JAZZ KITCHEN: A CONVERSATION SERIES CELEBRATING FOOD AND JAZZ

Our most cherished institutions, celebrations, and rituals are marked by the presence of music and food. From the rent party to the chitlin circuit, from Mardi Gras to the neighborhood wake, good food and jazz work in concert. Theirs is a rich conversation. They share a long history of co-development, interaction, and mutual influence, and continue to generate layers of meaning in different political, cultural, and social contexts.

In Jazz Kitchen, we ask: How do food and music inform one another? What can the relational practices of food-making and music-making, consuming and listening teach us about values we hold dear: experimentation, improvisation, self- and communal expression, resilience, resistance, joy, or care? What can we learn by listening in on the conversation between the two? What can thinking about food and music together contribute to our ability to “imagine otherwise?” Jazz Kitchen brings together creatives and thinkers working in and among these cultural spaces to share stories, generate insights, and, as in all jazz kitchens, to enjoy a good hang with friends and family.

WATCH PAST SHOWS

Jazz Kitchen: When Justice is the Message
November 18, 2020

It hardly seems possible to imagine social justice advocacy without music and art. Creating at the intersection of artistic practice and social justice is an essential impulse for many artists. Whether overt or embedded in the impulse to create (or both), the role of artists/creatives in advancing justice is fundamental to the history of social movements.

In this episode of Jazz Kitchen, we host musician DANA HALL (drummer, educator, composer, ethnomusicologist, and serious foodie) and chef OMAR TATE (chef, artist, poet, community builder, and entrepreneur) in conversation. While grounded in their respective fields, both artists' practices span both genre and media to center social justice. Among other topics, we discuss Hall’s ongoing Hypocrisy of Justice project and Tate’s vision for Honeysuckle-related projects—from restaurant pop-ups to a new Philly-based community center. At the heart of the conversation is an exploration of how Black sonic and written traditions shape their activism and art.

Jazz Kitchen: A Woman’s Place
October 8, 2020

This Jazz Kitchen conversation centers Black women's practices of care and hospitality. We talk about how we understand and put these concepts into action in our domestic spaces and in the world. Dr. Tammy Kernodle shares insights from her research on pianist Mary Lou Williams' and harpist/pianist Alice Coltrane's apartments/homes, including their labor of care, connection, and creativity, and what those spaces engender artistically. Maya-Camille Broussard, founder of Justice of the Pies in Chicago, shares her insight as a baker whose work sustains a strong justice-focused model. We discuss how this work, and that of women in our own families, reflects and shapes an ongoing tradition of Black women's hospitality and care—a tradition that at different times extends, transcends, or works in direct opposition to mainstream, state- and industry-led notions.