If I Can Cook/You Know God Can African American Food Memories, Meditations, and Recipes

by SHANGE, NTOZAKE

• ISBN13: 9780807021446
• ISBN10: 080702144X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2019-01-29
• Publisher: Beacon Press

Summary

An expanded edition of a celebrated book that travels throughout the African diaspora to savor the timeless joy of black cuisine and culture.

A hidden gem by the author of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Some Sing, Some Cry, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, and Betsey Brown, a delightfully eclectic tribute to black cuisine as a food of life that reflects the spirit and history of a people. This edition, with delectable illustrations, features additional recipes—including two vegan dishes—that connect the culinary past to the present and welcomes a new generation of readers. With recipes such as “Cousin Eddie’s Shark with Breadfruit” and “Collard Greens to Bring You Money,” Shange instructs us in the nuances of a cuisine born on the slave ships of the Middle Passage, spiced by the jazz of Duke Ellington, and shared by generations across the African diaspora. Rich with personal memories and historical insight, If I Can Cook/You Know God Can is a timeless story of the migration of a people and the cuisine that marks their living legacy and celebration of taste.

Author Biography

Ntozake Shange (1948–2018), poet, novelist, playwright, and performer, wrote the Broadway–produced and Obie Award–winning For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. She also wrote numerous works of fiction, including Sassafras, Cypress & Indigo, Betsey Brown, and Liliane.

Table of Contents

RECIPES

FOREWORD
by Vertamae Grosvenor

AUTHOR’S NOTE

INTRODUCTION
Learning to Be Hungry / Holdin’ On Together

CHAPTER 1
What’d You People Call That?

CHAPTER 2
What We Don’t Say in Public

CHAPTER 3
All It Took Was a Road / Surprises of Urban Renewal

CHAPTER 4
Birthday in Brixton

CHAPTER 5
Too Many Fish in the Sea

CHAPTER 6
Brazil: More African Than Africans

CHAPTER 7
What Is It We Really Harvestin’ Here?

CHAPTER 8
Westward Ho! Anywhere Must Be Better’n Here!

CHAPTER 9
Better Late Than Never

CHAPTER 10
Is That Why the Duke Had a Train of His Own?

CHAPTER 11
And What Did You Serve? Oh, No, You Did Not!

CHAPTER 12
Virtual Realities, Real People, Real Foods

Epilogue
Epilogue 2018: Savannah and Friends’ Prize-Winning Recipes
Notes
Credits
Acknowledgments