For me, food continues to be a great connector in so many ways, with people both new and old. I get so much joy when I experience chefs, writers, makers, and others in their element, grounded yet showing out unapologetically. So, when my friend Mimi sent me a link for a talk at The New School with the celebrated chef, artist, and cookbook author Bryant Terry, entitled “a multi-media discussion of food, art, and Black agrarian thought,” I had to go.
On a Monday night last week, I put on some vintage terrycloth that reflected the colorful cover of Bryant Terry’s book, “Black Food,” some suede Wallabees, and tipped downtown. There is always a little trepidation reemerging into spaces, but my fears were allayed when I saw Gabrielle, then her sister Danielle, of BEM Books & More, the nation’s first Black food bookstore (now open in Brooklyn), popped up selling a collection of Terry’s cookbooks. I love witnessing their evolution and always welcome a purchase to support.
Terry’s talk opened with a wonderful monologue about his grandmother’s 7-foot-tall hutch and all that was preserved (amongst other things, greens, beans, jams, and a great call-and-response moment for chow chow), what it represented to him, and what it inspired in his future career; what he calls his “practice.” He captured his mother in the cooking process for knowledge, yes, but more so to capture the spirit of who she was while doing it, her singing a hymn, before playing a version he created by mixing the hymn with “Money Jungle” by Duke Ellington, Charlie Mingus, and Max Roach.
Kysha Harris photos
The strokes of Terry’s practice around the power of food and community lay in honor to the ancestors who bore the responsibility in spite of what they faced, like the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children program and Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm Cooperative. As a result, he’s created a community cooking program, a Black food summit, and owns a book publishing imprint, 4 Color Books, producing some truly outstanding titles.
Terry then invited the audience to visit one of the sensory tables filled with herbs and spices to touch, smell, and discuss what memories they evoke. Rosemary was clearly the star of the night with culinary and medicinal stories; cinnamon and thyme got some shine too.
Finally, Terry brought us right back to the beginning, his grandmother’s 7-foot hutch. He recreated it as part of his installation “The Table and the Larder: Feeding the People, Remembering the Future” at The Berkeley Art Museum. From sourcing produce from Black farmers and using ancestral food preservation techniques, to treating the wood of the hutch and leaving the sides open to communicate open access for all, to the school chairs inscribed with quotes from children with food insecurity, this work preserves lifetimes of resilience and a deep respect for those who made a way when the path wasn’t clear.
With a purchased and signed copy of “Black Food” in my hands and food for thought in my spirit, I returned home feeling full and feeling honored to have met one of the most prolific interdisciplinary minds today, who uses food to reflect, to honor, and to connect us all. Bravo and thank you to co-sponsors The Food Studies programs of The New School and NYU.
Thanks for reading and happy eating!
Kysha Harris is a chef, food writer, and editor, culinary producer, consultant, and owner of
SCHOP!, a personalized food service in NYC for over 23 years. Follow her on Instagram,
@SCHOPnyc and on Facebook, @SCHOPnyc.
Questions, comments, requests, feedback, invitations! Email us at AmNewsFOOD@SCHOPnyc.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @NYAmNewsFOOD.