Watch the Videos

What is the Zilphia Horton  Cultural Residency Project?
New Orleans People Organized for Power Project
Key Stages of the Cultural Organizing Residency
Challenges, Reflections, and Lessons Learned

About the Zilphia Horton Residency Project

Zilphia Mae Johnson Horton has been widely referred to as the “wife of Myles Horton,” the founder of the Highlander Folk Center that would later become the Highlander Research and Education Center. More recently it has been revealed that Zilphia was Highlander’s first director of Cultural Programs; whose use of art and culture helped to galvanize union workers in Appalachia during the early part of the 20th century. At that time, her organizing work wasn’t necessarily considered “Cultural Organizing” as we know it today, but it is from her book that Highlander takes a page and began to create what is now know as the Zilphia Horton Cultural Organizing Project.

Photo Gallery