About this Event
Please welcome Ashanté M. Reese and Ashley D. Farmer to celebrate Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness!
This event is free and open to the public.
- Start time: 7:00 P.M.
- Run time: 45-60 minutes, followed by a signing line.
- Location: The second floor of BookPeople.
The author will be signing and personalizing copies of the book after the speaking portion of the event.
- To get a book signed, a copy of the event book or an item of equal value must be purchased from BookPeople.
- For high volume events, post-talk signing lines can become very long. For such events, we recommend arriving and checking in to the event early as that will get you into an earlier signing group.
Guidelines:
- Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis and is not guaranteed.
- If you have any other questions, please visit our Eventbrite FAQ. If your question isn't covered in the FAQ, feel free to email us at [email protected].
- All event guidelines are subject to change.
- BookPeople reserves the right to cancel or postpone this event if necessary.
- There will not be a live stream or recording available.
About the book:
How can we create a world where everyone has enough? We can start by focusing less on lack and more on abundance.
In Gather, anthropologist Ashanté M. Reese argues for a new vision of food justice that centers the resilience of Black communities and argues that community nourishment deserves as much consideration as individual health. Highlighting four spaces of gathering―gardens, family reunions, repasts, and protests ―Reese offers rich, on–the–ground studies of the places and people who make up the food justice movement. From Black church networks and community farms to student protests, these studies illuminate ways we can challenge structures of power and nourish ourselves, body and soul. In a world of social isolation and unequal food systems, Gather offers a compelling argument for the beauty and political power of togetherness.
About the author:
Dr. Ashanté M. Reese is an award-winning writer, anthropologist, and associate professor of African and African Diaspora at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research and writing traces the delicate threads between Black geographies, food justice, and care to tell deeper stories about how history, place, and taste converge to create freedom and survival.
Her first book, Black Food Geographies: Race, Food Access, and Self-Reliance in Washington, D.C. (UNC Press, 2019), developed a theory of how anti-Blackness constrains urban residents’ choices and how they then respond to those constraints through placed-based efforts to practice self-reliance. That book won the 2020 Best Monograph Prize from the Association for the Study of Food and Society and the 2020 Margaret Mead Award jointly awarded by the Association of American Anthropologists and the Society for Applied Anthropology. Her second book, Black Food Matters, is a volume co-edited with Hanna Garth published by University of Minnesota Press in 2020. A comprehensive look at Black food culture and the various forms of violence that threaten its future, Black Food Matters offers critical perspectives on how to think about access, privilege, equity, and justice. Black Food Matters received honorable mention recognition for the Eduardo Bonilla-Silva outstanding book award presented by the Division of Racial and Ethnic Minorities of the Society for the Study of Social Problem. Dr. Reese’s most recent book, Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness (Norton, 2026) brings together several things she’s dedicated much of her career to—food, community, sacred rituals—to explore what food justice movements can learn from the everyday ways Black folks gather around food. She is currently at work on her next book, The Carceral Life of Sugar, which explores the spatial, economic, and metaphorical resonance of the plantation in the early 20th century convict lease system in Texas and the ongoing significance of sugar in everyday (Black) life.
There are many other credentials that you can find through a quick google search. But what Dr. Reese really wants you to know is that at her core, she sees herself as a conduit and a gatherer: a bridge between scholarship and community, past and future, spirit and material worlds; and someone who brings people, stories, and ideas together. She is committed to research and writing that honors collective memory, imagines freedom, and makes space for tenderness and possibility.
About the moderator:
Dr. Ashley D. Farmer is an Associate Professor in the Department of History& African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
Her newest book, Queen Mother: Black Nationalism, Reparations, and the Untold Story of Audley Moore, is the first biography of one of the most influential yet understudied activists and thinkers of the 20th century. The book examines Audley Moore’s life and activism from 1898 to 1997 and reveals how she was an important but overlooked architect of the 20th century and the mother of the modern reparations movement.
Farmer’s first book, Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era, is the first comprehensive study of black women’s intellectual production and activism in the Black Power era. Remaking Black Power was a finalist for the Stone Book Award and the runner-up for the Darlene Clark Hine Award from the Organization of American Historians. It was named to several must-read lists.
Dr. Farmer’s scholarship has appeared in numerous venues, including The Black Scholar and The Journal of African American History. Her research has also been featured in several popular outlets, including Harper’s Bazaar and The Washington Post. She has provided commentary on national and international media outlets like The New York Times and NPR.
Numerous schools and foundations, including the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Whiting Foundation, have supported her research.
Farmer is also a co-editor of the Black Power Series published with NYU Press and the Black Women’s History Series, published with UNC Press. Dr. Farmer earned a BA from Spelman College, an MA in History, and a PhD in African American Studies from Harvard University. Dr. Farmer lives in Austin, TX, and tweets from @drashleyfarmer.
By purchasing a book from BookPeople, you are not only supporting a local, independent business – you’re showing publishers that they should continue sending authors to BookPeople.
Thank you for supporting Ashanté M. Reese, Ashley D. Farmer, and your local independent bookstore!
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
BookPeople, 603 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, United States
USD 0.00
