Zora! fest will
meld the classic with the new this year, adding STEM elements in a nod to the author’s passion for education.
EATONVILLE — A renewed focus on education highlights ZORA! Festival, one of the signature events in America’s oldest black municipality, organizers said.
For years, the festival celebrating author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston had strong ties to literacy and teaching. However, in recent years that focus faded, said Diane Reed, who helped organize the ZORA! Education Day initiative along with her son, Palmer Reed.
Hurston, who hailed from Eatonville, is perhaps best known for her novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” which was adapted into a movie in 2005. While Hurston died in 1960, the town where she was raised has held a festival in her honor for the past 28 years. Friday kicks off the three-day outdoor festival with education day, which brings thousands of schoolchildren from Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties to Eatonville for musical performances, literary workshops and interactive science, technology, engineering and mathematics showcases.
“It’s really more education than a festival,” said Reed, who is also a nursing professor at Valencia College. “Without the education component, I don’t think the festival would be the same.”
Reed said several new components were added this year to further engage young people, in hopes of them coming back to the festival for years to come.
Adrienne Noel, a spokeswoman for ZORA!, said the festival’s education strategy runs parallel to the early days of Eatonville. When the town incorporated 130 years ago, Tuskegee Institute sent graduates to the town to teach residents useful logging and agricultural skills. Now, the festival is hoping to fill a gap in science and technology careers in their community.
“We’re taking that opportunity, and sort of doing 2.0 this year,” Noel said.“In small communities like this, they tend to face a problem of brain drain. We want our kids to understand they don’t have to leave this area to pursue a career.”
Some older students will get to see technology skills at work at the data center of Eatonville’s largest employer. Data-infrastructure company HostDime is allowing a group of students Friday to tour its facility, and view its operations, Noel said.
The company plans to remain in Eatonville for years to come, and broke ground last year
on a new $25 million data center in the town.
Other students will travel to Valencia College’s West Campus on Kirkman Road for interactive robotics, laser and medical workshops, featuring demonstrations from Valencia College, the Orlando Science Center and the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine, said N.Y. Nathiri, the executive director of Preserve the Eatonville Community, which sponsors the entire ZORA! Festival.
Festival organizers hope elementary students will enjoy hearing from New York Times bestselling author Sharon Draper, who has five Coretta Scott King Literary Awards to her name.
Eatonville Mayor Eddie Cole said it’s important exposure for children to have this experience to hear from successful people in different lines of work.
“Just to hear the stories for those kids, especially for kids in the inner city, to hear the success stories is a pump for them,” Cole said. “You can see when they’re leaving and hearing these things…they have more knowledge in knowing how important it is to have an education.”
“We want our kids to understand they don’t have to leave this area to pursue a career.” ZORA! spokeswoman Adrienne Noel