The Zora! Festival

By VISIT FLORIDA staff
Published: September 19, 2011
Last Updated On: September 22, 2011

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Florida's Black Heritage Trail

This annual event is known as one of the top events in North America and celebrates art, culture, history and heritage.

Held the last week of January in Orlando, the Zora! Festival celebrates:

• The life and work of Zora Neale Hurston, the 20th-century writer, folklorist and anthropologist.
• Eatonville, Hurston’s hometown and the nation’s oldest incorporated African American municipality.
• The contributions people of African ancestry have made to Florida, the United States and world culture.

The nine-day event features museum exhibitions, public talks, panel discussions, workshops and concerts and culminates with a weekend Street Festival of the Arts, which features the Zora! Literacy Initiative, a Children’s Corner, Words and Voices seminar, Center Stage, a Juried Art Lane and an International Marketplace.

The festival has attracted prominent actors such as the late Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson, Danny Glover and Richard Roundtree.

The festival has attracted prominent actors such as the late Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson, Danny Glover and Richard Roundtree; vocalists Al Jarreau and Jeffrey Osborne; Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker; poets Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka and Ntozake Shange; and distinguished scholars Dr. John Hope Franklin and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Zora! Festival has been named "One of 25 Cultural Success Stories in the United States" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and "One of the Top 100 Events in North America in 2004" by the American Bus Association.

Both the festival and the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of the Fine Arts ("The Hurston") are organized and managed by the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community Inc. (P.E.C.). The Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts is at 227 E Kennedy Blvd., Eatonville. For more information , visit www.zorafestival.com or call 407-647-3307.