The author is self-described as “an African American feminist working in the area of material culture and cultural studies with a particular eye toward food” (187). Her purpose, stated on the first page, is to examine “the roles that chicken has played in the lives of black women from the past to the present.” Her specific thesis is that “chicken has had a central yet complex role in the lives of many African American women” (2).
Whether or not one agrees that Williams-Forson convincingly proves her thesis, this book is a highly informative read from a historical perspective. The author has assembled an array of cultural artifacts showing the historic iconic relationship between African-Americans and chickens: stereotypical black mammies and chicken-stealing black men as shown on postcards, restaurant menus, cookbooks, posters, cartoons, sheet music covers, historical photographs, magazine advertisements, and artwork.
Reviewing from a folkloristic standpoint, I should point out that this work is not based on a study of one contiguous community but rather is an assemblage of cultural references drawn from vast resources. The author begins with a broad historical overview, analyzing passages of Longstreet’s Georgia Scenes and historical documents. Most interesting is her account of waiter carriers from Gordonsville, Virginia, selling chicken to traveling train passengers, drawn from an article in the Orange County (Va.) Review.
In the rest of the book, she alternates between analysis of literary works, film, and music, and personal family observations. Some sample focal points are Chicken George in Alex Haley’s Roots, Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Who Dat Say Chicken in Dis Crowd, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road, and many others. In a section on chicken and churchwomen, Williams-Forson analyzes Ann Allen Shockley’s Say Jesus and Come to Me. Her discussion of the character Myrtle Black, a black lesbian circuit preacher, and the “heresy” she commits by improper chicken-eating behavior at Sunday dinner, is fascinating.
While the first half of the book is labeled “Encounters with the Bird,” the second half is dubbed “African American Women and Gender Malpractice.” In both sections of the book, she criticizes Chris Rock’s humor routines for their “signifying” message of the disempowerment of black women, particularly in the set about “the big piece of chicken,” which it is assumed that Daddy is entitled to. Williams-Forson encourages black entertainers to think about the “sexist, stereotypical and exploitive dimensions” of their work. She also finds George Tillman Jr.’s movie Soul Food “problematic” because it presents the stereotypical heavyset Big Mama and her ability to create miracle meals out of scraps, rather than showing in fact her frailty, her dealing with diabetes.
In chapter 8, she analyzes the art work of Kara Walker, wrestling intellectually with the famous cut-out bestial image of a girl chasing a chicken (“Keys to the Coop”), the black silhouetted girl having just wrung the chicken’s head off and about to pop it in her mouth. She also interprets Walker’s etching of a Confederate soldier who is being offered a humongous chicken drumstick (“Drumstick”). Williams-Forson’s treatment of this etching will surely generate some interesting discussions. Luckily the etching is included in the book (205) so readers can decide for themselves. I have to admit that I can’t entirely agree with her description of the etching. What she sees as “protruding nipples and a semi-erect penis” on the Confederate soldier (204), I see as a ghostly skeletal outline and a left boot with spurs. Her interpretation of the black mammy offering a giant drumstick to the weakened soldier seemingly to forestall a rape, looks instead to me like a Confederate soldier who is already dead, a withering ghost, fading from the atmosphere, envisioning how heavenly it would be to eat some Southern-fried chicken. This book offers plenty to argue about, which is why I am sure it will become a permanent part of the foodways canon.
Psyche A. Williams-Forson is an excellent writer who has done some interesting research and pieced together a highly readable book. Her main accomplishment here has been to show how iconization of food is linked with gender and racial power and disempowerment.
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[Review length: 693 words • Review posted on November 28, 2007]