Black History Month 2021 Week 1: History through Food and Entertainment

As I mentioned last week, our family will be celebrating #BlackHistoryMonth through various experiences. This week’s theme was experiencing the history of food and entertainment.

Entertainment and History combined: 

Cicely Tyson, an incredibly talented and versatile actress, died on Jan 28. She was 96.  We decided this would be a good time to watch her film that earned her an Oscar nomination, “Sounder.”  I won’t tell you everything about the movie but set in 1933 Louisiana; it does highlight the injustice of the prison system, inequality in education, and the labor-intensive life of sharecroppers.

The movie is also filled with history and literature. Women read from W.E.B. Du Bois, and talked about Harriet Tubman and Crispus Attucks. And I loved the depiction of a strong Black marriage and family that loved each other deeply and longed to see everyone thrive. To see that was on the big screen in 1972, when the film was made, encourages me.

Food: 

We ate at a Nashville favorite: Prince’s Hot Chicken. While there, I got to chat with the owner, Ms. Andre Prince Jeffries, the original owner Thorton Prince’s great-niece. It is a Black-owned business founded in 1945. The story goes that Thorton Prince believed her husband was cheating, so instead of confronting him, she wanted to feed him extra-spicy chicken. Thinking she was about to stick it to him, she fed it to him and surprise, he loved it! I don’t know what happened to the marriage, but I do know that she went on to make that chicken for the general public.

At home, we ate recipes out of Bibi’s Kitchen featuring recipes from African grandmothers. This week’s meals were by Ma Gehennet from Eritrea. One was a delicious beef stew called, Firfir. Delicious! And a stewed spinach dish called Zebhi Hamili. Thern and the kids loved these dishes!

Next week’s theme is music!

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