Section 5 · Library
Read The Canon
An annotated bibliography, the books, films, podcasts, and essays that built the record, and the ones still building it.
Foundational books· book
The Jemima Code — Toni Tipton-Martin
The definitive recovery of Black American cookbook authorship, proof, in 150+ volumes, that we wrote this history ourselves.
Foundational books· book
Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking — Toni Tipton-Martin
The companion to The Jemima Code, a working cookbook that restores recipes from Black authors across two centuries.
Foundational books· book
High on the Hog — Jessica B. Harris
The single most important narrative tracing Black American food from Africa through the Atlantic to the present table.
Foundational books· book
The Cooking Gene — Michael W. Twitty
A genealogical, archival, and culinary investigation of what Black Southern food actually is and who made it.
Foundational books· book
Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time — Adrian Miller
The rigorous history of soul food as an invented, contested, and deeply American category.
Foundational books· book
Black Smoke — Adrian Miller
The definitive account of Black barbecue from the pits of the rice coast to the present.
Foundational books· book
Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs — Psyche A. Williams-Forson
An essential corrective to stereotype. Black women's food work as power, culture, and economy.
Foundational books· book
The Taste of Country Cooking — Edna Lewis
The book that taught America that Black Southern cooking was refined, seasonal, and worthy of its own canon.
Regional deep dives· book
Vibration Cooking — Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
The Gullah Geechee cook-poet's diary-cookbook, one of the most original culinary voices of the 20th century.
Regional deep dives· book
Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way — Sallie Ann Robinson
A direct line to the Sea Islands kitchen from someone who grew up in it.
Regional deep dives· book
The Dooky Chase Cookbook — Leah Chase
New Orleans Creole cooking taught by the woman who fed the Civil Rights Movement.
Regional deep dives· book
A Real Southern Cook — Dora Charles
Savannah cooking, unvarnished, from a cook who shaped a famous restaurant she was rarely credited for.
Regional deep dives· book
Vegetable Kingdom — Bryant Terry
West Coast, plant-forward, and politically grounded reinterpretation of the diaspora.
Regional deep dives· book
Watermelon & Red Birds — Nicole A. Taylor
A modern Juneteenth cookbook organized around the holiday as a Black American culinary occasion.
Regional deep dives· book
Bress 'n' Nyam — Matthew Raiford
Sixth-generation Gullah Geechee farmer-chef's record of the Georgia coast kitchen.
Food & agriculture history· book
Black Rice — Judith Carney
The case that rice culture in the Americas was an African technology, not a European one.
Food & agriculture history· book
The Potlikker Papers — John T. Edge
A readable, imperfect, but important social history of Southern food and civil rights.
Food & agriculture history· book
Freedom Farmers — Monica M. White
The history of Black agricultural resistance and cooperative farming, from Fannie Lou Hamer onward.
Food & agriculture history· book
Eating While Black — Psyche Williams-Forson
Black food under surveillance, and how it resists it. The essential follow-up to Building Houses.
Documentaries & films· film
High on the Hog (Netflix)
Stephen Satterfield's screen adaptation of Jessica B. Harris's work, a foundational visual primer.
Documentaries & films· film
Soul Food Junkies
Byron Hurt's documentary interrogating soul food, health, and tradition with love and honesty.
Documentaries & films· film
Step Up to the Plate (BBC / Mashama Bailey episode of Chef's Table)
Mashama Bailey's season of Chef's Table: BBQ-adjacent, Savannah, Lowcountry.
Podcasts & audio· podcast
Point of Origin (Whetstone Magazine)
Stephen Satterfield's long-running interview show on diasporic food systems and people.
Podcasts & audio· podcast
The Racist Sandwich
Early, essential show unpacking race, class, and gender in food media.
Podcasts & audio· podcast
Black Food Folks
Clay Williams and Stephani Robinson's network and podcast for Black people in the food industry.
Academic papers & essays· paper
'Turkey and Dressing': Reading Black Female Culinary Authority — Psyche Williams-Forson
A short essay that reframes the home cook as cultural theorist.
Academic papers & essays· paper
Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade to Colonial South Carolina — Daniel Littlefield
Foundational historical argument for the African origin of Carolina rice cultivation.