BEM | books & more

@brooklynsupportedagriculture will be back on the patio today, 1-5pm! Come get your produce, pantry goods, and a cookbook to inspire your recipes at BEM. Last time, they had freshly baked bread from @crescentbakess and as always, beautiful produce. If you enjoyed the poached pears in our Edna Lewis Biscuit Box last week, you’ve already tasted how fresh their fruits & veggies are! Sit a while on the patio (we have outdoor seating now!) and take home a couple of the remaining seedlings from our giveaway last week to grow some of your own food this summer 🌱

Delighted to have joined @alizarae on the @taste podcast for the second time — thank you for having me! We talked about Edna Lewis’s influence on our work at BEM and why we’ve built this festival in honor of the 50th anniversary of her seminal book The Taste of Country Cooking. Check it out where you get your podcasts and join us at @bembrooklyn + @bemculturalfoundation for the rest of our Edna Lewis Festival this week: TONIGHT: Food, Land & Community Panel, followed by a Virginia Wine Hour TOMORROW: Edna Lewis Garden Bed Unveiling & Pickling Workshop (plus regular shop hours, more Biscuit Boxes, and other cafe fare) SUNDAY: Gospel Brunch and Benediction for Mother’s Day Tickets and details available at bembrooklyn.com/tocc50. Get your copies of the book from us too! Happy Edna Lewis Festival week to all who celebrate <3

SOOMAALIYA has been out for a little over a month now! Thank you to my community in New York for helping me kick off the book tour. It was a really beautiful evening and I felt so touched to celebrate with so many beautiful friends from all chapters of my life. Thank you to my conversation partner @doreenstfelix for your wonderful questions and beautiful presence. Thank you to @bembrooklyn for hosting my book launch in your gorgeous space. Thank you to @pelahkitchen for the incredible cake! Thank you to my agent @clare.mao , my publisher @hardiegrantusa and the Hardie team: @jwapner , @maddy.kalmowitz , @louiseznewlands , @cinsley , and Natalie for bringing this book to life. Thank you to @doaaelkady_ , @mallorylancestylist , @farahkhad , @juliajuliaroserose , @miaajohnson and @dlanza13 for making this book so beautiful. Thank you to @kypicture for shooting this beautiful video and to my love @benjaminverdoes for editing. I’m so grateful that my dream book is finally out there in the world. Thank you to all of you who have embraced this book and who have given me so much of your love and support in every city I’ve been to on this tour. More tour recaps coming soon 💙✨🫶🏾 #soomaaaliya #somalifood #chef #author #cookbook

We’re open and so excited for the third day of the Edna Lewis Festival! Come enjoy our Taste of Country Cooking Biscuit Box in the cafe, peruse photos shared with us by Miss Lewis’ family, shop our full collection of her cookbooks, and sit a while on the patio (see those new tables?! 👀). Last night’s screening was the perfect kick off to contextualize why Edna Lewis is probably one of your favorite chef’s favorite chefs. Come to 373 Lewis this weekend to dive further into her legacy. Tomorrow, we have our panel & Virginia Wine Hour with Charlene Johnson (@nyceitup ), Maya Lewis (@lewlowkey ), and Reggie Leonard (@thats.so.reg ) joining us from Virginia; Saturday we’ll have a pickling workshop and garden bed unveiling; and Sunday is our Mother’s Day Gospel Brunch with Toni Tipton-Martin and Lana Lagomarsini! Tickets available at the link in our bio.

TONIGHT! We’ll have Deb Freeman, Mashama Bailey, and Nina Williams-Mbengue in conversation following a screening of Deb’s Emmy-winning documentary Finding Edna Lewis, which was nominated for a James Beard Award today! If your cooking is inspired by the seasons, if you’ve charted a path through creative careers, or if you love learning about women in food, there’s something for you in this film. Last night, @theednalewisfoundation (ELF) kicked off the Edna Lewis Festival with a stunning meal at @gage.and.tollner hosted by Deb and crafted by ELF President @mashamabailey , Gage Exec Chef & Partner @chefsohui , @chefadriennecheatham , and @leahbcooks . Chef Mashama was just named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2026, blurbed by none other than Kamala Harris, so you don’t want to miss this opportunity to hear from her in Brooklyn. Individual event tickets and festival passes are still available if you plan to attend multiple events. Purchase at the link in our bio! PS we’re still looking for volunteers for this weekend’s events. If you’re interested, fill out the form also linked in our bio. Thank you 🫜

Last night, @theednalewisfoundation celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Taste of Country Cooking with Edna’s Table, a dinner hosted at @gage.and.tollner , featuring chefs @leahbcooks @chefsohui @chefadriennecheatham and @mashamabailey . @audiophilegirl hosted and a wonderful time was had. Celebrations of Ms. Lewis and her work will continue through the weekend with The Edna Lewis Festival, hosted by @bemculturalfoundation at their shop in Bed-Stuy. Tonight, they will be showing “Finding Edna Lewis,” the Emmy-winning and newly James Beard Nominated show by Deb Freeman. Go to bembrooklyn.com for tickets!

Tix to individual events are now on sale for The Edna Lewis Festival which starts TOMORROW! This will be a celebration of Black southern foodways and an opportunity to explore the fullness of Edna Lewis’s legacy… What brought her from her hometown of Freetown, Virginia north to Washington, DC, and then to New York City? How did she chart a path as a seamstress, domestic worker, and then as a caterer and chef? What do today’s chefs, food writers, scholars, and land stewards carry forth from her story and career? We can’t wait to share this line-up of programs with you all. Since we heard there would be a 50th anniversary reissue from @knopfcooks , we’ve been dreaming up this festival, presented from our shop in Bed-Stuy. From the screening of Finding Edna Lewis on Wednesday, to our Taste of Country Cooking Biscuit Box on sale in the café this week to pickling on Saturday to Sunday’s gospel brunch, there’s something for everyone! We expect events to sell out, so purchase your tickets in advance to be safe. There are still a few seats left for @theednalewisfoundation ’s fundraiser at @gage.and.tollner , where Miss Lewis’ icon status was solidified in the 90s. Run, don’t walk! The meal will be incredible. See you soon! THINGS TO KNOW: • The shop will be open for regular hours Thursday-Saturday (11a-6pm). On Sunday, we’ll open at 2:30pm following our Gospel Brunch. • You can pre-order your copy of the new edition of Taste Of Country Cooking on our site for pickup during the festival (or after!). If you can’t join us in person, we also ship throughout the U.S. • If you’d like to volunteer for the festival, kindly fill out the form at the link in our bio!

Our next edition of So You Want To Write A Cookbook?! with Nicole A. Taylor will be on Thursday, May 14 at 6:30pm. For the first time, we have livestream tickets available, so even if you’re outside of the tristate area, you can still participate! Nicole is in the process of publishing her fourth cookbook and has edited for, consulted at, and written for many of your favorite food publications, so there’s no better person to guide you toward your first cookbook project. Tickets (in-person and livestream) are available at the link in our bio and bembrooklyn.com 🎟️

Meet us at BEM for a Mother's Day Sale and a good time! Support some of the dopest Black ceramic artists and the nations's first Black food bookstore and culinary hub! Bring your people! 💕🌷❤️

MORE DATES WILL BE ADDED!! Keep your eye out! (Give this a share for me) JUNE 13 Wallace, LA Whitney Plantation @whitneyplantation Juneteenth cooking demo & panel discussion JUNE 14 New Orleans, LA, Community Book Center @readcbc Book launch & conversation JUNE 16 Brooklyn, NY BEM Bookstore @bembrooklyn Book launch & conversation JUNE 18 Washington, DC Bold Pork Books @boldforkbooks Book event JUNE 23 Oxford, MS Square Books @squarebooks Book event & demo AUGUST 29 Columbus, MS Possumtown Book Festival at Friendly City Books JUNE 20 Wake Forest, NC Page 158 Books @page158books Book event SEPTEMBER 26 Winston-Salem, NC Bookmarks Pestival @bookmarksncfestival Want me in your city? Reach out! Custom Locs by @_askallietodoyohair

First Food Fridays is a FREE lactation support group for Black families, offered at BEM in Bed Stuy every 1st Friday of the month at 10am. Whether you’re prenatal or nursing, we welcome you to connect with lactation support consultant and wellness coach Jillian Faulks and get support on your nursing journey. Each session includes activities for children under five, gentle movement and mindfulness, and the opportunity to connect with fellow parents in the neighborhood. RSVP at the link in bio and we’ll see you this Friday! #blackmaternalhealth #lactationcounselor #firstfood

HELLO BROOKLYN!!!! Mark your calendars! Come see me June 16th for my Pub Day at @bembrooklyn ! More details will be released soon! If you’re going to be at the event, make sure that you pre-order through @bembrooklyn ! See you soon!! #brooklyn #newyork #pubday #cookbooks