Chef Louis brings his dining series, Flavors of Home, to ZOMA House with The WAZOBIA Experience — an intimate dinner styled as a fake Nigerian wedding, honoring Nigeria’s Independence Day through food, fashion, and music.

Guests will arrive dressed for the occasion, stepping into a world of vibrant tradition with a live DJ, oral storytelling, and a menu inspired by iconic dishes served at Nigerian weddings.

WAZOBIA, which combines the Yoruba (wa), Hausa (zo), and Igbo (bia) word for “come”, symbolizes the unity and diversity of Nigeria.

Let’s gather, taste, dance, and celebrate the beauty of shared heritage. Seating is limited, so get your tickets now.

The Kids Like Us is hosting a meetup for young creatives and entrepreneurs looking to connect with likeminded ambitious individuals. There will be an art expo, DJ, free food, gifts, and a room full of people building the same kind of unconventional life you are. It's also the pre-launch party for their merch, so come check it out and see some of their samples.

ZOMA House is turning 1! It's been one year since our first event and we want to celebrate with all of you.

Join us on October 10th for a birthday party themed celebration with a variety of art activations. We'll have a photo booth, live screenprinting, refreshments, and a newly stocked, newly installed retail wall. We'll end the night with sounds by DJ Effy. Put on your birthday hat and join us for art-filled evening. Cheers to many more years of ZOMA House!

ZOMA House is a 2025 Recipient of the Arts & Culture Vibrant Storefront initiative, funded by the City of Minneapolis Arts & Cultural Affairs Department.

Celebrate one year of Bardo Club, a clothing brand built around transformation, with an anniversary collection and a pop-up for the community that brought it to life.

A Nigerian Ready To Wear Brand Pop-up.

Creative Collaborations is getting a refresh! Come enjoy DJs, a curated photo set, food from local vendors, and a silent auction. Socialize with other creative adults and expand your network while getting to know the new mission of the organization. Creative Collaborations will continue to curate opportunities for adults who seek time to make art without expectations, but will now offer event consulting as a way to support other organizations who seek to curate their own creative spaces.

​Open Mic - Join us for an exciting evening of music and poetry with fellow artists in the community!

​Doors open/Sign-up @ 8

​Open Mic starts @ 9

Join us on September 25th for another installment of The Living Room ft Juice Lord.

Juice Lord is a St. Paul–rooted artist known for soulful storytelling, sharp lyricism, and emotionally grounded records centered on growth, healing, and community. With standout projects including Spread Luv Tape: A Point of Light, 8th Inning: Luv Vs Passion, and the deeply personal Terri’s Baby, he has built a catalog that reflects both evolution and intention. In 2023, he toured nationally on a 31-city run with PROF, expanding his audience while sharpening his stage presence. Inspired by legends before him  but still true to himself, he continues to craft music that embodies resilience, legacy, and the sound and spirit of St. Paul.

The Living Room is an intimate, live concert series at ZOMA House that takes place on the last Friday of every month. Each session fosters a warm, acoustic experience by encouraging artists to strip their music down to its rawest form. It invites guests to listen and connect, and it invites the performing artist to share the stories that bring their music to life. Each performance will be followed by an audience Q&A. The goal is to inspire connection, creativity, and respect for the artists who share their work.

Tickets are $12 presale and $15 day of show.

Event Schedule ​

8:00pm - Doors Open

​9:00pm - Concert Start

​9:45pm - Q + A

​10:30pm - Event End

We believe improv is for everyone, especially actors of color. This fall, Good Camel Comedy Theater and ZOMA House are hosting the BIPOC Improv Jam together for the first time.

These sessions are for actors who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

This jam has been running since 2016. It began because people of color needed a room where we could play freely. That is still the reason.

For two hours, we will create theater together. Unscripted, improvised theater. We will be loud, be silly, be wrong, and be caught. There is no audience and no audition. Everybody plays.

Everybody meets somebody new. Everybody is enough. Come make theater. Leave remembering more of who you are.

Improv asks you to trust yourself and whoever is standing next to you. That is a big ask in a world that does not give people of color many places to be unguarded. So we build one.

WHAT TO EXPECT

You do not need experience. Half the room is usually brand new, and the first hour is built for that. You will not be singled out or put on the spot alone. Everything begins as a group, and you step in when you are ready. We name our boundaries together at the start, including physical contact and how anyone can call a time-out. Your boundaries remain yours all afternoon. Nobody is auditioning you. This is not a tryout for anything.

BRING

Wear something you can move in. If you can bring an unopened snack to share, the room will appreciate it.

​​​Join us on September 5th for another installment of The Kitchen Table with Fancy Lanier-Duncan.

Fancy Lanier-Duncan is a community architect, musician, author, and founder whose work explores what it takes for people to truly belong.

Known to many as one-half of the Minneapolis hip-hop duo iLLism, Fancy is also the Founder and Executive Director of Soul of the Southside, one of Minnesota's largest free Black-led Juneteenth celebrations, and the co-founder of The Legacy Building, a creative hub for artists and entrepreneurs in South Minneapolis.

A Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree and Josie R. Johnson Leadership Academy Fellow, Fancy curates spaces where creativity, culture, and community intersect. Whether through music, festivals, leadership, or her debut children's book, The Super-Special-Spectacular Fort, her work invites people to build communities where everyone can show up fully as themselves.

The Kitchen Table is an artist talk series featuring a rotating selection of speakers who work in creative industries. The series invites community members to learn more about each speaker and their work.

​​​Doors open at 6pm. At 6:30pm, the talk will begin followed by an audience Q&A.

​​​Space is limited. RSVP to secure your spot.

Gathering to watch Love Island Reunion, guests encouraged to bring a craft project they are working on while watching. Will also provide crafts for those who don’t bring anything. Crafts will include Origami, Paper fans and Draw Yourself poster. First hour will be for guest to mingle and try out crafts.

Reunion will start at 8pm; should be about 60-90mins max.

Beat Excavation is a free, intergenerational and intercultural space for Twin Cities community members to connect and build with one another around their love for vinyl records and music. This event is intended for vinyl enthusiasts and collectors interested in trading, buying, selling and playing records. Rooted in deep appreciation for music, arts and culture, the Excavation aims to restore the essence of human connection and the joy of live music in a predominantly digital age.

Each Beat Excavation event features a group of DJs playing some choice selections from their record collections as well as vendors selling records.

Join us on August 28th for another installment of The Living Room ft. Jandeltha Rae.

Jandeltha Rae (Jan-DEL-The Ray) is a multi-hyphenate storyteller from the southside of Minneapolis. Her art forms include but art not limited to music, poetry, songwriting, painting, nail artistry and more. Her work centers around culture, identity, black liberation, love, healing and womanhood. Much of the passion behind her work is driven by the advancement of black and brown individuals, and also women’s healing and breakthroughs. It is her desire to amplify ethnic and urban experiences through her gift. She is a modern griot with stories to tell, with music being her most recent medium.

The Living Room is an intimate, live concert series at ZOMA House that takes place on the last Friday of every month. Each session fosters a warm, acoustic experience by encouraging artists to strip their music down to its rawest form. It invites guests to listen and connect, and it invites the performing artist to share the stories that bring their music to life. Each performance will be followed by an audience Q&A. The goal is to inspire connection, creativity, and respect for the artists who share their work.

Tickets are $12 presale and $15 at the door.

Event Schedule ​

8:00pm - Doors Open

​9:00pm - Concert Start

​9:45pm - Q + A

​10:30pm - Event End

Join us at ZOMA House for a 2-day cultural celebration and immersive film experience in partnership with LouMade Culinary Co. On August 7th, Chef Louis will curate a three course meal inspired by Aya of Yop City and the interconnectedness between the Ivory Coast and his home country, Ghana.

The culinary experience for this film screening is built on the living bridge between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, two nations whose coastlines, migrations, and food ways have intertwined for centuries. Long before borders, the Akan, Nzema, and Ebrié peoples shared cassava fields, palm groves, fishing traditions, and fermentation techniques that shaped the dishes we know today.

This event celebrates that interconnectedness by pairing Ivory Coast’s iconic dishes — the foods that define its modern identity — with revived heritage dishes that once held meaning in village kitchens but have faded from everyday life. Together, they form a layered culinary narrative: one part celebration, one part remembrance.

Each course becomes a scene in a story about coastal memory, ancestral technique, and the shared West African spirit of gathering around food. This experience honors the past, elevates the present, and spotlights the cultural heartbeat that connects Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.

Join us at ZOMA House for a 2-day cultural celebration and immersive film experience in partnership with LouMade Culinary Co. On August 6th, we’ll have a FREE screening of Aya of Yop City as a precursor to the intimate dinner experience inspired by the film.

Set against the colorful and spirited backdrop of the Ivory Coast in the 1970s, Aya of Yop City is a vibrant, beautifully animated adaptation of the best-selling series of graphic novels by co-director Marguerite Abouet.

Preliminary short film screening for OBSCENE: A Multi-disciplinary Exhibition on the Spectrum of Human Intimacy. Films shown were created by Imani during her travels abroad while cultivating work for the upcoming gallery, opening Aug 28th.

This event and forthcoming gallery are 18+

Week 5: True open deck with planned sets

• Implementing skills learned in class

Our last class will be an open deck! People can socialize, show off their skills, and implement the ideas we covered during the previous class. Anyone will be able to join, but priority will be given to people who came to previous classes.

ZOMA House is taking its programming outside with THE BACKYARD: An afternoon of art, food, and music. Join us for an outdoor open mic, yard games, and curated arts and crafts.