SUDDENLY ‘GOING OUT TO DINNER’ takes on a whole new meaning. $7 • WINTER 2016 • A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION FROM THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE SOP IT DRY PAGE 38 HAS DC LOST ITS SOUL? PAGE 42 COOK THE SYMPOSIUM PAGE 57 AWARD-WINNING SOUTHERN RESORT | EXCLUSIVE REAL ESTATE OPPORTUNITIES JACK NICKLAUS GOLF | SPORTING CLAYS | FINE DINING | RACQUET SPORTS | WATER DIVERSIONS RESERVE YOUR STAY AT MONTAGE PALMETTO BLUFF, CALL 866.337.3056 OR VISIT PALMETTOBLUFF.COM/LEISURE Obtain the Property Report required by federal law and read it before signing anything. No federal agency has judged the merits or value, if any, of this property. is does not constitute an o er to sell or a solicitation of any o er to buy where prohibited by law. e complete o ering terms are in an o ering plan available from sponsor. File no. H-110005 Gravy is a publication of the Southern Foodways Alliance, a member-supported institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF PUBLISHER John T. Edge Mary Beth Lasseter [email protected] [email protected] EDITOR FEATURESASSOCIATE EDITOR Sara Camp Milam Osayi Endolyn [email protected] [email protected] DESIGNERA MEAL AT THE REALGRAVY PRINT FACT CHECKERSOP IT DELLA’SRichie Swann PLACE THINGKatie King DRY [email protected] Engelhardt Matt Bondurant Regina N. Bradley GRAVY PODCAST INTERN GRAVY PODCAST Tyler Pratt PRODUCER AND HOST ISSUE #62 Tina Antolini WINTER 2016 [email protected] 15 48 FIRST HELPINGS CHARLOTTE IN THE LANDSCAPE FIVE TAMALES OF MY ANCESTORS Tom Hanchett and As told to Sara Wood 6 Eric Hoenes del Pinal by Jonathan Green WHAT WEALTH IS Rebecca Gayle Howell 42 52 SEARCHING FOR THE HARKERS 8 SOUL FOOD ISLAND ARETHE YOU MISSION TACO of the SouthernIN THE Foodways ONCE- Alliance is to document,WATERMEN study, LITERATE?and explore the diverseCHOCOLATE food cultures ofCITY the changingKeia American Mastrianni South. Gustavo Arellano W. Ralph Eubanks Our work sets a welcome table where all may consider our history and our future in a spirit of respect and reconciliation.57 CORN-FED 11 SFA membershipCover is photoopen to byall. Not a member? THE ROOTS OF AND BEYOND Join usKATE at southernfoodways.org MEDLEY Recipes FOOD INEQUALITIES [email protected] Ashanté M. Reese 662-915-3368 Kater Medley Kater southernfoodways.org Winter 2016 GRAVY #62 WINTER 2016 FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR F st Helpings REGINA N. BRADLEY LEFT TO RIGHT: REGINA N. BRADLEY, a native of Albany, Jennifer V. Cole; Georgia, is an assistant professor of Osayi Endolyn English at Armstrong State University in Savannah. She teaches and researches on post–Civil Rights African American literature, hip-hop culture, and race. At the 2016 Southern Foodways Symposium, she blew the audience away with a talk about the cornfields and cornbreads of her youth in Albany, an excerpt of which begins on page 38 of this issue. We caught up with Bradley after the Symposium to introduce GRAVY GETS A STIR her to Gravy readers. What are some of your favorite books to teach as an English professor? GRAVY brings a new energy to our editorial What are you currently working on? marks my twenty-sixth con- mission, and we are excited to work I try to pledge allegiance to the Black South secutive issue as editor. Let’s together to improve and expand Gravy I’m currently finishing my first academic and our writers as much as possible. I T book, titled Chronicling Stankonia: love teaching Kiese Laymon’s novel, Long be honest: You need a break from me, in 2017 and beyond. OutKast and the Rise of the Hip Hop Division, and his collection of essays, How to dear reader. And given the circumstanc- In addition to Osayi, I am extremely South (UNC Press). In it, I theorize the Hip Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America. es, I am happy to oblige. By the time you excited to entrust the spring 2017 issue Hop South, the cultural and generational Jesmyn Ward is always in the rotation, read this, I will be at home on materni- of Gravy to the capable-doesn’t-begin- shift that takes place with young black especially Men We Reaped. I’m teaching her ty leave, reading mysteries with my feet to-describe-it hands of guest editor Southerners after the Civil Rights novel Where the Line Bleeds for the first up and a quiet, sleeping baby snuggling Jennifer V. Cole. Following a long Movement. In particular, I focus on how time next semester, and I’m excited! the Atlanta hip-hop group OutKast is the by my side. That’s how it’s supposed to tenure at Southern Living, Jennifer now foundation of the hip-hop South and how What classes are you teaching in the spring? go, right? Just making sure. freelances for publications from Esquire they influence the cultural expression of Beginning with this issue, we to Fast Company to Garden & Gun to, younger black Southerners outside of the This spring I’m teaching a class on OutKast welcome a new associate editor to yes, Gravy. (“A Ghost in the Freezer,” arc of the Civil Rights Movement. and their impact on how we render ex- Team SFA. Shortly after Osayi from our spring 2016 issue, was the pressions of contemporary Southern black Which books, movies, and television shows identity. I am also teaching two sections Endolyn came to us as a writer (check most-read Gravy story on our website do you look forward to catching up on of a course called Ethics in Literature. My out her piece on Hoppin’ John in the this year.) When she’s not hosting bour- during the semester break this winter? focus for the course is the question, “What summer 2016 issue), we had an inkling bon-fueled gatherings on the front are the ethics of #BlackLivesMatter in lit- she was just the person we needed to porch of her Birmingham home, she’s When I’m not writing, I will make time to erature?” Some of the texts we’re reading expand our editorial team. Not to brag on a trip to Sicily, or Mexico City, or plunder Netflix:Black Mirror, Hemlock include Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Grove, and rewatching Marvel’s Luke Edward P. Jones’ The Known World, and or anything, but we were right. You’ll Cartagena. Follow her on Instagram if Cage. I also plan to catch up with my Damian Duffy and John Jennings’ graphic read more about Osayi when you turn you can handle the ensuing jealousy comics: Harrow County, Elf Quest, World of novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s phe- the page. Her thoughtful perspective and wanderlust. —Sara Camp Milam Wakanda, and Black Panther. nomenal book Kindred. L: Pableaux Johnson; R:L: Lee Andrew Thomas Pableaux Johnson Pableaux 2 | southernfoodways.org Winter 2016 | 3 First Helpings Atlanta. One afternoon, a manager for ruining our anniversary.” She did MISSED called me into the office before my not want a response to her letter. I shift and handed me a typed letter, was so visibly upset at her accusa- CUES sent certified mail (return receipt!). tions that the managers, all white, DINING ROOM POLITICS She and two other managers averted actually apologized to me—maybe START AT THE HOST STAND their eyes as I read silently. rethinking their decision to show me The letter was addressed to the the letter at all. “We know who you by Osayi Endolyn restaurant owner. I recall that the au- are,” they said. thor was identifed on her letterhead Though these incidents took place as a New York lawyer. She complained years ago, I am still struck at how se- learned about the politics that I was rude to her and her husband rious grievances arose from innocent, of food and dining early. My first on a recent visit. I remembered these seemingly innocuous acts. I wonder I job was hosting at Red Robin in guests. The couple, celebrating their if a host of a different race would have Moreno Valley, California, sixty miles anniversary, had been about thirty received the same complaints. It’s a east of Los Angeles. At fifteen years minutes late for their reservation and loaded question. And I’ll never know old, I was the youngest employee in from Mexico, tried to assuage him, had not phoned to notify us that they the answer. the restaurant, a chain known for big and later expressed utter confusion were still en route. Another party was I do know, after several years of food burgers and endless servings of steak at the customer’s reaction toward me, seated in the prime, corner banquette and drink writing (and more recent fries. As we approached closing time a fellow black person. But even then, originally marked for them. When the work with the SFA), that we as a cul- one Sunday night, just two servers I got it. As a kid, my mom kept me couple arrived, I did have a flash of ture are more dialed into the subtle worked the floor, so I alternated in- flush with black history books and panic. The next available table was not implications of food and dining, who coming parties between them. flashcards. The man was likely old considered as nice for a special occa- fits in where, than ever before. One section was at the front of the enough to participate in the Civil sion. I paused to consider other op- Like many Gravy readers, I’m restaurant, while the other was adja- Rights Movement or at least share tions, but seated them promptly.