2004 Southern Foodways Symposium
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2004 SOUTHERN FOODWAYS SYMPOSIUM he seventh annual Southern Foodways Symposium will be barbecue, cooked by a North Carolina master; light-as-a-feather held October 7-10, 2004, on the campus of the University of biscuits from Knoxville; tender-as-a-mother’s love grillades from T Mississippi in Oxford. This year we explore race through the New Orleans; and a quartet of fried chickens, cooked by lens of foodways. We will study, debate, and celebrate the South’s exemplars of the frying art. shared food culture by way of events that focus upon race relations. The SFA believes that racial chasms can be bridged Keep in mind: The Delta Divertissement is back. Over the course when we recognize our common humanity across a table piled of a twenty-four-hour sojourn to the town of Greenwood, high with bowls of collard greens, platters of cornbread. We Mississippi, this quick-to-sell-out prequel to the symposium believe that food is our region’s greatest shared creation. And we offers an opportunity to explore the land that gave birth to heroes see food as a unifier in a diverse region, as a means by which we of the Civil Rights Movement like Fannie Lou Hamer. What’s more, may address the issues that have long vexed our homeland. we’ll talk tamales, hear tales of rabbit hunting in canebrakes, dance to downhome blues, and savor what happens when a James As with previous symposia, this event provides opportunities for Beard Award-winning chef – and Mississippi native – Ann Cashion cooks, chefs, food writers, and inquisitive eaters to come to a sets her mind to feeding her kinsmen and kinswomen. better understanding of Southern cuisine and Southern culture. Lectures, held in Johnson Commons, at the heart of the University Host for the event is the Southern Foodways Alliance at the of Mississippi campus, are complemented by informal lunches University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern and dinners served in and around Oxford. Culture. Contributors to our efforts include Biltmore Estate Wine Company, Bottletree Bakery, City Grocery, the R&B Feder In keeping with our tradition of offering attendees practical Charitable Foundation for the Beaux Arts, Grassroots Wine, instruction in the collection and dissemination of oral histories, Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q, the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Rachel Lawson will share her work with veterans of the Nashville Oxford Tourism Council, and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. Sit-in Movement. This class, staged on Thursday prior to the official opening of the symposium, will be free of charge to the In honor of our new sponsor, Burt’s Beef, the SFA will now first twenty registrants. endeavor to serve pasture-raised beef, poultry, and pork. This year we screen two SFA-produced films, underwritten by the Primary sponsors of the Southern Foodways Symposium are: Fertel Foundation and directed by Joe York. The first, On Flavor, tells the story of Ed Scott, the first African American catfish farmer in the Mississippi Delta. The second, a tribute to the women who fed the Burt’s Beef Civil Rights Movement, highlights Martha Hawkins of Montgomery, Alabama, a modern-day steward of the Welcome Table. The Fertel Foundation Music continues to be integral to our gatherings. Olu Dara, a Glory Foods native of Mississippi, will lead his Natchezsippi Dance Band in a Saturday afternoon concert that pays homage to Southern icons Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey like prickly okra and juicy strawberries, not to mention fabled writers like Zora Neal Hurston. Viking Range And then there’s the food. Among the highlights will be White Lily sandwiches of Coca-Cola brisket, made with pastured beef; Mississippi catfish, sheathed in a cornmeal mantle; whole hog On the cover: Art by Amy Evans of Oxford, Mississippi SCHEDULE Unless otherwise noted, all events are in Paul B. Johnson Commons. THURSDAY SATURDAY 2-4 p.m. Registration 9 a.m. Feast of Words Barnard Observatory Beth Ann Fennelly 2-4 p.m. Lunch Counter Oral Histories 9:15 a.m. A Conversation with Olu Dara Barnard Observatory 10 a.m. Mammy and Ole Miss: Domestic Relations Rachel Lawson Trudier Harris, Susan Tucker, and Donna Pierce 5:30 p.m. Thacker Mountain Radio Show 11:15 a.m. SFA General Meeting Off Square Books 12:15 p.m. Viking Range Luncheon 7 p.m. Whole Hog Feed and Cornbread Nation 2 The Quadrangle Release Party Ann Cashion Powerhouse Arts Center Ed Mitchell and Lolis Eric Elie 1:45 p.m. Edible Icons in Black (and White) Possum ‘n’ Taters — Where have you gone? 9 p.m. On Flavor, a Film about Ed Scott,Winner of 2001 Adrian Miller Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award How Did Macaroni and Cheese Get So Black? Powerhouse Arts Center Rafia Zafar Joe York The Sacred and the Profane: Late Night Chitlins With Momma FRIDAY Audrey Petty 9-10 a.m. Registration 4 p.m. Smithsonian Key Ingredients Exhibit (Optional) Powerhouse Arts Center 10 a.m. Welcome and Introduction of Glory Foods Scholarship Winners Methods and Ethnographics of Watermelon Pickles Charles Reagan Wilson Fritz Blank 10:15 a.m. Invocation 5 p.m. Jack Daniel Lifetime Achievement Award William Winter Introductions by Leah Chase and Charles Reagan Wilson 10:30 a.m. Homily Powerhouse Arts Center Will D. Campbell 5:30 p.m. Olu Dara and the Natchezsippi Dance Band 11 a.m. A Culture of Possibilities Revisited Powerhouse Arts Center Dori Sanders 7 p.m. Fried Chicken Throw Down 11:45 a.m. Burt’s Beef Tribute to the Unsung Cooks Gary Pasture of Ole Miss - Mama Dip (NC) Coca-Cola brisket - Austin Leslie (LA) The Grove - Scott Peacock (GA) John Currence - Martha Stamps (TN) 1:15 p.m. A Harry Golden Moment Sarah Labensky and Students from the Culinary Tom Hanchett Arts Institute at the Mississippi University for 1:30 p.m. Back of the House: An Appreciation Women Diane McWhorter Music by Guelel Kumba and Slade Lewis 2:30 p.m. 2004 Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award and Film Screening Martha Hawkins SUNDAY 3:45 p.m. Beloved Community: The Civil Rights Movement 9 a.m. White Lily Biscuits, Grits, and Grillades Brunch and Food City Grocery Bernard Lafayette John Currence 6 p.m. Deviled Yard Egg Degustation and Book Signing 10:30 a.m. Founder’s Toast and Altar Call Off Square Books Lafayette County Courthouse 7:30 p.m. Catfish Fry 11:45 a.m. Where Is Little Willie John When You Really Taylor Grocery Need Him? Lynn Hewlett Lafayette County Courthouse Nikki Giovanni 9 p.m. Street Dance Gospel Benediction Lafayette County Courthouse The Jones Sisters SPEAKERS Fritz Blank has degrees in dairy husbandry, Tom Hanchett, historian at the Levine Diane McWhorter is the author of the dairy science, medical technology, and Museum of the New South in Charlotte, Pulitzer Prize winning history Carry Me clinical microbiology. He is the chef- North Carolina, is the author of Sorting Out Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic owner of Deux Cheminées in Philadelphia, the New South City: Race, Class, and Urban Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. Pennsylvania. Development in Charlotte, 1875 - 1975 Scott Peacock is the chef at Watershed in Will Campbell, a native of Amite County, Trudier Harris is a professor of English at the Decatur, Georgia. Along with his mentor, Mississippi, is a preacher, author, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Edna Lewis, he is the author of The Gift of activist. Among his books is Brother to a She is coeditor of the Oxford Companion to Southern Cooking. Dragonfly. African American Literature and author of Audrey Petty is an assistant professor of Ann Cashion, a native of Jackson, the memoir Summer Snow: Reflections from English at the University of Illinois at Mississippi, is the chef and coowner of a Black Daughter of the South. Urbana-Champaign. She is at work on All Cashion’s Eat Place in Washington, D.C. The Martha Hawkins is the 2004 recipient of the Underneath, her first novel. James Beard Foundation named her best the SFA’s Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Donna Pierce is a Chicago-based journalist chef in the Mid-Atlantic region for 2004. Award. She is the cook and owner of at work on a book on African American Leah Chase is the chef of Dooky Chase in Martha’s Place in Montgomery, Alabama culinary contributions. New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the first and the founder of Martha Hawkins Ministries. Dori Sanders of York County, South president of SFA and received SFA’s 2000 Carolina, is a farmer and writer. Her novel Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the Lynn Hewlett, a native of Taylor, Clover won the Lillian Smith Book Award author of And Still I Cook. Mississippi, is a champion barbecue pit- for “elucidating the condition of racial and Mildred Council, known to her many master who owns and operates one of the social inequity and proposing a vision of admirers as Mama Dip, is proprietor of — South’s most fabled catfish houses, Taylor justice and human understanding.” Grocery. you guessed it — Mama Dip’s in Chapel Martha Stamps is the chef of Martha’s at Hill, North Carolina. She is the author of The Jones Sisters are a gospel ensemble the Plantation in Nashville, Tennessee. She Mama Dip’s Kitchen. from Lafayette County, Mississippi. Their is the author of Martha’s at the Plantation: The Culinary Arts Institute at the first album is titled Life’s Not Easy: The Seasonal Recipes from Belle Meade. Jones Sisters at Sun Studios. Mississippi University for Women in Susan Tucker teaches at Tulane in New Columbus is directed by Sarah Labensky.