Feeding Memories: An Interview with Tara Christina and Dera R. Williams, with a recipe from Shannon Holbrook
My fellow Afrofuturists Tara Christina, Dera R. Williams, and Shannon Holbrook are not sure what an Afrofuturist cookbook looks like; however, they are sure of the intersection of food, memory, ancestry, and story. Still, knowing these talented women, their gifts for storytelling and their knowledge of food and their ability to create community wherever they go, I tried (the Italian Futurists created a cookbook–we Afrofuturists can cook too). But Tara Christina, Dera, and Shannon show us how African
Diaspora-inspired cooking preserves memory and vital connection. We see food representing the delicious complexities of culture: Toni Morrison’s mysteriously burned biscuits, Octavia Butler’s vegetable gardens. (Wouldn’t an Afrofuturist cookbook allow us to live the dream? No one’s feeling it
but it could work.)
Tara Christina is a writer and educator with degrees in social work and holistic nutrition. She is the founder and CEO of Tara’s Teas, an artisanal line of organic, loose leaf tea blends; Dera R. Williams’ work appears in several anthologies and you can find her food-related writing on her blog; Shannon Holbrook is a writer and wine and food consultant who has organized prominent food-writing events throughout the Bay Area. We interviewed Tara Christina by phone and Williams by email; Holbrook has
contributed a recipe that we’ve paired with information about one of the Diaspora’s most medicinal spices and an AfroSurreal story (still trying–that Afrofuturist cookbook is needed!).
Rochelle: Could you tell us a little about how you got into cooking and food culture?
Dera: I am the daughter of a southern-bred woman with southern traditions in cooking. My mother cooked a lot of the same dishes she was raised on. Some of the dishes Mom made when I was younger
included smothered pork chops and fried potatoes for Saturday breakfast. We had collard greens, creamed corn with fried chicken. We lived in an area that was rife with blackberries, They grew wild among the
neighborhood on 24th Avenue in Oakland. The blackberry cobblers were the best. One of my favorites were the fried pies. They were small oval hand-sized fried fruit pies, usually apple, peaches, and apricot.
They were served with dinner. I just learned two years ago, the official name for them was hand pies as evidenced on the PBS cooking show, Somewhere Southern. One of the Black chefs here in Oakland is
now selling hand pies in one of her spaces. And then there are the tea cakes. I wrote about tea cakes in my blog: https://derarwilliams.com/2020/04/29/vanilla-memories/./
Tara: I’ve always been into food. I have the African American side of my family and the White side of my family and I grew up eating a wide variety of foods from both. My upbringing was primarily with my
Black family and we ate traditional southern foods. I was blessed to have amazing women in my family and I spent a great deal of time learning to cook by watching them. As a teenager, I had to cook for myself because my mother worked a lot. Growing up in San Francisco, I was also exposed to many different cultural foods, something I feel very grateful for. Now, I primarily cook for myself and my son, though I make him cook too.
Rochelle: So that’s probably made you more focused on nutrition?
Tara: When my son was about 18 months old, I began to study nutrition due to some health challenges. I had a gluten allergy and when I cut gluten out, my entire life changed. I had to incorporate a few tricks to get my son to eat more healthy. I would make him these mini pancakes and put molasses so he could get iron… I entered into formal holistic nutrition studies and after graduating in 2010, I launched a nutrition practice. Because I had also studied herbalism off and on, in 2013 I launched my tea line as
a compliment to my practice. I love food, but am not as restrictive as I was. I appreciate food, especially Southern food from African-American traditions. I also enjoyed what my White grandmother cooked. I learned to adapt different recipes by making them gluten free and using coconut sugar. I love to cook, it’s a huge part of my very being. When I’m in the kitchen, I feel like I’m cooking with my Ancestors, many of the
women who raised me. Everything I know, I know because I was in the kitchen with them.
Rochelle: What food-related project(s) are you working on now?
Dera: I’m incorporating food into my two major projects. In my childhood story collection, I speak of the foods mentioned above, as well as the foods of my best friend’s family whose parents are from New Orleans. I learned about Creole and Louisiana foods such as Gumbo and rice dishes. I’m finding that rice was universal throughout the south.
Rochelle: Food seems tied to location?
Dera: In my Great Migration novel, I have four women from four different states and their regional food traditions are incorporated. Smithfield ham from Virginia, Texas Barbeque, Louisiana Creole cuisine, my Arkansas grandmother’s chocolate pie and chess pies… I am also researching my sister writer Tara Christina’s project on Food memories. I am helping with research and gathering of stories of our ancestors.
Rochelle: That’s a lot of writing and research…Does living in Oakland affect your cooking practices?
Tara: I wouldn’t say living in Oakland affects my cooking practices. It’s opened me up to more diverse African foods, which I didn’t have a lot of growing up in San Francisco, or the time I spent in Richmond,
and Vallejo either. In the last 20 years living in Oakland I’ve seen a growth in African restaurants, which has been beautiful. It’s allowed me to see many of the similarities between the food traditions of Africans
across the diaspora.
Dera: Because Oakland is a mecca of migration, my cooking influences are varied. I love the flavors of Mexico, India, Asia, and Africa among many. Oakland is also the home to those who made the Great Migration trek from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Those southern influences
have been most prominent in my cooking traditions growing up in Oakland with other descendants of the southern part of the country.
Rochelle: So you see food as important to conversations about the Diaspora?
Dera: Food is definitely an important component of the African Diaspora. How we obtained our food, how we found a way out of no way to feed our families and improvised ingredients. Our food is the basis of many dishes. Rice, okra, yams, those are foods that Black people either cultivated or brought with them from the Motherland. Soul Food is an integral part of the American cuisine. In restaurants all over, our people are in the kitchen preparing the foods the public eats. Food is a part of Diasporic Africa.
Tara: We want people to talk about food and traditions. I have an Instagram page based on food and memories, and a blog called Nourishing Memories. I love food and celebrating different traditions and want to share that with the world. There are so many similarities throughout the Diaspora, like how many dishes are based on Jollof rice…
Rochelle: You’re dedicated to preserving tradition…What foods from the African Diaspora do you return to?
Tara: I’m now learning more about my Cape Verde heritage, the foods are just incredible, very rich in flavor. From Cachupa, an amazing one pot meal, to pastels, which are similar to patties, and Gufong, a fried pastry that both my son and I would probably eat all day if we could. I also discovered many similarities between Cape Verdean food traditions and those of my Texas ancestors, who I spent most of my time growing up. Traditions around gathering with food, family, fun, music, and plenty of laughter. Some drama too, but the food seemed to overshadow all of that.
It’s beautiful for us to get together and have these conversations. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love food.
Ginger Sparkler by Shannon Holbrook
(Ginger may be good for stomach troubles and can be found in recipes throughout the Diaspora)
Image of margarita drink, with lime via Creative Commons and Akke Monasso; Created: 30
September 2009
Ingredients
2 tablespoons sugar
1 lemon, sliced into wedges
3 tablespoons candied ginger, cubed for garnish
1 bottle chilled sparkling wine
Ginger-Infused Simple Syrup:
Simmer water, 1/2 cup sugar and sliced ginger in a small saucepan for 10 minutes. Remove the saucepan
from heat and stir in vodka. Chill for 2 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, strain to remove the
ginger pieces. The Cocktail and Garnish: Spread the sugar into a thin layer on a plate. Coat the rim of
the glass with the juice from the lemon wedge and immediately dredge in the plate of sugar.
Add a few pieces of candied ginger to each glass. Pour 1 tablespoon of the ginger-infused simple
syrup over the ginger pieces and top with the sparkling wine until the glass is 2/3 full.
From “Fiction with Flava,” a presentation hosted by Litquake and Press Works on Paper
