On Collards1

Abstract

Durham describes autoethnography as a spiritual act of political self-determination and reclamation in a narrative that privileges the matrifocal ritual of cooking collards. As a site of creative, intellectual, and political production, Durham uses the kitchen to connect to the living memories of her mothers, broader Southern Black American culture, and black feminist thought. She also uses foodways to link the lived experiences of women of African descent who recall, remember, and represent their interior worlds in word.