look at chicken in AfricanAmerican history and contemporary culture, the ways women in particular have used chickens and cooking as a source of agency.
Interesting in some parts, but problematic at others, She wants Kara Walker to be more explicit about the intentions of her art, for instance, which seems absolutely unfeasible.
Got to talk to the author on the phone for our class, though, and she seems a nice, intelligent person.
This book was a great look at the complications of stereotypes surrounding chicken and Black women, and really resting in those complications and resisting easy answers.
It was very tenderly done, and I really appreciated the care with which WilliamsForson handled the various issues at play: not just the stereotypes and answering them, but also the lived experiences of Black women regarding their relationships to women.
For that careful handling, I really recommend this book, even if the subject isn't one that you might immediately think would be interesting.
Really fascinating, and a subject I never would have thought about or realized was so complex, I skimmed the last few chapters and it was a little too scholastic for me in some parts, but I really liked it.
./stars
I was lucky to have the author come and do a presentation at my company which prompted me to read this book.
I found a lot of this work to be interesting and engaging, I didn't find the last chapter about the art of Kara Walker to be as compelling as others felt like too much loose interpretation vs a more grounded reading.
I attended a session about Foodways at the Organization of American Historians and the author, Psyche A, WilliamsForson, was the moderator of the panel, I first learned of waiter carriers, women who prepared chicken and other food stuff and sold them to railroad passengers who made their purchases through the windows to women who were below on the tracks.
They were not on the platform, since those space were reserved for White people, Ive been reading much about railroads, since my father was a Pullman Porter and dining car waiter, Yet, before there were dining cars, these vendors served passengers, These women were early African American entrepreneurs, and Gordonsville, VA has recognized their contributions with historical markers, They were not just cooks but women who used their power and skills with food to shape their own paths.
Not a foodways person, I did not realize the many stereotypes of Black people and chickens and assumptions about the African American diet.
In this book, WilliamsForson explore many issues, particularly cultural representation and misrepresentations and the enduring white racist propaganda which is still in the culture, but perhaps not as evident as the cartoons and figurines of early eras.
It isand Aunt Jemima is finally coming off the box of pancake mix, The task is to recognize how race, class, gender and power continue to oppress the lives of Black people so that we can dismantle these structures.
Instead, the use of food in films and novels can be a source of “comfort” and familiarity, but it can be a misrepresentation of the dynamics and power with Black women, as the invisible or visible cook in the narrative.
My mother was from Pittsburgh, not the deep south, so we rarely had fried chickenour chicken was more likely to be baked or roasted.
However, like many workingclass families in thes New York, we ate other meats and fish, which we could get fresh from the Fulton Fish Market.
But I can believe the stereotypes that Black people face in restaurants, where waiters assume that they are there for the chicken.
The history is long, as Southern food become distinct, Often with White women following their cooks to write down recipes and claiming them as “representing the White South, Yet, the image of heavyset Black cook with a rag on her head dominated the media of the antebellum era and after the Civil War.
Happy to be serving White people with her smiles, Where are the Black womens voices
There is this connection with Black people and chickens, Chickens were among many of the animals near the home, but they were not as valued as hogs or turkeys.
It was common for share croppers and tenant farmers, who along with growing vegetables, used the live stock to feed their families.
Food was important in networks as women aided others, recognizing the value of community for survival,
WilliamsForson does considerable research for images, narrative and uses both representations in novels as well as interviews with women and interviews with student about their own food habits, in particular their feelings about chicken.
I did not realize there were so many literary battles centered on food as people came to dinner, migrated to the North with Southern ways and so forth.
I read some of the novels WilliamsForson discussed, but have to reread Your Blues Aint Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell, since I was more into the politics and did not appreciate the use of food.
Food and Church is a significant chapter, since the sharing of cooking and eating in church was a big part of rural peoples Sunday.
Eating at church meant they could commune and not have to travel home between services, Having the preacher to dinner was also a tradition, and he also got to pick the piece of the chicken that he wanted first.
There is much here and many stories to tell, There
is also a gender division in preparing meals, women did the chicken, perhaps under the direction of men, but men fried the fish.
The use of representations even by African American artists and storytellers can also be problematic, I was myself trouble by George Tillmans film, Soul Food, I saw it but was not applauding it as others did.
Again, my parents were not migrants from the South, thus we had different diets, it was not the same Sunday dinner each week.
Yet, WilliamsForson challenges the limited visions of women and the celebration of a diet that kills the mother, since she neglects her diabetes and other family members do not intervene.
In the end, they are intent upon carrying on the tradition, Tillmans issue was more about what happens with the matriarch passes, but why did she had to pass
In looking at some of Kara Walkers art, that is disruptive and disturbing, while some representation of family can be “comforting.
” We have to do more to explore the history and challenge the myths that can be one dimensional, We can celebrate Rosa Parks, but also see her as one of many Black women who challenged Jim Crow train cars, in fact taking the railroads to court, as well as segregated buses.
The more history I read, the more I appreciate the legacy of resistance, It was many decades ago that Angela Davis wrote that in the face of slavery survival was a form of resistance.
Now we are learning more about the various ways that after emancipation, during the Jim Crow era even now when new forms systemic racism persist that we still have resistance.
Women have to be part of that story, with various forms of expression including food,
This is by far one of the most interesting books I've ever read, It explores the links between black american history/culture and the food we eat, drawing from extensive primary documents and research.
It poses that food within the black experience, especially chicken, not as something of stereotype, but actually a tool of resistance and independence as enslaved black women were able to sell it at a time when they were considered property and illustrates how our connection to it and other foods has been become mocked, racialized, and minstrelized over time.
Amazing exploration of sociocultural proportions!
yay What seems like such a narrow subject at first black women and chicken reveals a depth I could not have imagined possible.
I particularly liked the first half of the book where the author explores the history of the stereotypes surrounding what black people eat.
The images chosen are particularly powerful!
In the second half, she analyzes contemporary works of art and their meaning, but it felt too scholarly and subjective to me.
I feel it's still a great point of entry for anyone interested in the subject of food and race.
a little textbooky but interesting info and context This book is definitely excellent, This story is really great While I was expecting this book to be more in line with the “food writing” that I like reading, it contained much more cultural/race/gender theory than I was expecting, and quite frankly, could handle.
Read Full : sitelink wordpress. com/ What a great book! This fascinating approach to examining Black foodways is definitely worth a read, I included it on my reading list for one of my comprehensive exams, It is also a meaningful source in one of my favorite books, Christopher Carter's The Spirit of Soul Food, my lady pays attention to the details of who I am, . . can't wait to read this wonderful jewel of a birthday gift, Considered for the food class, this is an anthropologicalhistorical study of the foodways of AfricanAmericans Americans, from the economic reality that women and children could raise chickens for a little extra money on very little resources, selling fried chicken to train passengers for extra income or making box lunches because of nonexistent or segregated eating facilities, the oral histories of the rise and fall of the Coon chicken franchise, white women competing to have the best cooks and pirating their recipes for "Southern" cookbooks, the prestige of being chosen to host the preacher for Sunday dinner, Chris Rock and the "taking the big piece of chicken" routine and the trope in the subversive silhouette artwork of Karen Walker.
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