Macon Magazine

58 maconmagazine.com | OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022 Southern culture and community in the kitchen AN EVENING WITH DR. JESSICA B. HARRIS BY DODIE BICKLEY f you're born and bred from southern roots, you probably know exactly what someone means when they say they're living or eating "high on the hog." Whether those words have ever come out of your mouth is another topic altogether, but they are powerful enough to have launched the Netflix docuseries titled High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America, inspired by culinary historian Dr. Jessica B. Harris' acclaimed book of the same name. Harris's work specializes in food of the African diaspora, and her writing and teaching on the topic have led to her recognition as a respected authority in the culinary world. About five minutes into the first episode, viewers see Harris strolling through a color-punched market in the streets of Cotonou, a port city in Benin, West Africa, with the show's host, Atlanta-born food writer and sommelier Stephen Satterfield. "I don't think that my work would have been possible without her work," Satterfield said. "I don't think that my work would have been possible without her work." As Harris and Satterfield wind their way through the busy market, stopping to examine overflowing baskets of fern-green okra, black- eyed peas bobbing in rich gravies, and women explaining the unique properties of the various mounds of rice piled in their stall, the market provides visual evidence of Harris's lifelong study of food and how the transatlantic slave trade indelibly influenced American food and agriculture. It's an influence that Satterfield said changed the trajectory of his life. "As a young culinarian...I was the only Black person my class," Satterfield said. "I was the only Black sommelier in my group. I began to have a sense that I would never be able to find or learn about the contributions of my own people in relationship to the trade that I had chosen and love. Food. Beverage. Hospitality." Then, in 2007, Satterfield discovered Harris's work. "I started to realize that I had just been looking in the wrong places and that our contributions were not only real and valid but that we have an incredible scholar who was a brilliant writer who was protecting those histories," Satterfield said. Harris's extensive body of work includes 50 years teaching at the college level; writing and editing for Essence magazine; twice receiving the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award, among other high achievements; and, throughout her journey of teaching and learning, authoring more than a dozen books, including cookbooks and a memoir. At 6 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2022, Harris will visit Macon, Georgia, as the featured speaker of the Jordan Massee Lecture Series on Southern History and Culture. It's not her first visit to our community, but it does carry special import. "I knew Jordan…we bonded… we talked about food, and we talked about its connections, and we talked about how it connects people," Harris explained. Carey Pickard, vice president of The Compass Group, helped facilitate that connection and extended the invitation to Harris to serve as this year's speaker at the annual Massee Lecture. Pickard met Harris at a "Georgia on My Plate" event when Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics Games. "I recognized her as someone extraordinary. She has a deep and nuanced understanding of the influence of food," Pickard said. I "LISTEN INTENTLY. HER NAME AND HER WORK BELONG IN THE PANTHEON OF GREAT BLACK INTELLECTUALS OF THE 20TH CENTURY WITH PEOPLE LIKE JAMES BALDWIN AND MAYA ANGELOU." — STEPHEN SATTERFIELD

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