Feeding Souls and Spreading Justice: Black Food Workers in South Carolina’s Black United Methodist Church’s
Topics: Black Geographies
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Keywords: Black geographies, food geographies, Black Liberation Theology, social movements
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 68
Authors:
Ellen Kohl, St. Mary's College of Maryland
Priscilla McCutcheon, University of Kentucky
Jordan McCray, University of Kentucky
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Abstract
We aim to explore the food work of Black United Methodists in South Carolina (SC) to rethink how Black religious food work is a contestation of white supremacy. We broadly define food work as: Black church members serving Sunday meals after church or during Vacation Bible School, serving emergency food, gathering recipes church fundraisers, and growing food in church gardens. We focus on quiet and “quotidian acts” of care that are often overlooked but are important in fights for social justice. We are in the planning stages of a project where we will conduct interviews, participant observation and focus groups with Black church food workers. In moving away from an emphasis on Black church leadership, who are mostly men, we aim to capture the vital work of Black women who are on the frontlines of fights for racial justice. We use Black geographies and Black Liberation Theology to contend that churches provide food spaces as a response to exclusion from white food spaces. We are a multi-disciplinary team that in addition to us, includes: a digital geographer, a minister, a historian and a food photographer. We are exploring alternative forms of knowledge production in conjunction with this project, specifically, the development of a digital atlas and a historical cookbook. This session will help us to consider how (and if) our work is in solidarity with Black UM food workers in SC and effective strategies we can use to work together as an interdisciplinary team.
Feeding Souls and Spreading Justice: Black Food Workers in South Carolina’s Black United Methodist Church’s
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
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