Maria Trumpler, Director of the Office of LGBTQ Resources, kicked off our spring semester knead 2 know series with a special interactive presentation titled, “American Breads Before 1850.” Starting at noon, participants made amaranth crackers from Sean Sherman’s “Sioux Chef Indigenous Kitchen”, as well as “hoe” cakes, rustic corn bread, and beaten biscuits inspired by Michael Twitty’s “The Cooking Gene.”
Maria reflected with audience members on what breads across U.S. history tell us about the deep connections between grain and social life. But more importantly, she noted, these staples help us center the people that history has too often marginalized, such as women, enslaved people, and indigenous tribes. When combined with embodied practice, what we eat then, offers more than an understanding of the past, but honors the ways in which people have shaped our present.
Photography by Sol Thompson '21.
