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