Missouri Humanities

Part 2 of our 2-part "Black Movement" series focuses on The Great Migration in Missouri with Dr. Tony Holland, a retired professor of history and social sciences from Lincoln University and co-author of the book "The Black Heritage of Missouri." We discuss the causes and effects of this period, which is considered one of the biggest movements of people in history, as well as how we interpret and share this history today.

This episode serves as part one of a two part series about Black Movement. Our guest for this portion is Dr. Bryan Jack, a professor of History at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and author of The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters. The Exodusters were a group of Black migrants from the South that made the journey to Kansas by way of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in search of better opportunity post-Reconstruction. 

The 2022 Hunt. Fish. Gather. Program, presented by Missouri Humanities, The Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, and Washington University Dining Services, took place on November 3rd and 4th, 2022. This program creates an educational opportunity for Washington University and the local community, focused on an Indigenous model of health and wellness by incorporating traditional Native foods and decolonizing the Westernized food system here in the United States.

This year, we were joined by Chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache/Navajo), a pioneer in the development of restorative indigenous food practices, a term critical for social recovery and indigenous resurgence during an age of fast food and disease. Chef Nephi has 24 years of culinary experience and is the founder of the Native American Culinary Association, a network dedicated to the research, refinement, and development of Native American cuisine. Craig provides training, workshops, and lecture sessions on Native American Cuisine to schools, restaurants, and tribal entities across America and abroad.

Adrian Miller, known as the “soul food scholar”, is a lawyer turned food writer who has written three books on the impact of African American foodways. He joins us for this special episode as we discuss his research on soul food, barbecue, and how he thinks food brings us together.  

Adrian served as the keynote speaker for our 2022 MOmentum Gala, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ special initiative “A More Perfect Union”. 

In this episode, our conversation with Suzanne Corbett–acclaimed writer, producer, and food historian–digs into the many ways cookbooks, recipes, and ingredients serve as a unique kind of cultural heritage. We also discuss what it’s like to write about such an experiential topic as food, and how we can look to food writing, like cookbooks,  as a way to learn more about ourselves and our collective past.