{"id":29698,"date":"2024-02-01T07:30:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T12:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=29698"},"modified":"2024-01-31T14:14:17","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T19:14:17","slug":"an-opportunity-to-celebrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/an-opportunity-to-celebrate\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018An opportunity to celebrate\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black History Month at Furman<\/a>
\nRead more stories >><\/a><\/em><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Regardless of what the calendar says, for Judith Williams<\/a>, \u201cBlack History Month is 365, 24\/7.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For many others, however, February may be one of the few times they are encouraged to challenge their racial assumptions and engage with the full array of cultures stemming from the African diaspora, said the assistant professor of anthropology.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere in the South, we tend to think of Blackness as just a Black or white construction,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of awareness that there are different types of Black people that live here. Ethnically, we\u2019re not a monolith.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regional differences play a part, said Williams, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and spent 40 years living in Miami, where there is a large Afro-Caribbean community. But along with the distinct identities attached to <\/span>individual countries and regions<\/span><\/a>, there are divisions in education, socioeconomic status and religion.<\/span><\/p>\n

For instance, \u201cwe hardly ever talk about Black Jews,\u201d Williams said, recalling Hasidic rapper <\/span>Nissim Black\u2019s<\/span><\/a> visit to campus last year. \u201cThere is so much variation and diversity within the category of Blackness. The thing I like about Black History Month is that it\u2019s an opportunity for us to celebrate that type of diversity and call attention to the differences within the Black experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The official theme of Black History Month 2024 is \u201c<\/span>African Americans and the Arts<\/span><\/a>,\u201d celebrating African Americans who have historically served as change agents through their crafts. Williams would like to see more of those celebrations in her new hometown, and not just during the month of February.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn other parts of the world where I\u2019ve lived, I have noticed tremendous celebrations of Black art, Black food and Black culture,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a lot of work to do here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Culture and cuisine often intersect for Williams, a trained chef whose academic career has included extensive research into Black culinary habits and history and the anthropology of food and labor. She finds inspiration in Black food scholars and chefs such as Haitian-born <\/span>Guichard Ulysse<\/span><\/a>, proprietor of House 509 Bistro and Wine Bar in Greer \u2013 \u201cto my knowledge, the only Black fine-dining restaurant in this part of the world,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She also cites the work of <\/span>Michael W. Twitty<\/span><\/a>, a gay African American Jewish culinary historian whose writing traces the history of Black foodways from the days of colonialism to the present. The writing of Kwame Alexander inspires her, as do culinary writers and historians <\/span>Stephen Satterfield<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Jessica Harris<\/span><\/a>, both featured in the Netflix series \u201cHigh on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America.\u201d The work of her mentor <\/span>Ashant\u00e9 Reese<\/span><\/a>, co-editor of \u201cBlack Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice,\u201d was also formative, Williams said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some really amazing Black food scholars and Black foodie chef people out there,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2018Black food\u2019 is really an umbrella term for all sorts of different foods that come out of the African diaspora. And that could be Jamaica, where I\u2019m from, or it could be South Africa, where they make a fantastic <\/span>bobotie<\/span><\/a>. Or even rice in South Carolina \u2013 rice is a Black food staple.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Williams is looking ahead to Black History Month 2024 with positive memories of past displays and events at Furman that led to meaningful discussions, while hoping for people of all races to deliberately engage with Black culture and history.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here because Furman\u2019s doing much better than most academic institutions <\/span>when it comes to race<\/span><\/a>,\u201d she said. \u201cFurman has a ways to go, but they\u2019re way ahead of the pack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judith Williams, an assistant professor of anthropology, hopes Black History Month will be a window into the variation and diversity of the African diaspora \u2013 a window that will remain open year-round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":29699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,70],"tags":[641],"class_list":["post-29698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anthropology","category-diversity-equity-and-inclusion","tag-black-history-month"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}