This month the Black Garden co-sponsored a monthlong film festival by the nonprofit, HotHouse, featuring Afro-Cuban women. Each documentary highlighted a different woman’s story and I was reminded once again that not all stories are told and certain ones are perennially left out of history. …
As a kid, traveling meant using every single mode of transportation and exploring both the new and familiar. We were just as likely to visit the other side of the city where we were living as we were to be in San Francisco, Venezuela, Boston, …
What is liberation?
Is it lying on a beach, eyes closed, resting?
There will be endless images of sunsets and lovely views but for now we’re exploring some of that Hawaiian bounty. As we enjoyed the markets, restaurants, and cafes, two thoughts kept coming to mind. First, when I shared that it was my first visit to Hawaii, everyone, I mean everyone, couldn’t imagine me being a first-timer. Maybe the endless idyllic seemed too impossible. Second, can a place be too beautiful?
You tell me.
There’s beauty in the collective/collaborative spirit, too.
Over the years, our traveling family unit has grown from just me and the parents to my brother to significant others and even the next generation. We’ve asked ourselves: if we go there, what will so-and-so like? This is just another reason why cities are …
This will be short and (so) sweet. This week my parents came to Chicago to party. Yes, it included late night conversations, a walk around the Point, delicious food, and laughter. More than anything, it included love. Parents, grandparents, children, spouses, and grandchildren… so much …
The Black Garden is coming along nicely. Like most things in life, when you’re planning something, it’s not always clear how things will work out. Does gardening encourage patience? Flexibility? Curiosity?
Every year, the Black Garden gets more interesting. A new black tomato is planted, some greens that were cultivated years ago come back, and the darkest, velvety edible flowers once more make an appearance.
Can growing food be a source of joy for Black people?
My work has a refrain: are we deserving of beautiful and delicious food? Are we able to be anointed by our ancestors’ knowledge of growing food for centuries while discarding the horror, inhumanity, violence, and cruelty of slavery? Can growing food be a source of joy? We say yes!
What is pleasure? Why is it often discounted when we speak of Black culinary traditions?
Here’s a peek at this year’s bounty.
Has anyone told you lately that there’s so much good stuff out there? If not, I’m saying it. Summer has its unique way of revealing how much is out there: zucchini for giants, pounds of tomatoes, mint taking over any and every garden if you’re …
“There, all is order and beauty,Luxury, peace, and pleasure.” Baudelaire We entered the weekend leisurely. My parents were visiting to celebrate… major milestones, family, and life. Committed to resting and relaxing for a change, we were resolved to do only what we wanted to do: …
Over the weekend here in Chicago, my dad and I turned our gazes towards my mom as we watched her in action. She was negotiating something in her polite but determined way. With admiration in his voice, my dad said, ”Your mom is fearless.”
“If I had my druthers…” She has her druthers. Druthers… she makes that improbable phrase move from the conditional to the declarative. These last two years have thrown numerous wrenches in her plans (to say the least), but still she rises.
There’s no place that she won’t explore. Drop her in a new city, in the woods, on a mountain or overboard, and she’ll look around and make a plan. We were in Barcelona, both having been there once before independently, and everything was possible. We had heard about a terrific seafood restaurant and we planned our entire day around our feast. She and I adore seafood, especially shellfish. We (and she in particular) are nooks-and-crannies people: the more poking, pulling, extracting, squeezing, and nibbling around a shell or bone, the better!
For Barcelona, Part One, click here.
In addition to assorted delights from the sea, we ordered their specialty, paella. Let me pause to say that paella is high on the list of special dishes that are made quite frequently at my house. It’s under the category of slow, rustic, communal cooking that’s made even better outside like barbecue, crab boils, and fish fries.
Unlike mine that is the color of marigolds, Botafumeiro’s was a brownish concoction reminiscent of roux for gumbo or shrimp and grits. And it was glorious! My mom’s first bite rendered the most dazzling smile that lasted the few hours we were there and our walk back to our hotel.
Every time the fearless one comes to Chicago (including a few days ago), we have some seafood. Here are a few Chicago paellas from the vaults.
