About - Zora's House

ABOUT
ZORA'S HOUSE

Named for Zora Neale Hurston, a woman of extraordinary brilliance and fiery spirit, Zora’s House is a sanctuary for women and gender-expansive people of color to dream, connect, and create; to shine bright and inspire change.

Where you don’t have to worry about what your hair looks like or how loud you get.

Where you can shine in the center of attention or find quiet solitude.

Where you have your lightbulb moment or take your ideas back to the drawing board.

It’s a world dedicated to the legacies of our foremothers — our mama, our aunties, our grandmothers — the people who found ways to connect and succeed and grow in a world not created with them in mind.

Zora’s House is a workplace. A haven. A happy hour. An incubator.

A community for women and non-binary people of color committed to transforming themselves and the world around them.

WHO WAS ZORA?

Author and activist, Zora Neale Hurston embodied a spirit of creative resistance. A graduate of Howard University, Hurston was committed to capturing the complexity of Black culture and heritage, pitting her creative vision against an America where Black folks were caricatured, ignored, or abused. She used her imaginative and observational powers to tell the truth through her work.
For all of her accomplishments, Hurston’s literary legacy was mostly forgotten for decades. Then another author and Black woman—Alice Walker—wrote an essay called “In Search of Zora,” uplifting Zora’s work and life story out of obscurity and into the imaginations of readers around the world.

This is the legacy Zora’s House embraces: empowering women of color to reflect their realities and enact their creative power, so they are fully seen and heard in the life of our community.

OUR MISSION

Our mission is to create safe spaces for women of color to establish meaningful, supportive relationships with other women in their community; develop a deeper practice of self-care, resiliency, and emotional intelligence; and successfully incubate their creativity, scholarship, entrepreneurship, activism, service, and leadership.

Additionally, we serve as an inclusive learning space for the larger community on issues of race, politics, economics, arts, and culture, as they relate to the identities and experiences of women of color.

OUR COMMUNITY

At the heart of Zora’s House is the thriving community of women of color professionals, artists, activists, academics, and entrepreneurs. We strive to not only connect these women with information and resources but to connect them with each other.

OUR PROGRAMMING

Our events and programs are geared specifically towards helping women and gender expansive people of color develop the life and leadership skills they need to transform themselves and the world around them, and to have a damn good time in the process! We do this in three main ways:

CONNECT

Events and programs that build community and connection between women of color.

EMPOWER

Tools, trainings, and programs designed to help women of color live their best life and do their best work.

ELEVATE

Events and initiatives that elevate the work of women of color writers, artists, activists, trailblazers, and change agents.

SAFE SPACE

Last, but not least, Zora’s House provides a thoughtfully designed community space for women of color to work, write, retreat, create, and connect.

OUR FOUNDER

LC JOHNSON

“I’ve always believed that a world in which women, especially women of color, are taught to dream big, completely disregard the status quo, and create lives and careers they love, is a better world for everybody. Zora’s House is an organization dedicated to helping myself – and other women like me – do just that.”

Connect with LC!

Need an official bio or media photographs? Interested in writing a story? Send an email to press@zorashouse.com with your request!

OUR TEAM

LC JOHNSON

Founder & CEO

TAMALIYAPO MPHANDE

Director of Development

J’HANNA THE GREAT

Marketing & Communications Manager

JAMI JACKSON

Operations Manager

IVORY LEVERT

Programs & Partnership Manager

TASHA LOMO

Member Liaison