September 30, 2025 | Theatre,

The Woman Behind Hang Time: Meet Zora Howard

Before Zora Howard became a Pulitzer-Prize finalist, and long-before she made her directorial debut with HANG TIME, she was a kid in Harlem writing poetry. 

Howard’s journey as an artist began in the world of spoken word. At just 13 years old, she became the youngest poet ever to win the Urban Word NYC Grand Slam finals.

From there, Howard quickly emerged as a force in New York’s performance poetry scene. Her 2009 collaboration with filmmaker Lisa Russell on Biracial Hair (based on her original poem) earned an Emmy for Outstanding Advanced Media Interactivity. She was also named the inaugural NYC Youth Poet Laureate that year and published her first poetry collection, CLUTCH.

Her work has since been featured on HBO, PBS, NBC, and TV One’s Verses and Flow. In 2011 she was honored by Glamour magazine as one of their Amazing Women of the Year. 

In 2019, she co-wrote and starred in the film Premature, a coming-of-age love story set in Harlem that premiered at Sundance. The film had her signature style of captivating lyricism and emotional precision, offering a deeply personal look at Black girlhood.

The Pulitzer nomination arrived in 2021, when her play Stew was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Centered on three generations of women in a family kitchen, the story is wrought with both tension and love, themes that you’ll see resurface in HANG TIME.

Do not miss Zora Howard’s directorial debut here at ArtsEmerson, from October 9th – 12th at the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre. Additional tickets have just been released, so be sure to secure yours HERE!