COURSE

“Our signature course focused on African-American Foodways, AADS 3104W, and provides both an intensive immersion in African-American foodways through engagement with classic African-American cookbooks; depictions of African-American foodways in literature, painting, song, and film; scholarship that investigates the history and economics of African foodways across the Diaspora with a particular focus on both the USA and Nashville “

EXHIBITION

“Featuring materials drawn largely from the private collections of W. Paul Coates, founder and director of Black Classics Press, and Toni Tipton-Martin, editor of Cook’s Country magazine and an award-winning cookbook author, this exhibition explores how cookbooks by Black authors serve not only as crucial repositories of African and African American culinary traditions, but also as sites of food innovation and cultural transformation.”

EXHIBITION REVIEW

“Artist Fred Wilson presented a museum’s collection in such a way that it called into question the entire worldview from which the collection was originally assembled. “What they put on view says a lot about a museum, but what they don’t put on view says even more,” Wilson said in an interview about his installations. He communicated this point by contrasting what is with what should be. By drawing attention to the overlooked black figures, his installment asked whose truth was on display”

READING

“Foodways encompasses the food people eat, how it’s grown and prepared, and the part it plays in their lives. Africans transported to the Americas as part of the transatlantic trade brought with them planting and cooking techniques as well as memories of ancestral and regional recipes.“

SHORT FILMS

“The project maps journeys, examining and documenting West-African contributions to the thriving economies of the world. The narratives are rarely visible, often erased, hardly celebrated, and commonly appropriated. The goal is to unearth the legacy of West African knowledge systems while decolonizing historical records and shaping contemporary food media to reimagine the future, from Coast to Coast..”

EXHIBITION

“African American contributions to our nation’s culinary culture are foundational and ongoing. For over 400 years, African Americans have inspired our country’s food through their skill, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Black foodways have shaped much of what we farm, what we cook, what we drink, and where we eat.”