In partnership with Knox Presbyterian Church, Govans’ Racial Justice Ministry welcomes Derrick Weston for a six-part series, “The Color of Food: Exploring American Foodways Through the Lens of Racial Justice.”
Live on Zoom, Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. from October 16 until November 20. Register at the link below to receive a link for the Zoom event. Email lea@govanspres.org for more info.
Series Schedule
Week One – Disconnected: losing land and connection to nature
Texts: “Black Faces, White Spaces: Re-imagining the Relationship to African and Americans to the Great Outdoors” by Carolyn Finney
Week Two – The Color of Food – Why we should use food “Apartheid” instead of “desert”
Texts: Food and Faith Podcast, Episode 1: Rev. Dr. Heber Brown III “The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience, and Farming” by Natasha Bowens
Week Three – What we brought with us – how African food practices shaped America.
Texts: “The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary history in the Old South” by Michael Twitty, “Taste The Nation, ep. 4: The Gullah Way” (Hulu Series)
Week Four – The Great Migration – Bringing the rural south to the urban north
Texts: “The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food” by Marcus Samuelsson, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson, “Our Harlem: Seven Days of Cooking Music and Soul at the Red Rooster” by Marcus Samuelsson (Audible exclusive series)
Week Five – Junk: malnutrition and environmental racism
Texts: “The Devastating Consequences of Unequal Food Access” by Lyndsey Hayes-Maslow in Union of Concerned Scientists Journal, Food and Faith Podcast, ep. 50: Michael Malcolm
Week Six – Edible Activism: Food justice is racial justice
Texts: TED talk: Ron Finley, A Guerrilla Gardener in South Central L.A., “Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land” by Leah Penniman
Derrick Weston has spent the last two decades working in churches and community-based nonprofits in Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Oregon, and now Maryland. He manages the Rockrose community farm on the city’s east end. Derrick received his Masters of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary, a certification in health ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary, and was a part of the Re:Generate Fellowship on food, faith, and ecology through Wake Forest University. Derrick is the co-host of the Food and Faith Podcast and the producer of the short documentary “A Wilderness Like Eden: Stories of Food and Faith” releasing in the summer of 2021. He and his wife Shannon have four children and live outside of Baltimore.