L2S1 - Soul Food Presentation

Inès, Fatou, Oriane, Clara, Ga-hee

Soul Food and Identities

Introduction

"Should we just settle with the idea that soul food is undesirable? Or is soul food unsung, and thus unfamiliar?"

Introduction

• Historical and political context
• Social Class

• Poor image of soul food and its reappropriation
• Community and religion
• Identity and queerness

Cooking techniques in West Africa continued in North America with enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Enslaved women cooking in a farm kitchen during the civil war era.

Cooking at stove in old Trepagnier Plantation House, Norco, Louisiana, October 1938

Historic-Political

Plantation kitchen where slaves used to cook.

Cooking techniques in West Africa continued in North America with enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Historic-Political

Black restaurants that fed Civil Rights Movement

Dooky Chases Restaurant - New Orleans

Brenda's Bar-B-Que Pit - Montgomery, Alabama

Historic-Political

The front line of demonstrators during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington D.C., August 28, 1963.

Social class

During slavery times, white plantation owners left the labor-intensive work of preparing and barbecuing food to their slaves. The barbecue tradition stayed in the American culture. Barbecue Picnic, 1886

Social class

Bad image-Reappropriation

The Black Church : African American churches

Community-Religion

Written by the Mattachine Society–an early organization dedicated to fighting for gay rights, after the Stonewall Riots, NYC, 1969

Erasing an undesirable group - homosexual prisoners at the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, wearing pink triangles on their uniforms. 1938

Identity-Queerness-Community

• Is Soul food only an "internal toxic cultural asset"?
• How does J. Baldwin's novel redefines it?
• How does soul food role change in Arthur's life?

Identity-Queerness-Community

Written by the Mattachine Society–an early organization dedicated to fighting for gay rights, after the Stonewall Riots, NYC, 1969

Erasing an undesirable group - homosexual prisoners at the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, Germany, wearing pink triangles on their uniforms. 1938

Identity-Queerness-Community

• Arthur's religious faith
• Soul food creates a moment of tension for him.
• It embodies his parents' religious beliefs

Identity-Queerness-Community

• Arthur's sexual identity
• Soul food is desirable, nurishing and creative.
• It is a symbol of affection and emancipation.

Extract 2

Extract 1

Conclusion

• Does the gentrification of marginalized food denatures its essence or could it, on a broader scale, contribute to its global diffusion and acceptation?

• In the current context of global warming and food crisis, could soul food, born out of struggle and survival have any lesson to teach our world?

• How could current ethical and nutritional shifts such as veganism or meat and dairy reduction influence the evolution of soul food?

Thank you!

https://www.drchristophercarter.com/spirit-soul-food https://asuhornettribune.com/7961/hornet-living/from-struggle-to-comfort-the-origin-of-soul-food/https://www.mashed.com/760787/the-untold-truth-of-soul-food/https://www.southernliving.com/culture/black-restaurants-civil-rights-movementhttps://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2018/civil-rights-events-fd.html