Rae is affectionately known by many as the “Zora Girl,” a name given not by branding, but by community. An audience member once shared that when Rae speaks about Zora Neale Hurston, it feels as though Zora herself has entered the room. Others have likened her work to sitting down for coffee with a friend, sharing stories about a beloved aunt. These reflections speak to the spirit of Rae’s approach, grounded, relational, and deeply human.

A self-taught scholar and once-reluctant reader, Rae did not come to Zora through ease or expectation. Storytelling became her refuge, a way to imagine belonging when it felt out of reach. That lived experience shapes how she engages audiences today. Rae begins by listening, inviting people to share what they know or do not know about Zora, and meeting them there without shame. What emerges is a shared space of curiosity, safety, and connection.

Rae’s work draws from the oral traditions that Zora herself honored as an anthropologist and folklorist, traditions rooted in Eatonville, Florida, where storytelling lived on porches, in kitchens, and between neighbors. By centering intimacy, memory, and voice, Rae seeks not only to celebrate Zora’s brilliance, but to rehumanize her. Favorite foods. Quiet joys. Little-known stories. Zora as a woman of flesh and breath.

Children sit at the heart of this work. Through Zora’s Garden, Rae invites young readers to meet Zora first as a child, curious, imaginative, and learning how stories take root. In doing so, she extends Zora’s legacy forward, nurturing new generations of storytellers with reverence, care, and joy.

Over time, Rae has come to recognize what she calls Zora’s golden thread, a quiet, guiding presence that weaves through her life and work. Some moments feel symbolic, like her son being born just two days before Zora’s birthday, with his birth certificate signed on Zora’s actual birthday. Others are less visible, but no less felt, moments of alignment, return, and responsibility that continue to draw her back to Zora’s words, questions, and care for community. Rae does not experience this thread as coincidence or spectacle, but as a call to attention. A reminder to listen closely, to tend what has been entrusted, and to move with humility, joy, and purpose in carrying Zora’s legacy forward for the generations who follow.