Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power (Paperback)

Psyche A. Williams-Forson

ISBN 10: 080785686X / ISBN 13: 9780807856864

Published by University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2006

About this Item

Paperback. Chicken—both the bird and the food—has played multiple roles in the lives of African American women from the slavery era to the present. It has provided food and a source of income for their families, shaped a distinctive culture, and helped women define and exert themselves in racist and hostile environments. Psyche A. Williams-Forson examines the complexity of black women's legacies using food as a form of cultural work. While acknowledging the negative interpretations of black culture associated with chicken imagery, Williams-Forson focuses her analysis on the ways black women have forged their own self-definitions and relationships to the "gospel bird." Exploring material ranging from personal interviews to the comedy of Chris Rock, from commercial advertisements to the art of Kara Walker, and from cookbooks to literature, Williams-Forson considers how black women arrive at degrees of self-definition and self-reliance using certain foods. She demonstrates how they defy conventional representations of blackness in relationship to these foods and exercise influence through food preparation and distribution. Understanding these phenomena clarifies how present interpretations of blacks and chicken are rooted in a past that is fraught with both racism and agency. The traditions and practices of feminism, Williams-Forson argues, are inherent in the foods women prepare and serve. Williams-Forson examines the complexity of black women's legacies with food as a form of cultural work. While acknowledging the negative interpretations of black culture associated with chicken imagery, Williams-Forson focuses her analysis on the ways black women have forged their own self-definitions and relationships to "the gospel bird." From personal interviews to the comedy of Chris Rock, from commercial advertisements to the art of Kara Walker, and from cookbooks to literature, Williams-Forson considers how black women defy conventional representations of blackness in relationship to these foods and exercise influence through food preparation and distribution. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780807856864

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, and Power (Paperback)
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080785686X
• ISBN 13: 9780807856864
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

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About the Author

Psyche A. Williams-Forson is assistant professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park.