Food, Memories, and Writing: Connecting Food & People

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I'm participating in Charlotte's Community Read for 2024. The "Food, Memories, and Writing" workshops are going well and I'm having a blast. The first event was held at Visart Video and the participants ate it up--excuse the pun. 

We talked about Buttermilk Graffiti, the showcase book for the event, and how chef Edward Lee appreciated the layers of food history with each dish he tasted. He made me appreciate how different cuisines-like  Peruvian food in Patterson, NJ, or Nigerian food in Houston, TX, has become a part of the American landscape. 

We quickly settled into tasting, smelling, and savoring food prepared by Visart Cafe.

As attendees recorded their associations with the food and drink, I challenged them to write like Lee and capture specific details. Then improvising on George Ella Lyon's "I am From Poem,'' everyone remembered, freely associated, and wrote. There were no right answers--each person's creation was their own.

The results were delicious. One participant remembered the spiky okra plants in her grandmother's garden; another wrote about Bourbon in his home state of Kentucky. Watermelon chunks, olives, and triangles of toasted cheese sandwiches (along with small cups of tomato soup--of course) generated a bowlful of memories. 

A woman of Mexican heritage remembered how grilled cheese sandwiches and apple pie and ice cream seemed exotic to her as a child. Growing up, she envied this all-American food instead of the tortillas that her mother made from scratch every day. One woman brought little containers of tapioca pudding because it had been a Pennsylvania childhood favorite. Prompted by the way Lee found the history of different dishes, she was surprised to discover that tapioca had South American heritage.

One of my hosts, Mason Bissett, the adult services librarian at the Independence Branch, enjoyed watching strangers come together and--over the camaraderie of shared food--felt safe enough to share personal stories. I was impressed with the result: haikus, rhyming, and free verse poetry complete with personification, interesting points of view, and mood-inspiring words. 

Mason was glad that each person left with the realization that they could express their voice through writing. And even though they might not have thought of themselves as writers, for ninety minutes on a Saturday morning, this diverse group dug into a soup pot of memories and found delectable morsels that they served to the rest of us.

Edward Lee would have been proud. 

I didn't collect their papers so I can't share their work here. But Elliott Kurta, one of my talented teen book reviewers, agreed to share two of his poems with you. 

FOOD INSPIRED POETRY

Watermelon Children

by Elliott Kurta

 

I am from heat

My tendrils spiral into the soil, sipping its moisture

Fat on dew, I am swollen with the spirit of summer.

 

You slaughtered me in the kitchen

Cracked my green skull into pieces.

You sucked pulp and marrow from the rinds,

Spilled my seeds across the marble countertop.

Hands sticky with sin

You cleansed yourself with chlorine and sunblock

Took fireflies hostage so they couldn’t share what they’d seen.

Greedy children.

 

But I shall have my revenge

For I have lodged a dark afterthought inside your body

Planted a seed in the folds of your stomach.

Green with youth and chlorophyll

You shall know what it is like to be full with the spirit of summer.

                                                🍉🍉🍉

 

Ode to Olives

by Elliott Kurta

Athena’s promise

Briny as the Aegean Sea

Swollen crabapples.

 

A Note on this Haiku

            According to an ancient Greek legend, the citizens of Greece were once in conflict over what to name their newest city. Athena, goddess of wisdom and combat, and Poseidon, god of the seas, both wanted to be the city’s namesake. Poseidon offered the people a well of salt water as a gift, but as it was so salty, they were unable to drink from the well or water their crops with it. Athena gifted the city an olive tree, explaining that the wood could be used to build ships, the oil could be used in lamps and to heal wounds, and the olives could be eaten. Athena won the competition, and the people named their city “Athens” in her honor.

                                                                                🫒🫒🫒

Elliott at work.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Do you wish you could have been there for all the fun? It's not too late to sign up in these Charlotte branches. Here is the schedule:

North County. March 18, 12:30-2. Register here.

Matthews. March 26, 6:30-7:45. Register here.

Main at The Market @7th Street. March 27, 10:30-12. Register here.

FOR EDUCATORS & LIBRARIANS

You can adopt this activity for use in your home, classroom, or library. Keep it simple. Pick non-messy foods that kids can pop into their mouths. If you want a copy of the "I Am From" poem which I adapted, please email me. 

Congratulations to Heather Skinner who won Underwater World from last week's blog.