Soul Food Love
Reading, Signing, and Tasting
February 24, 2015
5:00 pm
Off Square Books
The Southern Foodways Alliance and the University of Mississippi Department of English, in partnership with Square Books, invite members of the LOU community to a reading, signing, and tasting of Soul Food Love on February 24, 2015 at 5:00 pm at Off Square Books.
Caroline Randall Williams and her mother, Alice Randall, will be on hand to read from and sign copies of their recently released book. Expect a bite (or two) from the book’s eighty-some recipes courtesy of Dwayne Ingraham, pastry chef for City Grocery Restaurant Group.
In May 2012, bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in The New York Times titled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family. She turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help.
Together they created Soul Food Love, a collection of recipes that translates the meals and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful—yet still indulgent—dishes.
Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history, explores the fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage.
Alice Randall is the author of The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, and Ada’s Rules. She is a Harvard-educated novelist who lives in Nashville and also writes country songs. Randall has emerged as an innovative food activist committed to reforms that support healthy bodies and healthy communities.
Caroline Randall Williams, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, is a graduate of Harvard University. After graduation, she spent two years as an instructor in the Teach for America program. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the University of Mississippi. In January 2015, she was named by Southern Living as one of the “50 People Changing the South in 2015.”
The Southern Foodways Alliance documents, studies, and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. We set a common table where black and white, rich and poor — all who gather — may consider our history and our future in a spirit of reconciliation.