Lessons from a Soul Food Scholar
Did you know that for some enslaved Africans, small plots of land became ways to maintain culture and heritage — and even pathways to freedom? Soul food scholar Adrian Miller joins us to share stories that tie land to belonging and survival.
Amanda Henderson and Adrian dive deep into the stories about navigating the ways of the land to cultivate food sovereignty within African American communities, despite forced migration and slavery in the United States. As they discuss the truths about the ongoing struggle of food injustice for marginalized communities and the rise of consciousness toward food sovereignty, we learn the importance of connecting and adapting to the land as a means of survival.
GUEST:
Adrian Miller is a food writer, James Beard Award winner, attorney and certified barbecue judge who lives in Denver. Adrian earned a degree n international relations from Stanford University in 1991 and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. From 1999 to 2001, Adrian served as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton with his Initiative for One America — the first free-standing office in the White House to address issues of racial, religious and ethnic reconciliation. Adrian went on to serve as a senior policy analyst for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. From 2004 to 2010, Adrian served on the board for the Southern Foodways Alliance. In June 2019, he lectured in the Masters of Gastronomy program at the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche (nicknamed the “Slow Food University”) in Pollenzo, Italy. He is currently the executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches and is the first African American, and the first layperson, to hold that position.
Adrian’s first book, “Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time,” won the James Beard Foundation Award for Scholarship and Reference in 2014. His second book, “The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, From the Washingtons to the Obamas,” was published on Presidents Day 2017. It was a finalist for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Literary Work — Nonfiction” and the 2018 Colorado Book Award for History. Adrian’s third book, “Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue,” was published in 2021.
Adrian Miller’s Work:
–Sharecropping, Black Land Acquistion, and White Supremacy (1868-1900)
