The themes of food justice and activism have been in the forefront of public consciousness as we live through a pandemic. Our recent virtual exhibit, Sustainability & Self Determined Food Systems, examined the intersection of food justice and Black Power, and featured people rebuilding relationships to the land and reimagining food systems.
This Black History Month, our African American Studies department hosted a virtual event with similar themes. Environmental and food justice activist, Tanya Denise Fields’ conversation with City Tech’s Dr. Emilie Boone called to mind the library’s collection of texts related to Black foodways. We have been steady in our intention to acquire newly published works by Black authors as well as those about to Black culture. We are also fortunate to have many important out-of-print or difficult to find texts in our collection.
Though we are currently away from campus, please enjoy this selection of titles.
A tintype portrait of a woman from Weeksville, Brooklyn
“A white ally acknowledges the limits of her/his/their knowledge about other people’s experiences but doesn’t use that as a reason not to think and/or act. A white ally does not remain silent but confronts racism as it comes up daily, but also seeks to deconstruct it institutionally and live in a way that challenges systemic oppression, at the risk of experiencing some of that oppression. Being a white ally entails building relationships with both people of color, and also with white people in order to challenge them in their thinking about race. White allies don’t have it all figured out, but are deeply committed to non-complacency.” White Allyship 101 by the Dismantle Collective
February is Black History Month in the United States. As 2020 demonstrated, the situation of Black people in the US is still challenging, often unfair and discriminatory. One way we can honor the historical struggles of Black Americans is to invest in the ongoing work to make our society and ourselves (if we are not Black) less racist. For nonBlack people, February 2021 is a good opportunity to educate ourselves on how to be better allies to our Black family, friends, and neighbors. There are many excellent educational online materials on Anti-Racism free and open to all:
Films
The PBS website offers several films about racism in America, adding historical context to racial issues. PBS’ programs include profiles of police departments, documentaries that cover the treatment of African Americans since slavery, and films about both past and current civil rights activism.
1619 An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.
Code Switch: “fearless conversations about race…hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between.”
Seeing White: “Just what is going on with white people? Police shootings of unarmed African Americans. Acts of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The renewed embrace of raw, undisguised white-identity politics. Unending racial inequity in schools, housing, criminal justice, and hiring. Why? Where did the notion of ‘whiteness’ come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?”
Uncivil: “Uncivil brings you stories that were left out of the official history of the Civil War, ransacks America’s past, and takes on the history you grew up with. We bring you untold stories about resistance, covert operations, corruption, mutiny, counterfeiting, antebellum drones, and so much more. And we connect these forgotten struggles to the political battlefield we’re living on right now. The story of the Civil War — the story of slavery, confederate monuments, racism — is the story of America.”
Other Online Resources
The Color Line: “A lesson on the countless colonial laws enacted to create division and inequality based on race.” from the Zinn Education Project
Facing History and Ourselves: “Facing our collective history and how it informs our attitudes and behaviors allows us to choose a world of equity and justice. Facing History’s resources address racism, antisemitism, and prejudice at pivotal moments in history; we help students connect choices made in the past to those they will confront in their own lives.”
Talking About Race is a comprehensive, multimedia site produced by the National Museum of African American History & Culture, with rich offerings.
Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic site in Central Brooklyn that preserves the history of Weeksville, one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America.
Plagiarism can be less obvious than you think, especially in an online environment. This workshop will give you practical information and strategies to ensure your writing assignments are plagiarism-free.
The WAC program is happy to provide attendance lists for faculty who incentivize students for attending the workshop and require proof of attendance (when students register, they are asked to input class and professor names.)
Tuesday, February 16 2021 BLACK HISTORY MONTH KEYNOTE EVENT
“Black Lives Lead: We, Too, Sing America!” Tanya Denise Fields, Founder & Executive Director of the Black Feminist Project, in conversation with Dr. Emilie Boone View Virtual Event on http://www.citytech.cuny.edu/african-studies/
Black Panther screening on 2/17 with a roundtable discussion on 2/18. Register at http://tiny.cc/va2etz .
Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00pm Black Panther Movie Screening with cast member Q&A afterward
Thursday, February 18 at 7:00pm “Black Panther: The Women Warriors of Wakanda” roundtable conversation with cast members of Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther
The Sustainability & Self Determined Food Systems exhibit examined the intersection of food justice and Black Power, and featured people rebuilding relationships to the land and reimagining food systems.
This is the second part of a two-part post on Winter Holiday Foodways and Cookbooks, co-written with Monica Berger, our Instruction and Scholarly Communications Librarian. The first part of the blog is here.
For those who love sweets, the winter holidays are a highly anticipated time of year! This is the season when many special desserts are made by diverse cultures to celebrate their holidays.
Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, memorializes a miracle during the Jewish rebellion against the Greeks, where the Jews were able to regain the ancient city of Jerusalem, and restore their desecrated Temple in Jerusalem. The miracle was that the oil for the menorah in the Temple, only enough for one night, lasted eight days and nights. To honor the sacred oil, for generations the theme surrounding Hanukkah cuisine has been deep fried foods, including delicious desserts.In Israel, the most popular holiday treat is sufganiyah which translates to doughnut in English. It is a specialty item for the holiday because it’s sweet and deep fried, sold exclusively around the holiday season. Sufganiyot (the plural of sufganiyah in Hebrew) originated in Europe. Jalebi, a treat enjoyed by Iraqi Jews, is basically a funnel cake, made out of a flour-based dough then deep fried and soaked in a sugar syrup. One exception to fried desserts is rugelach, an Eastern European pastry, which are crescent-shaped dough cookies filled with fruit preserves, poppy seeds, or chocolate and nuts. Hanukkah Sweets and Treats is a kid-friendly introduction to making these and more. The Kosher Baker is an excellent resource for dairy-free desserts.
Kwanzaa is an African-American festival that lasts from December 26 through January 1. Its purpose is to celebrate African-American family and community, while honoring African ancestors and culture. The holiday is based on seven guiding principles, one for each day of the observance: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Celebrations begin by lighting candles, giving gifts, and decorating with the African colors of red, green, and black. Throughout the week, favorite African-American dishes, as well as traditional African and Caribbean favorites, are on many menus. On December 31, the holiday culminates in a feast called Karamu. Desserts might include soul food favorites like Sweet Potato Pie, Peach Cobbler, or Caramel Cake. Global Bakery has recipes for delicious cakes from Africa and the Caribbean perfect for Kwanzaa, including Ginger Cake, Rum Cake, and Semolina Cake. A wonderful book on African-American foodways is Vibration Cooking: Or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl by Vertamae Smart-Grosveno. It is a cookbook/memoir reflecting on food as a source of pride and validation of Black womanhood, and it inspired filmmaker Julie Dash to make Daughters of the Dust.
Traditionally, holidays are times when families, friends, and communities come together, with food playing an essential role in celebrations. Obviously, the winter holidays (Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and others) will be different this year, as fewer people will gather in groups. However, for comfort, many will still cook up their favorite holiday dishes.
In New York City, during the winter, people from many different cultures celebrate multiple holidays with unique foods. It is impossible in a short blog post to “give a taste” of the diverse traditional dishes being served this season. Here are just a few holiday highlights, as well as a selection of e-cookbooks available through the library.
Hanukkah:
Hanukkah is an eight-day festival of lights commemorating the miracle when—after the Second Temple was desecrated then rededicated—one day’s worth of sacred oil for the altar’s eternal lamp lasted eight days. The eight-night celebration of Hanukkah is therefore supposed to include fried foods at the festive meal that is preceded by lighting the menorah, a eight- or nine-branched candelabrum. In Central and Eastern Europe, latkes (potato pancakes) were fried in schmaltz (poultry fat) because potatoes were plentiful while December was the season for slaughtering goose and ducks. Today, many people choose to make their latkes with vegetable oil. Jelly donuts, or sufganiyot, another food deep-fried in oil, are a Hanukkah tradition from Israel popular with Americans.
Other Hanukkah foods reflect the ethnic diversity of Judaism. For example, Sephardic Jews (Mediterranean Jews) prepare elaborate vegetarian dishes with cheese while many Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews eat roasted brisket as a main dish. For more special Hanukkah recipes, take a look at Sweet Noshings: New Twists on Traditional Jewish Desserts. For a Jewish perspective on Christmas, check out A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to be Jewish.
Christmas:
Many New Yorkers from different cultural backgrounds will soon celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas with big, multi-course feasts. One of the most elaborate feasts is The Feast of the Seven Fishes, an Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration. The Christmas Eve feast may include seven or more specific fish dishes that are considered traditional, such as whiting in lemon, clams in spaghetti, or baccalà (dried, salted cod). If you ever want to try to create your own feast, there are several pesci recipes in Canal House Cooking: Pronto! for you to try.
Filipinos celebrate Christmas from December 16 until the first Sunday of January and the Feast of the Three Kings. After Christmas Eve midnight mass, preparation begins for Noche Buena, when family, friends, and neighbors drop by for an open house celebration. Food is often served in buffet style. Among the typical foods prepared are lechon (roasted pig), queso de bola, ham, spaghetti, and fruit salad.Filipino Family Cookbook : A Treasury of Heirloom Recipes and Heartfelt Storiesis a great resource if you’d like to learn more.
For many Latinos in the United States, the holiday season is synonymous with tamales. Mexican Americans often opt for corn-husk-wrapped tamales, while those from Central America typically wrap theirs in banana leaves. And while most Mexican and Central American tamales contain corn-based masa, Puerto Rican pasteles don’t use any, instead using a combination of ground yautía (yuca) and green plátanos (plantains). Tamales, Comadres, and the Meaning of Civilization is filled with family recipes and stories. It also celebrates tamaladas, large family gatherings to prepare the Christmas tamales.
Kwanzaa:
Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday nor a substitute for Christmas, and many people celebrate both. Maulana Karenga founded the weeklong festival in 1966 as a way for African-Americans to celebrate their heritage. Today, Kwanzaa is celebrated across North America and the Caribbean. The seven principles of Kwanzaa are umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith).
The largest meal—Karamu Ya Imani—is held on December 31. The main dish served tends to be a stew, such as Ghanaian groundnut stew, Cajun jambalaya, Creole gumbo, West Indian curry. Other classics include Hoppin’ John, Nigerian jollof rice, fritters, catfish, collard greens, fried okra, spoonbread, plantains, and (are you hungry yet?) sweet potato pie. Celebrate Vegan: 200 Life-Affirming Recipes for Occasions Big and Smalloffers delicious vegan versions of traditional soul food dishes. The Real Jerk : New Caribbean Cuisineprovides recipes for Caribbean classics like jerk chicken, sorrel punch, and rum cake.
Michael Twitty is a wonderful food historian and writer who identifies as “an African American who happens to be Jewish, or a Jew who happens to be African American.” He writes a little about Christmas but he writes much more about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. His blog is a rich resource for both recipes and food histories.
Part 2 of this blog will cover delicious sweets and desserts for winter holidays!
The library has newly subscribed to Transgender studies quarterly (TSQ) from Duke University Press as of last year. We now have access to the complete journal online. In their own words, TSQ “publishes interdisciplinary work that explores the diversity of gender, sex, sexuality, embodiment, and identity in ways that have not been adequately addressed by feminist and queer scholarship.”
To highlight some of the great work in TSQ, here is a list of their most-read articles from 2020:
Through June 30, 2021, CUNY will have access to 4 primary source JSTOR collections.
Global Plants: high-resolution type specimens and related materials in this growing database showcases hand-selected materials and reference works from contributors around the world.
World Heritage Sites: Africa: Vsual, contextual, and spatial objects in 30 sub-collections, providing documentation of African heritage sites.
19th Century British Pamphlets: nearly 26,000 pamphlets covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of the 19th century.
If you have any questions about these or other resources please contact Kimberly Abrams at kabrams@citytech.cuny.edu.
