Zora Neale Hurston

Eatonville, Florida meets Eastonville D.C.

Zora Neale Hurston is often associated with her home town of Eatonville, Florida and the home of the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem, NY. However, she also spent a considerable amount of time in Washington, D.C. Hurston wrote some of her earliest stories and poems in Washington while a student at Howard University. She enrolled in 1919 at the age of 28. She also worked as a waitress at the Cosmos Club and as a manicurist at a black-owned barbershop near 14th and G streets NW.

Eatanville Restaurant helps to bring light to Zora Neale Hurston’s legacy in Washington D.C. The restaurant has day-glo murals inspired by Hurston’s work, large quotes of her words, and a painting of the town of Eatonville, FL. The Restaurant recently played host to a mini Zora festival, a prelude to the Annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (http://www.zoranealehurstonfestival.com/) which takes place in Eatonville, Fl each year.

You can read a great article on the Eatonville Restaurant and their mini Zora Festival here:
Food and folklore for those hungering after Hurston

Copyright The Estate of Zora Neale Hurston