Author discusses food and the African Diaspora

By Ivan Saul Cutler, Carolina Peacemaker / March 15, 2024

Educator, author and culinary historian Jessica B. Harris spoke about her life and how food and foodways of the African Diaspora inspired her to write a dozen books.

In a lively conversation at the Greensboro History Museum with Love Jones, director, Greensboro Human Rights Department, Harris joyfully recounted how food, its preparation and enjoyment inspired her to write a dozen critically acclaimed books, earning her the distinction of induction into the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame and Lifetime Achievement Award.

The free public event was sponsored by the Greensboro Public Library Foundation as part of the library’s One City, One Book programming focused on The Carolina Table: N.C. Writers on Food edited by Randall Kenan.

Harris has written for most of the major food magazines including Gourmet, Saveur, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Southern Living, and Eating Well, in addition to regular appearances on television programs including The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Main Ingredient, and B. Smith with Style.

Facilitated by Greensboro’s Scuppernong Books, many of the attendees purchased Harris’s book High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, in which the author inscribed personal messages. The book has become a Netflix series.