I’m eight years old again. My mother has planned a huge birthday party for me, with cake and balloons and all my friends from school. (No, no clowns, or jugglers or face painters, but it didn’t take much to please us in those days.) I have a new dress to wear in my favorite blue–royal. And …
Author Archives: The Goddess of Gumbo
The Thing Called Hope
Far too regularly, I seem to succumb to despair. The things I care about seem so obvious to me–and yet so unimportant to my own family members and most of the people I know. My struggle with industrial food, for example … Sometimes I can’t help but wonder what I’m doing, why it matters to …
Serious Eatin’: Crawfish Etouffee
My girlfriend Betty Jo and her honey, Steve, just got back from New Orleans, and all I can get out of her are stories about the great bands they saw and the food they ate. My bosom buddies in the community garden, Charles and Kay, are going next week. Charles swears it’s business, but odds …
Cooking Tips from Burma
So I’ve been having trouble explaining to my parents why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m not a complete idiot. I do understand that, from their point of view, the point of view of African Americans who were the first in their respective families to achieve a higher education, my obsession with grubbing in the dirt …
