Michael Twitty: 2015 Sustainable Agriculture Conference Keynote Speaker

[00:00:00] so I've asked that the images behind you just do their thing and if you need to [00:00:07] know about the images come talk to me later I don't have time to play grandpa [00:00:12] with the slides so we're just gonna work this the way we have to work it so the [00:00:19] first question anybody asks you in the south is who you can to and my people [00:00:25] have been in North Carolina since 1674 my fourth great-grandmother was born in [00:00:33] Northampton County my third great-grandfather her son was born there my [00:00:37] third great-grandfather was from Warren County and my fifth great-grandfather and [00:00:43] his family going back to the 1670s were from Bertie Halifax Nash and Edgecombe [00:00:48] counties so we have been in North Carolina for a long time we've also been in South [00:00:54] Carolina for a long time from Charleston to Edgefield County the Lancaster [00:00:58] Kershaw and Chesterfield counties you only have to present who your people are [00:01:03] first and just really your credentials come from I know how this works so who am [00:01:11] I I was born beneath the Mason-Dixon line I'm the 14th generation of my family to be [00:01:17] born in America I'm the child of migrants who were the children of migrants who were [00:01:22] the children of migrants who were the children of forced migrants my base is DC [00:01:27] and sometimes you can call me a Washingtonian I'm a living history [00:01:31] interpreter I cook food I garden I forage I teach about food spirituality history [00:01:37] meaning and matter I believe that writing is fighting and cooking is revolution so my [00:01:43] piece on Paula Deen you know she bless our heart she danced with the stars you got to [00:01:50] give it up to Paula and articles on Ferguson communicate how I feel food can not only be [00:01:57] transformative but essential to knowledge in denying and destroying the artificial boundaries that separate us and redefine those boundaries [00:02:03] that just are and must be [00:02:08] that just are and must be before I continue I want to thank some people who are [00:02:13] people who are here Ira Wallace from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange [00:02:18] when when no one knew who I was and they had the first Heritage Harvest Festival at Monticello I called her up and said please let me do this [00:02:31] please let me be involved in this and she said I don't know who you are but [00:02:36] sure whatever you want to do and I said I gave those gave her this compliment at Old [00:02:41] Salem about a month ago but I give her to it again it's that act of letting the [00:02:48] youth have a chance that moves things forward so I bless her for that and Debbie [00:02:53] moose I'm winking at you Debbie moose was part of the pie brigade that we had at [00:03:01] staggville plantation not far from here where we did a dinner 450 people in 2013 to [00:03:09] honor the enslaved ancestors who were at staggville plantation if you don't know [00:03:13] about staggville there were over 900 enslaved people there was 10,000 acre [00:03:17] plantation the largest in North Carolina and we prepared an entire meal with [00:03:24] exception of the pies which Debbie and Nancy McDermott other North Carolina [00:03:29] cookbook authors and historians prepared all in the open hearth using food from [00:03:35] firsthand foods firsthand foods we love you thank you very much and other North [00:03:40] Carolina growers and providers that was the majority of the food that we had so I [00:03:44] want to thank everybody who made that dinner possible to honor those ancestors [00:03:49] and to bring a reality a dream to pass that they were not forgotten their [00:03:56] cuisine their traditions were not forgotten and furthermore young people got [00:04:00] to see the entire community come together every background to honor and all their [00:04:04] memory but their legacy their important American southern and North Carolina life [00:04:09] okay so this is where it gets interesting I wrote an article about barbecue in the [00:04:22] Guardian let me y'all know about barbecue down here it was published on July 4th of [00:04:27] course my premise is that barbecue is true freedom food it was conceived in the [00:04:33] collision of native and African culinary genius in the Caribbean the American [00:04:36] Southeast barbecue was the food of pre-industrial people of color seeking [00:04:41] refuges maroons in the spirit of resistance against slavery and [00:04:45] colonization when you are a person of color how you survive your oppression is [00:04:49] your greatest source of cultural capital it trickled down to those societies to [00:04:54] become a hallmark of a uniquely polyglot an American approach to food it brings us [00:04:59] together because it's communal multicultural made and eaten in the [00:05:02] celebration of human liberty and freedom and bounds us and our ancestors together but [00:05:08] that's not what people reading the Guardian got out of it I present to you Michael W. [00:05:15] Twitty the mean messages real people from people real messages from people who [00:05:20] labeled my essay dribbled first one this was an existence exciting of the many [00:05:29] excellent reasons to ignore the moral claims of identity politics perhaps the most compelling is [00:05:35] that the whole memory threatens to turn you into a bore at a barbecue mr. Twitty will be less [00:05:40] welcome than evangelical vegan bless his heart I look forward to the [00:05:50] author's next installment to tell us how Africans and American Indians helped humanity understand the [00:05:55] importance of drinking water give I'll give Roger Hendricks points for that I think mr. Twitty [00:06:03] has been watching too many Tarzan movies whoo this is exciting I have you know I haven't read these [00:06:10] before I had a friend of mine plucked these out I've been to I can't I can't read my comments ever [00:06:15] that's a good it's good advice so this is the first time I'm reading these two truly beyond asinine this [00:06:22] article is a disgrace and demonstrates a new depth of utter stupidity next we'll be told barbecue is [00:06:30] racist if its instructions are not printed in any language other than Ebonics you gotta love your haters [00:06:39] babies are you kidding me someone let this ignorant column get inches in the Guardian barbecue is simply roasting meat [00:06:51] meat over coals written by a true idiot cuz you know better than that it's been done since caveman days unless the first caveman was a North Carolina and that's a complete lie [00:07:03] to act as if it's some sort of cultural appropriation is beyond stupid the most absurd article I've ever read in the Guardian this author has severe mental illness [00:07:16] no amount of barbecue sauce will mask the taste of white guilt [00:07:24] no amount of barbecue sauce will mask the taste of white guilt [00:07:28] oh oh this one's good [00:07:31] Twitty claims to be Irish which I am part Irish you know as most black people in this room are [00:07:36] I mean let's be real as well as black Jewish and gay which I am I hit the I hit the you know I hit the jackpot thank you God [00:07:48] and then they say it's identity politics it's identity politics bingo oh this is good [00:07:58] Twitty's next piece is called enjoy that banana sundae evil whitey people [00:08:04] whoo so wow obviously eaters are you know politicians of the mouth [00:08:16] whoo that was that was that was fun almost the group it's better it's always better with a group whoo all right fan myself all right we are held captive by our angst over the reality of [00:08:31] food and the illusion of race we have made the illusion of race more powerful than the truth of ethnicity of culture and the import of history we have destroyed the conversation by searching for sound bites and 140 characters to make answers to centuries old arguments I believe that a problem can be stated in terms of race class history gender and identity and solved in terms of food cooking [00:08:48] the meeting ground the table and the rituals of a properly enjoyed meal what I want us to do is not have a cliche moment of togetherness kumbaya is not the goal the goal is to revel [00:08:55] to revel to revel in our disagreements to have discussion argument to listen to have conversation understanding resolution reconciliation and healing [00:09:02] acknowledge what I want us to do is to have discussion argument to listen to have conversation understanding resolution reconciliation and healing [00:09:10] acknowledging the power of humanity and coming to the terms with the reality of so many of us were not denied our humanity for so long we wouldn't be arguing in 2015 over what descriptor precedes the phrase lives matter [00:09:17] I conceived the cooking gene several years ago because I wanted to locate my culinary homeland and understand it to have discussion argument to have discussion argument to listen to have conversation understanding resolution resolution reconciliation reconciliation and healing [00:09:24] Acknowledging the power of humanity and coming to the power of humanity and coming to the terms with the reality of so many of us were not denied our humanity for so long we wouldn't be arguing in 2015 over what descriptor precedes the phrase lives matter [00:09:39] I conceived the cooking gene several years ago because I wanted to locate my culinary homeland and understand it I want to I want to stop forgetting people in places and names and really be able to address [00:09:53] address my food the way people on TV did when they wax poetic about their food from a foreign land whereas where as the descendant of so many purposely anonymous enslaved people and not so anonymous enslavers was I to find my cultural identity how could I claim the mantle of an African American culinary expert when I didn't feel competent within my soul to define those terms on my own ground I began my life hating soul food [00:10:22] with its bones in the pot funk and earthiness the supposition that I being born black was supposed to like this stuff or therefore forfeit my blackness I didn't want that to be honest so my grandmother and my parents had around to change that and so I began to love my food and love my blackness and love my history and I found my humanity but there were pieces missing in the mosaic so I got on the road and [00:10:51] and we traveled the entire south Maryland to Texas Missouri to Florida looking for my story our story Africa to America slavery to freedom to uncover what the American table and I shared in our genealogy we were in Natchez Mississippi we were at a gathering at Melrose Estate we can't call it a plantation because the actual plantation was across the river in Louisiana and I was told after meeting a hero of the Civil Rights Movement [00:11:20] Mr. James Meredith was there I was told this was the largest interracial gathering that Nash has had seen in years [00:11:27] I was told this was the largest interracial gathering that Natchez had seen in years [00:11:32] whites and blacks coming together to hear my presentation about gardening and see me cook the historic way as I often do and people had conversations about oh that's your last name that's my last name too well [00:11:47] oh you go to that church that's not far down the road from [00:11:54] and so they started talking for the first time and it was really exciting to see you know these hands together at the table sorting field peas and cutting peaches and having a conversation that they had not had since perhaps before the Civil War [00:12:14] we went to Atlanta and we saw African American communities taking organic farming community farming into their own hands and it was the first time I ever saw a dollar stay in my community [00:12:25] all through food we went to Birmingham we went to the Baptist church that was bombed during the Civil Rights Movement we went to do a presentation on kosher soul food which I hope you'll join me for tomorrow [00:12:41] at a temple in Birmingham that was also threatened with bombing and I met people there who really shook up my whole sense of why I was doing this I met I met two ladies and these two ladies were [00:12:56] from Germany they were both survivors and they were survivors in the sense of they were actually in the Shoah and they were the only two people in their family to survive the Shoah [00:13:11] the Holocaust they had numbers on their arms they were twin sisters and they said to me I prefaced my talk by saying this is the first time I've ever been to my grandmother's hometown of Birmingham Alabama [00:13:15] my grandmother left Birmingham under duress during the Great Migration she vowed never to come back and I said this is my first time here and these two ladies who had a lifetime of incredible memories and experiences and triumphs and tragedies and [00:13:36] looked me dead in the face and said I was just telling my sister I'm glad that when we came to America we came to Birmingham because we saw how awful things were and we had to change it we had to take people to work we had to help people get registered to vote and we're glad we did all that [00:14:05] so that you could come home to Alabama now you think about that they were kicked out of their home Jewish like me persecuted but to them one of their greatest triumphs was not walking out of the Shoah alive was making sure that I could come home to Alabama the heart of Dixie on the eastern shore of Maryland we walked the grounds where Frederick Douglass [00:14:34] Douglass was enslaved in southern Maryland we saw the last remaining slave cabinet solid plantation 300 year old spot and talked to Mr. Briscoe who still had seeds passed down from his grandfather's grandfather who was enslaved at solidly we went to Florida to Kingsley plantation where Zephaniah Kingsley introduced African and West Indian crops because he was a slave trader and also because [00:15:03] his three wives who he had at the same time were all African born you can look that up later I'm sure you'll be interested to know about that in New Orleans we met Jenga window who is a vegan and a raw eater so she's raising her daughter raw and vegan in New Orleans that's a miracle [00:15:25] Wow but more importantly was the fact that she came back from New York after Katrina to help rebuild the lower 9th ward and to increase food justice in New Orleans we went to Donaldsonville Louisiana the river road museum and there we read about saw a document by an organization of black farmers in Donaldsonville 1912 who said we will not allow the [00:15:55] we will not allow our men and our women to suffer debt to eat on these sugar cane plantations we will make a farm where anybody who is hungry can come get food and they can take with dignity so they don't go into further debt the first thing I thought was you mean in 1912 we figured this out without the internet we can't figure this mess out now [00:16:14] and I should honor my grandfather [00:16:21] and I should honor my grandfather Gonsley Twitty who was one of the founders of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives my grandfather is 97 he is not exactly driving anymore but I'm sure my grandfather was here he would be more than proud to know that the work has continued to the next generation generation after that [00:16:21] And I should honor my grandfather, Gonsalee Twitty, who was one of the founders of the [00:16:27] Federation of Southern Cooperatives. [00:16:29] My grandfather is 97. [00:16:31] He is not exactly driving anymore, but I'm sure if my grandfather was here, he would be [00:16:38] more than proud to know that the work has continued to the next generation and generation [00:16:43] after that. [00:16:44] When we went to Kentucky, we saw barns full of burly tobacco. [00:16:51] South Carolina and Charleston, I have walked the grounds where our ancestors were buried [00:16:58] from 300 years ago to the present. [00:17:02] And I had the opportunity to sit at the same table as the representative who was murdered [00:17:07] in Charleston. [00:17:08] We met that night at the Nat Fuller dinner, honoring Nat Fuller, an African-American chef [00:17:13] during Reconstruction, who had the first reconciliation dinner. [00:17:18] How ironic that that event was such an opportunity, and yet several weeks later, that tragedy happened. [00:17:27] In Richmond, I stood on the banks of the James River, where my fifth great-grandfather was [00:17:32] brought from Africa. [00:17:34] And I stood at the spot of Lumpkins Jail, where my third great-grandfather was sold away from [00:17:39] his family and his family. [00:17:41] And my great-great-great-grandmother was sold with her children to Alabama. [00:17:46] We went to Arkansas, and we saw green rice fields in East Texas, where we had Texas barbecue. [00:17:52] And I won't even go there tonight, so don't ask me. [00:17:57] But we also made meals on the same spot as our forefathers and foremothers, barbecuing [00:18:07] over an open pit and a hole in the ground, teaching people about the origins and history of East Texas barbecue. [00:18:13] And here in North Carolina, I was privileged to have cooking space with my friend, Chef Mike Moore, [00:18:20] at Blind Pig in Asheville, where we did a dinner honoring all of our ancestors and talking about the roots of Southern food. [00:18:28] I've been across the South many, many, many times, and I'm fortunate to have seen it in its entire breath. [00:18:35] And I can only say that this is truly my home and my heritage and my culinary homeland. [00:18:41] I made a number of discoveries on this cooking jean tour, the multiple trips over the past few years. [00:18:51] One of my big discoveries was that the Southern white man is not my combatant, but my cousin. [00:18:58] He is not to be blamed for his ancestry, but how he chooses to imagine the future. [00:19:04] Where we most both come to terms with the past in order to move forward. [00:19:10] I discovered other Southerners, Native American, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, [00:19:16] and those from the Indian subcontinent, are not to be ignored. [00:19:20] And they are building a new understanding of what it means to be Southern, [00:19:24] eat Southern, and identify with our historical legacy. [00:19:28] I discovered other black people in their journeys on the continent of Africa, [00:19:34] in the African diaspora, that are indeed my blood and genetic cousins, my family, [00:19:38] my kith and kin. [00:19:40] While some were distant kin lost in time in Africa, [00:19:45] others were hints that one sibling was put on the slave ship bound to Haiti, [00:19:50] and the other one to South Carolina from the port of Ouida and Benin, [00:19:55] and were never to see each other again. [00:19:57] I tell you something, it's something to actually look at your genetic profile and see cousins born in other countries, [00:20:03] and know that part of you is in Barbados, in Brazil, in Cuba, in Jamaica, all these places, in Haiti. [00:20:10] And know that one of you got on the boat and went here, one of you got on the boat and went there, [00:20:17] and nobody ever imagined that you'd find out. [00:20:21] That sense of family, of belonging to people was the greatest thing I discovered. [00:20:27] That family is the most important thing. [00:20:30] Family is not just blood. Family is not just genes. [00:20:33] Family is what you talked about earlier. It's connection and truth. [00:20:37] It's a kinship and a twinning that goes beyond any boundary that we've artificially and arbitrarily placed upon ourselves. [00:20:48] I decided to enhance and empower this journey with genetic data so I could claim this legacy. [00:20:56] I wanted people to know and understand this is my bone, this is my blood. [00:21:00] The colors bloomed on the maps, and more relatives came, and more tests were taken, [00:21:06] and more circles began to increase until there was African, European, Native American, Southeast Asian, [00:21:12] Central Asian, Middle Eastern, East Asian, Polynesian, Spanish, and Portuguese blood in my DNA. [00:21:19] My DNA was not black. It was the rainbow at the crossroads of humanity. [00:21:25] Yes, I am Irish, black, gay, and Jewish. Thank you, Lord. [00:21:32] But I'm also Viking and British and French and Asian and Native American and everything else in between, [00:21:39] but mostly I'm proud to say that I'm human and Southern by the grace of God. [00:21:45] I could finally see myself in the caves of Western Europe, the rise of the Neolithic [00:21:50] agriculture in Northeast Africa and the Middle East, and the first apples raised in the Asian steppe, [00:21:55] the three sisters from Mesoamerica to the American Southeast, the jungles of Southeast Asia's archipelago, [00:22:01] where the edible catalyst for slavery, sugarcane, was born, and where my Indonesian ancestors set sail [00:22:08] from Madagascar, bringing plantains, bananas, and taro. [00:22:12] I have the blood of Africa's earliest hunter-gatherers and the humanity's first fire makers in my genes. [00:22:20] The Mende and Timne of Sierra Leone, who brought rice agriculture to the low country, [00:22:24] and a love of leafy greens. [00:22:27] The Akan of Ghana, who taught the English how to make corn and sweet potatoes sing on Virginia plantations. [00:22:33] The Falani, who reinforced the South's love of buttermilk. [00:22:37] The Wolof, who made red rice and jambalaya and Hop and John realities. [00:22:41] And the Igbo of Nigeria and the Mbundu of Congo and Angola, who brought forth okra soup, [00:22:48] black-eyed pea cakes, gumbo, and the Hossa, who brought you barbecue, and their language babaki. [00:22:55] I also want to tell about those victories, and I want to talk about the work to be done. [00:23:01] Our people, the African-American people, our nation, went from 90% agrarian to 90% urban in less than two-thirds of a century. [00:23:10] It is not just a connection to land through farming, but a sustainable use of nature that requires reconnection. [00:23:17] But yet our children say, "I ain't no damn slave." [00:23:20] And some of our elders say, "I don't want to go to no plantation." [00:23:24] And some folks say, "I don't want to go back." [00:23:27] Symbols, vagueness, obfuscation. [00:23:30] But I have a mandate, a mandate to return. [00:23:33] I have nowhere to go but back to where we started, because I want to reclaim the wisdom that will save us in the now. [00:23:41] Between the salt retaining survivor genes passed down to us in the transatlantic journey, [00:23:47] that Texas school books are hell bent on redefining as just the triangular trade. [00:23:53] And the constant stressors of economic instability and systemic racism. [00:23:58] Cycles of violence built on lack of self-awareness and lack of self-knowledge. [00:24:02] And the perpetuation of abuse learned in bondage. [00:24:05] And the disaster of food deserts. [00:24:07] The long Middle Passage is still claiming victims. [00:24:12] Its horrific legacy is still dragging my people kicking and screaming to the grave. [00:24:17] When I put on the clothes that transform me into a representative of my ancestors. [00:24:23] When I pick up the cooking pot and change heirlooms and heritage breeds and wild foods into delicacies. [00:24:30] I am doing it as an act of war. [00:24:35] What if I told you about a group of people who were passionate composters. [00:24:40] Masters of horticulture. [00:24:42] Organic agriculture. [00:24:44] A people who wasted nothing. [00:24:46] Repurposed every human made thing that was wood or metal or bone. [00:24:50] What if I told you about their permaculture. [00:24:54] How ingenious it was. [00:24:56] How adaptive they were. [00:24:57] How their cuisine was fusion cuisine. [00:24:59] Whole animal cooking. [00:25:00] Full of vegetables. [00:25:01] Fruits. [00:25:02] Foraged food. [00:25:03] And sustainable fish and game. [00:25:06] Well you know those people already. [00:25:08] They're called the enslaved people of African America. [00:25:10] We hear from 1619 to 1865. [00:25:20] But they don't get the credit. [00:25:22] And their descendants. [00:25:23] The freedmen. [00:25:24] Who built strong communities. [00:25:26] Strong churches. [00:25:27] Who put their faith in God. [00:25:29] Who put their faith in their ancestors. [00:25:30] Who put their faith in the land. [00:25:32] Do not get the credit either. [00:25:34] Their descendants. [00:25:36] Free landowners and sharecroppers. [00:25:38] Don't get the credit. [00:25:39] And today. [00:25:40] Our young people. [00:25:41] Who are trying to change things. [00:25:43] All across the country. [00:25:44] But especially in the South. [00:25:45] And African American communities. [00:25:46] Do not get the credit either. [00:25:48] We have to understand something. [00:25:49] Culinary justice. [00:25:50] is not only about making sure we attribute our recipes and attribute the [00:25:56] process by which those recipes and ingredients happen but is about giving [00:26:01] due credit to a long line of people whose knowledge and know-how was brought [00:26:07] here by force who were stolen but determined to earn their respect from [00:26:15] the moment they got here until now and there are more of us for the good than [00:26:19] there are for the bad and this is the ultimate truth you have to be careful [00:26:25] about where the land goes we in our discussion this morning one of my new [00:26:31] friends asked me what should I do with my family's land the answer is obvious keep [00:26:38] it the land is our health and the land is our wealth my grandfather's legacy was so [00:26:47] that black farmers could retain the soil the soil that they did not receive under [00:26:52] the promise the justly held promise of 40 acres and a mule with the land that they [00:26:57] bought that they worked for and I'm a legacy of that I'll tell you something it is [00:27:03] something to see your great great grandfather his ex mark because he couldn't read or write on a deed [00:27:13] saying he's a landowner he went from being a sharecropper to a landowner in 24 hours after months years of saving money not being able to read and write and by that point he was almost incapacitated and traveled around by a wheelbarrow [00:27:21] but yet he owned land he passed that land down to my grandfather and his brothers and sisters and to this day there will always be a road in South Carolina called the Horn [00:27:26] Twitty Road because I will make sure that those who come after me will retain it and preserve it and remember what their great great great granddaddy did for them it is must it is a must it is an important thing for everyone in the world and in the world [00:27:33] own land, he passed that land down to my grandfather and his brothers and sisters. And to this day, there will always be a road in South Carolina called the Horn-Twitty Road because I will make sure that those who come after me will retain it and preserve it and remember what their great-great-granddaddy did for them. It is a must. It is an important thing for everyone here to understand that what we're talking about are the preservation of spiritual and mystical principles. [00:28:03] of truths that our answers just pass down to us. When you talk to my friend Matthew Rayford, who has Gilead Farms in Brunswick, Georgia, he talks about this. He talks about when he wants to know about how to garden something, he doesn't open up a gardening book. He talks to his grandmother. That's the way it should be done. He calls his elders up and says, how do we do this? How should this be done? And then he tells the young people to come and volunteer, intern and work for him, how things to be done. [00:28:33] When you know who you are, you don't put a bullet in your brother's back. That's a fact. When you have your hands in the soil, you don't have time to put your hands on a gun. When you eat good food, your brain has the capacity to learn. So all of our problems, all of our challenges as a people, all go back to changing the composition of our brains by changing the composition of our soil. [00:29:01] So I exhort you to preserve the land. Our ancestors are suffering from collective amnesia. Their graves are now resorts and hunt clubs, golf courses and gas stations. They have been nearly all annihilated. My ancestors, our ancestors, the mothers and fathers of Southern cuisine, [00:29:29] who cooked and created this genius pastime of delicacy and make do, all in the crucible of slavery deserve our eternal respect and eternal memory as much as any statue or any flag. [00:29:46] I have been waved away from them a million times, but I won't let them go. They have something to teach us, a knowledge system that is in danger of going extinct. [00:29:54] What kind of wood do you use to cook? When is the persimmon ripe to pick? When is the time to harvest poke? What is the proverbial meaning of okra or sesame? [00:30:05] What is the bio energy of a hot red pepper? And the wisdom of sorghum? These are the volumes I read in the Library of Early African American Culinary Knowledge. [00:30:15] To quote the beloved playwright August Wilson, author of The Piano Lesson, "I place myself on the self-defining ground of the slave quarter, to reclaim the ingredients, the utensils, the methods, and the formulas of this heritage becomes the ground on which I cook and will never die." [00:30:32] So farmers, cooks, eaters, growers, producers, with your seeds tell stories, with your meals communicate your message, with your tables tell the truth, but most of all remember where you came from and who the future holds you responsible to. Thank you. [00:31:02] Thank you.