$7 • SPRING 2017 • A QUARTERLY PUBLICATION FROM THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE MEXICAN DIASPORAS PAGE 9 MEET THE BIRMINGHAM GREEKS PAGE 55 VIEW FROM NASHVILLE’S TREEHOUSE PAGE 65 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] 2 [email protected] HELPINGS GUEST EDITOR 6 ASSOCIATERULES OF EDITOR ENGAGEMENT ISSUEJennifer V. Cole NO. 63 OsayiMichael Endolyn Twitty SPRING 2017 [email protected] DESIGNER 9 MORE THAN MERE MEXICANS Richie Swann GRAVYGustavo PRINT Arellano FACT CHECKER [email protected] Katie King 13 BOTTOM OF THE POT John T. Edge 32 18 MOBILE’S MODERN SOUL NOWRUZ: Julia Bainbridge REBIRTH, RENEWAL, AND REPAST 21 THE VALUE OF SOUTHERN FOOD Philip Malkus Kat Kinsman 24 FAMILY RECIPES 39 Photos by Celestia Morgan NORTHWARD BOUND 55 THE BIRMINGHAM GREEKS Devita Davison Oral History THE MISSION of the Southern Foodways62 TORTAS Alliance IN is toTUSCALOOSA document, study, and explore46 the diverse food cultures Calebof the changingJohnson American South. NOTHING GREEN BUTOur THE work PLATES sets a welcome table65 whereVIEW all may FROM consider THE our TREEHOUSE history David Hagedornand our future in a spirit of respectJohn andKessler reconciliation. SFA membership is open72 toVIRGINIA’S all. Not a member? DARE Join us at southernfoodways.orgHanna Raskin Cover photo by [email protected] L. KASIMU HARRIS 662-915-336879 REBEL RECIPE Erika Council L. Harris Kasimu southernfoodways.org 1 FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR pursuing illustration more seriously, I GRAVY #63 SPRING 2017 found that combining photo pieces with my drawings lent a sense of humor and levity to my work, and for the fi rst time I really NATALIE NELSON connected with the pieces I was making. What’s your forthcoming book about? When Gravy thinks about adding visual My new picture book, Uncle Holland, written elements to a story, the choice between by JonArno Lawson, is essentially a story First Helpings illustration and photograph is usually about making choices. The main character, straightforward. Over the past year, when Holland, has a mischievous streak and a we aimed to evoke a playful approach, problem with stealing things. Eventually, JVC (right) with we’ve called on NATALIE NELSON. Her he is faced with a choice between two JUST SFA member drawings are lighthearted; they can poke consequences for his theft: go to jail or join Caroline Rosen fun, and are often charmingly unexpected. the army. He chooses to join the army, and VISITIN’ in New Orleans In Gravy, her work has illustrated Sandra while he is stationed on a tropical island, he Beasley’s poetry and David Wondrich’s learns to paint the exotic fi sh that he sees in futuristic drink recipes. She’s contributed the ocean. He eventually realizes, through to the New York Times, the Washington painting, that “not everything that’s pretty can hardly remember a Post, and has two picture books to her can be stuffed in your pockets.” The book time the SFA wasn’t a part of my credit. This issue, you’ll fi nd her take on comes out April 11. life. You are my chosen family. So John Kessler’s experience at Nashville’s I Treehouse on page 65. I was flattered, honored, and, quite frankly, terrified when Sara Camp What are you working on these days? Milam asked me to take the reins of I’m illustrating a picture book about the this issue of Gravy. SFA is my home. collective nouns we use for groups of You take care of your home. animals, which comes out in 2018 with Though I’m a proud daughter of the Groundwood Books. I work on several red clay hills of central Mississippi, in editorial illustrations each month, which is always exciting because each new job offers this issue, I’ve chosen to pay tribute to the chance to read an interesting article and Alabama, where I went to college solve a new creative challenge. Additionally, (Auburn), and where I’ve stashed my star-flecked nights skinny dipping. In I’ve been making bookstore and school bourbon and welcomed friends to my “Nothing Green but the Plates” (page visits to promote The King of the Birds, a humble porch for the past decade. 46), David Hagedorn reflects on the picture book I illustrated that came out last fall. It was written by Acree Graham Macam Languid afternoons on the swing and ritual and pageantry of the experience. and is inspired by Flannery O’Connor. The late-night revelry have reinforced my As this issue hits your hands, I will book weaves real events from O’Connor’s appreciation for this place and its be moving from Birmingham for a new childhood (like teaching her chicken to walk people. Some of us have therapists. I adventure in New Orleans, where I plan backwards) with an imagined tale about one What are you watching or reading that helps have the porch. The repertory act of to post up often at Cafe Henri (on the of her beloved peacocks. expand your work? How do you get ideas? gathering for good food and drink, cover). So, while this issue is my swan I try to get off of the internet as much How did you develop your style of using as possible when I’m coming up with breathing fresh air, and connecting with song to this state and its lakes, dynamic mixed media and archival images? concepts for new projects. I like to go on kith and kin restores and rejuvenates. immigrant populations, and Chez It’s hard to remember exactly how and walks or bike rides to clear my head and The bourbon is really just a bonus. Fonfon chicken liver mousse, Alabama when everything started to click. I had a think through the tasks ahead of me. I This time of year, nothing sustains will always resonate. Maybe, in another wonderful high school art teacher who just fi nished reading The Underground introduced me to mixed media artists like like submersion in Alabama’s robust decade Sara Camp will ask me to edit Railroad by Colson Whitehead. And I Robert Rauschenberg, and she challenged started watching The Crown on Netflix lake culture, a scene I know well from the JVC Louisiana edition. They have me to experiment and push boundaries with because I got an assignment to illustrate many (many) days dock sitting and porches there, too. —Jennifer V. Cole materials and processes. When I started an article about the show. Courtesy of Jennifer V. Cole Courtesy of Jennifer V. Justen Clay 2 | southernfoodways.org S 2017 | 3 First Helpings being neighborly, I thought later, continued, “The menu here can be so sipping my Woodford Reserve neat overwhelming, it’s so-oo much to take (which I ordered unassisted, thank in.” She wasn’t going to let up. I was you). Strangers sitting at bars speak annoyed by her unsolicited comments. to one another, I reasoned. But his How did she determine we were lost impromptu tutor session nagged at in the weeds? Sorry, but we knew el me. He didn’t seem concerned with pan from las papas. helping anyone else. “Thank you,” I said. “But we’ve both Once, seated at the bar at a tapas spent time in Barcelona, so I think restaurant in Asheville, the bartender we’ll be OK.” That was the end of that. asked my boyfriend and me a question A couple weeks later, my friend that frequent restaurant-goers despise: chastised me for getting fresh. “She Have you dined with us before? I usually was just being nice,” he countered. I lie and say yes, because I’d rather skip asked him: When was the last time he the speech that goes, Small plates are consistently received ordering advice GET HELP small, entrées are larger, and drinks are, from fellow customers? At bars? At IN CODED DINING SPACES, gasp! located in a box that says DRINKS. wine shops? When was the last time CUSTOMERS PLAY A ROLE, TOO But this night we told the truth, which a random diner assumed they natural- yielded the requisite intro. A white ly knew more than you about what you by Osayi Endolyn woman seated two seats down with wanted to eat or drink and told you as much? “Never,” he said. His eyebrows saw writer-director awkward, and offensive. I empathized rose with new insight. “That has never Jordan Peele’s horror film Get with a character who struggles to WHEN WAS THE LAST happend to me.” I Out (no spoilers here), about a identify why he’s being treated a Back at the theater, after the credits young black man who meets his white certain way. Was he tapping into TIME A RANDOM rolled, the lights turned on. Several girlfriend’s family for the first time something that’s just not being talked black people were still glued to their during a visit to her parents’ estate. about, or was he paranoid? seats. We migrated toward each other As the title suggests, the protagonist The traditional criteria for dining DINER ASSUMED THEY in the aisle and talked about the movie realizes something is not quite right, out are quality of food, level of service, until the custodian kindly kicked us but he tries to rationalize the strange and budget. I’m not sure when, but I NATURALLY KNEW out. We were in agreement: while circumstances as nervous responses recently added “vibe” to my list. I Peele toys with the social conditions to his interracial relationship.