The Black History Commission of Arkansas and the Arkansas
History Commission will be hosting a symposium from 10 a.m. until 3:15 p.m. on
Saturday, June 6, at the Pulaski Technical College Culinary Arts and
Hospitality Management Institute in Little Rock. The symposium’s theme, “The
Roots of African American Foodways,” will feature award-winning food and
nutrition journalist, Toni Tipton-Martin; historian and author, Dr. Cindy
Grisham; Executive Chef Evette Brady and Chef Tim Morton from 1620 Savoy in
Little Rock; and BHCA Commissioner Joyce Gibson.
Topics will include The
Jemima Code: A Modern Look into the Recipe Files of America’s Great Cooks, Organic,
Wild Harvesting, Heirloom Vegetables and Meats: Trends or Tradition?, and To Protect and Serve: an Apron Collection. Chefs
Brady and Morton will use traditional African American foods, incorporating
Caribbean, Cuban, African, and other ethnic influences on modern African American
foodways, into a cooking demonstration that will bring all the research elements
presented during the day to a tasty conclusion.
The event will also feature a scanning booth. Participants are invited to bring in material
pertaining to African American foodways for digitization, including recipes,
menus, photographs, and documents. An
AHC archivist will scan and save to CDs copies of scanned material for the
participants, who will be asked to share the digital copies with the History
Commission for research, exhibits and publication.
The seminar is free but registration is required. Check-in
will begin at 9:00 a.m. Teachers can
earn up to four professional development hours through attendance. Lunch
prepared by the Culinary Institute chefs will be provided for symposium participants
at no charge. Registration is limited
and deadline for registration will be June 1, so be sure to make reservations
soon.
For more information about the symposium or to register,
contact us at history.commission@arkansas.gov
or call us at 501-682-6892.
This project is funded in part by a grant from the Arkansas
Humanities Council, the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National
Endowment for the Humanities.
