Flint area talks: Oct. 4-5, 2016

Quick heads up for anyone in the Flint area: I’m coming to talk in your neighborhood!

Oct. 4, 2016  (Tuesday)  5:45-6:45
Grand Blanc-McFarlen Public Library

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I’m especially honored to kick off the Sullenger Dialogues at U-M Flint, the nearest university to where I grew up. It’s also an honor to be part of the rich lecture tradition being established on that campus which serves many of the region’s working class students.

Critical Issues Forum, U-M Flint
October 5, 2016
10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Update: Nice campus PR write up here.

Common Experience:Highpoint University, Sept. 15-16, 2016

I’m thrilled to share that Highpoint University has chosen The American Way of Eating for its freshman Common Experience Program—and I’ll be spending a couple days on campus this week to talk about the book with students.

Things kick off on Thursday, when I’ll be speaking to the President’s Seminar for first year students, continue with lunch, speak with sociology and anthropology students in the afternoon—and conclude with a Friday talk to a journalism class.

 

“Southern Hunger” Lecture, Sept. 13, 2016

“Southern Hunger”

Sept. 13, 2015

4:30-6:00 p.m.

Stone Center, Hitchcock Room

The American South is often celebrated for its rich food heritage and its powerful influence on American cuisine, but the region’s culture and politics are also linked to the darker side of food. In this lecture, will discuss how modern American food issues like hunger, wages, and labor are deeply tied to the history of the South.

Sponsors: Center for the Study of the American South Hutchins Lecture Series and Food For All, UNC Chapel Hill

Handmade flour torillas, NM edition

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For years I have pined for New Mexican flour tortillas, thick bready discs substantial enough to scoop up carne adovada and green chile chicken stew. For years, there was nothing similar in grocery stores outside of NM. Then, there were better thin flour tortillas. And now, a few places do sell thicker versions, but they pale in comparison to fresh.

So I finally got myself some lessons, at the lovely kitchen of Susan McCreight Lindeborg, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. She persuaded Janet Stein Romero, an artist friend in El Ancon who married a New Mexican man (artist Nicasio Romero) and learned to make tortillas from his mother. Continue reading “Handmade flour torillas, NM edition”

Spring Travel: Monroe, MI and Lake Placid, NY

I had a wonderfully busy April, enjoying visits with some amazing folks in my home state of Michigan and in the gorgeous Hudson Valley of New York.

First, as part of Monroe County’s One Book, One Community program, I met with journalism students at Monroe Community College; had a delicious dinner with faculty, staff and local library groups; and delivered a lecture at the beautiful La-Z-Boy auditorium. Special thanks to the Toledo Blade for letting folks know about the event; and my wonderful hosts in the English department, Cheryl Johnston and Carrie Nartker, who were incredibly gracious.

And then I took the inimitable Mark Richards up on an invitation to speak to students at Lake Placid’s stunning North Country School. The 4th-9th grade boarding school in New York’s Hudson Valley has a working farm, and work done there is a central part of their education; I even made it onto their daily photos blog here and here. Mark, the librarian, was so taken with my work and its relevance to their students that he designed youth-oriented curricula around it! I’m not sure there’s anything more flattering than that, but the two pieces in the local paper came close: