January 9, 2022 – The Davenport House Museum has rescheduled its annual Harvest Lecture, Bound to the Fire: How Enslaved Chefs Helped Invent American Cuisine for January 24, 2023 at 6:30 pm at Second African Baptist Church, located at 123 Houston St. in Savannah. Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz will draw on archaeological evidence, cookbooks, plantation records, and folklore to present a nuanced discussion of the lives of enslaved plantation cooks from the colonial era to emancipation and beyond and how it has shaped to modern American cuisine.
This harvest conference is free, presented by the Davenport House Museum and sponsored by Gulfstream as a community service and enrichment opportunity on topics related to its mission.
“The completion of the Davenport House Urban Slave Exhibit is one of the most anticipated openings in our museum community, opening in 2023. This year’s Harvest Conference offers insight into the kitchen where slaves worked,” he said. director Jamie. Credle, “We thank this year’s speaker, Dr. Keely Fanto Deetz, and Gulfstream for their generous sponsorship of this event.”
Kelley Fanto Deetz is vice president for collections and public engagement at Stratford Hall and a visiting professor in the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley. She has a BA in African Studies and History from The College of William & Mary and an MA and Ph.D. in African Diaspora Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Deetz partnered with National Geographic to produce the documentary Rise Up: The Legacy of Nat Tumer (National Geographic Channel) and wrote two cover stories for National Geographic’s History magazine. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book Bound to the Fire: How Virginia’s Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine, which was named one of Smithsonian Magazine’s Top Ten Food Books of 2017. Her most recent work is Audible’s The Great Courses on the history of sugar and her contribution to the upcoming California Soul cookbook, featuring celebrity and OWN TV star Chef Tanya Holland and author Alice Walker. .
Davenport House Museum is owned by the Historic Savannah Foundation. HSF is a leading nonprofit conservation and cultural institution, saving buildings, places and stories that define Savannah’s past, present and future. Davenport House was the first property HSF saved. For more information, visit davenporthousemuseum.org/programs, email info@davenporthousemuseum.org, or call 912-236-8097.
