About this Event
"You call it Soul Food, I called it Survival Food": Soul Style, Kinship and Black Culinary History
In the 1960s and 1970s, soul food was the embodiment of cool. Black musicians, ranging from soul to jazz, composed odes to it, black comedians cracked jokes about soul food, and even civil rights activists dined on it. Characterized by dishes like neck bones, chitlins, black-eyed peas, and cornbread, soul food is an "African American vernacular cuisine." It is also a culinary expression of soul style, a concept that captured the political and cultural expressions of black pride during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras.
Reflecting on the history of soul food and its importance to his family in East Texas, Percy Jackson described the cuisine as "survival food." Jackson's affirmation highlights how survival food kept hunger at bay. More than a black American cuisine, soul food was a safeguard against food insecurity and a vital symbol of black kinship. This talk, which includes a lecture and cooking demonstration, explores the transition from survival to soul food through cultural and family history. Starting in the Jim Crow era, the talk examines the significance of survival food to Southern black farmers. Additionally, it will look at the popularity of soul food in the 1960s and 1970s by analyzing jazz, soul music, photography, and comedy.
Bio:
Jerome Dotson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Arizona. He is also an affiliate faculty with the Department of History, the Center for Regional Food Studies, and the Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program. He hails from Decatur, Georgia, and is a proud alumnus of Morehouse College. Professor Dotson earned a Ph.D. in U.S. history and an M.A. in African American Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research and teaching interests focus on African American history, public health, foodways, hip hop, and black feminism. He is working on a book-length manuscript entitled "No Pork on My Fork: Race, Dietary Reform, and Body Politics." The manuscript, currently under contract with the University Press of Florida, examines how black American eating habits and diets in the 19th and 20th centuries have influenced Black radicalism.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
W.A. Franke Honors College, 1101 East Mabel Street, Tucson, United States
USD 0.00