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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAward-Winning Author and Culinary Historian Michael W. Twitty to Discuss Food as a Pathway for Connection and Change\/\/ Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAward-Winning Author and Culinary Historian Michael W. Twitty to Discuss Food as a Pathway for Connection and Change\/\/ Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tListen:<\/p>\n
Award-winning author and culinary historian Michael Twitty is coming to St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
Twitty will be discussing the intersection of Southern cuisine and African American culture on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
The James Beard award winner will speak at the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg as part of their \u2018Speakers Who Inspire\u2019 series.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s sharing insights from his book, titled \u2018The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book traces the roots of Twitty\u2019s own family and the charged politics surrounding the origins of soul food, barbecue, and all Southern cuisine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of people have hyperfocused on the idea of food people as chefs, as hospitality, as food preparers, but we need African American, we need Black people who think and write about the power of food and how it works in our culture in our community,\u201d Twitty told WMNF.<\/p>\n
Twitty says he\u2019s known since childhood that food can tell a story.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a way of generating memories, a way of sharing thoughts and ideas and making sure that we understood in a very visceral, sensual level that our history could be, you know, re-approached, reassessed through experience and that by eating those greens, by eating that cornbread, by eating, the spices you were in a flow of the generations and you understood that what happened, what you experienced, what happened to you, happened to your parents, your grandparents and going back. And that we know with time that what happened to your children, your nieces, your nephews, your grandchildren, the community that you would then become an elder of. And so was it was like a it was like a thing immediately. My first food other than formula was pot liquor and cornbread. And that is something that was very old-fashioned and very true to the culture of the Deep South.\u201d Twitty said.<\/p>\n
Date: April 29, 2026
Time: 6 PM \u2013 7:30 PM with a book-signing afterwards; doors open at 5 PM for dinner and an engagement opportunity with representatives of our local St. Pete food systems
Location: The Foundation\u2019s Center for Health Equity, 2333 34th St. S, St. Petersburg, FL 33711
Registration: Sign up for free online at https:\/\/www.meetatthecenter.org\/michaeltwitty<\/p>\n