Rhonda Ward, actress Camilla Ross, playwright Lisa Giordano, and creative strategy consultant Leslie Singer.

ETC is offering the program in honor of Women's History Month.

Hurston, whose signature piece was the 1937 novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God," was a writer of great renown and influence. Her works often dealt with the culture and folk traditions of southern African Americans, and she was one of the central figures in the Harlem Renaissance.

- KRISTINA DORSEY

"A Celebration and Reading of Zora Neale Hurston's Writings," 4 p.m. Saturday, First United Methodist Church, 23 Willow St., Mystic; $10, $8 seniors and students; (860) 705-9711, emersontheatercollaborative.org.