Original illustrations from the “Whoever Said Dykes Can’t Cook?” cookbook, 1983 - recipe compilation by Victoria Ramstetter and Maya Contenta, design by Judith Masur, editing and pusblishing by the Cincinnati Lesbian Activist Bureau
Fruit Ladies, Hô Chí Minh City, 2024 - Trung Dong’s photography series captures the female merchants carrying baskets of fruits, flowers and vegetables all around town without ever picturing their faces, paying tribute to their labor from a distance
Mexican Market food booth at the Texas Folklife Festival in San Antonio, Texas, 1994 - untitled and anonymous photograph, part of the Texas Cultures Online collection
Picking olives from branches, Palestine, between 1900 and 1920 - credits go to the Matson Photo Service, as this picture belongs to the same collection as the one named Bedouin Woman Baking Bread posted below. Once again, and despite a well-documented legacy, this girl’s identity remains unknown. The original title states she used to be a maiden, as in a young, unmarried girl.
Clara Cannucciari in her kitchen, between 2007 and 2012 - growing up in the United States during the Great Depression, Clara shared her memories and recipes from the era on a Youtube channel until she passed away in 2013. Filmed by her grandson during five years, the web series Great Depression Cooking with Clara displayed dishes such as a dandelion salad, a pizza her mother used to make with some bread dough and a depression breakfast, among dozens of recipes inspired by her Sicilian parents.
Mei Chang’s Litchfield green pea fritters, Orange Is The New Black, 2015 - played by Lori Tan Chinn, Mei Chang’s character is known to be impassive and solitary through most of Jenji Kohan’s show. In this sixth episode of the third season, she’s seen dedicating a portion of her day to ingeniously pulling up a green pea fritters recipe out of a Frittos corn chips bag and lunch leftovers she carries to her room in a milk box.
After mixing it all together, she then shapes the batter in between her two hands before placing her four fritters in a microwave to get them slightly golden. Later, she’s shown savoring her meal alone, on an outdoor table of the Litchfield Penitentiary.
Nikki Giovanni at a party during the Phillis Wheatley poetry festival in Jackson, Mississippi, on November 4, 1973 - credits missing. “To successfully go to Mars and back, you will need a song. And maybe a six-pack, so if there is life on Mars, you can share. Popcorn for the celebration when you land, while you wait on your land legs to kick in. And as you climb down the ladder from your spaceship to the Martian surface, look to your left and there you’ll see a smiling community quilting a black eyed-pea, watching you descend.”
Beloved poet and writer, commentator, activist, educator and space lover, Nikki Giovanni was also well-known for her dinner parties at the University of Virginia. In a clip from Overheard with Evan Smith dating back to 2018, she playfully talked about her cooking competition with Maya Angelou and her rack of lamb signature dish. Picturing these two reunited over a dining table along with Toni Morrison feels deeply soothing these days. Rest in power.
Jerrie Cobb barbecueing meat, place unknown, 1959 - credits go to Ralph Crane for LIFE magazine. Born in 1931, Cobb was a pilot and aviator. She was one of the thirteen American women who took part in Mercury 13, a privately funded research program run by a NASA physician whose aim was to apply the same tests to women the NASA would apply to male astronauts for spaceflight. She passed in 2019, at her home in Sun City Center, Florida.
