In 1995, Dr. Jessica B. Harris first published “A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook.” This year, the cherished book was republished with updates, additions and a new foreword by Carla Hall. Harris, the prolific author of numerous works, including the widely celebrated “High on the Hog,” told me, “People needed a new version.”
As Harris writes in the book’s introductory essay, many are “always surprised to hear that the Black American feast of Kwanzaa was established in 1966 [when] Maulana Karenga decided that Black Americans needed a time of cultural reaffirmation.”
Kwanzaa, observed annually from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, is “a time of feasting and of self-examination,” Harris notes, adding that “the roots of Kwanzaa are in Africa, but the fruits of the tree are truly Black American.”
The holiday is celebrated over seven nights, each dedicated to one of its guiding principles: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith). Harris emphasizes that “the mystical number seven is at the core of the celebration.”
Salon recently spoke with Dr. Harris about the republishing of her book, her personal Kwanzaa traditions, the significance of Carla Hall’s involvement and more.
Jessica B. Harris (Photo courtesy of J. Pinderhughes)
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
This is such a lovely book — and it has clearly stood the test of time. I'd love it if you could speak to the "Keepsake" part of the title? I love the project and family pages.
The keepsake part of the book comes from the fact that the book contains several blank pages designed to be filled in by family members and by others so that the family can use the book — or the community can use the book — as a reference and as a way to record its own history.
The book was originally published back in 1995 and is being republished now. Why now?
It's being republished now because it's needed now. The original book was published in 1995 and it has — I'm being immodest in saying — but weathered well. I find people have it on their Kwanzaa setups and it is now out of print, long out of print, and people needed a new version.
Carla Hall wrote the foreword for this new edition. Why do you think it's important to have her voice open the book?
I think it's important to have Carla's voice in this new edition because so many people know and love Carla, and the fact that she actually knew and loved the book makes it important — it makes it important to them.
I think parts of the book that Carla liked is that she's a crafter, so she liked the fact that there are projects in the book. She is a storyteller, so she liked the part that there's stories of varying, different people from the African diaspora in the book so I think it's important to have her voice because her voice validates things for many, many, many people nowadays.
Kwanzaa is celebrated over seven nights and the book contains a menu and recipes for each night. How are those dishes organized? Could you give an example of a particular dish or ingredient and how it fits the 'theme' of that night?
The menus are ordered over seven nights. Each menu represents a facet of the African diaspora; some nights, there are themed dinners, as in there is an African meal that celebrates the continent. There is a meal that's designed to be a formal meal that allows people to network and so on and so forth.
How do you personally celebrate Kwanzaa?
For many, many years, I gave a New Years' Day party that I didn't even realize was Kwanzaa, but that I kind of come to understand [was] in fact Kwanzaa. I have had as many as 40 people to my house — there's actually a passage in the book that speaks to that.
Now, I'm kind of a Kwanzaa orphan. Just as I've refreshed the book, I'm looking towards refreshing my own commitment to and relationship with the holiday.
A Kwanzaa Keepsake and Cookbook, a gorgeous reissue of the holiday classic by Jessica B. Harris (Courtesy of Scribner/Simon & Schuster)
I recently spoke about you with Nazli Parvizi of MOFAD. What was it like to work on the exhibit "African/American: Making the Nation's Table?"
It was from the Museum of Food and Drink in New York City. The only problem with it has been, or was, in fact, that it was scheduled to open the Monday after New York City was closed down by COVID, so it languished during the period of COVID and once it came back out from under, while it was highly lauded, never really got the audience or the viewing that it probably deserved.
I'm saddened by that, but working on it was a great joy.
How validating has the response to "High on the Hog" been for you?
The response to "High on the Hog" has been extraordinary. I am still amazed by people recognizing me on the street — not often, but occasionally — and thanking me and loving the work and understanding the connections of the food of the African diaspora and the food of this country.
And that's all sorts of people, not just African Americans — people stop me and say "thank you, I didn't know that" or "I learned from that," and that's glorious, absolutely glorious.
What has changed in the near-thirty years since the book was published? What's stayed the same? New traditions or customs?
I think people have had a longer time to celebrate Kwanzaa and so they've developed their own holidays, they've done what African Americans always do, which is to say, they've done a jazz riff, they've morphed on it, things have grown and moved
Traditions: The basis is the basis. How people embroider on it is theirs. The basis is unchanging: seven nights, seven principles, seven symbols. Everything else? People can work with — and do work with and make it theirs.
I love how simple and direct the book is. What initially inspired you to write it?
I was inspired to write Kwanzaa as I say in the preface or introduction because I felt that we needed it.
I felt that we needed it because we need a time out, we need to be able to reflect. If we don't look back at where we've been, we're not looking forward to where we're going. So that initially inspired me to write it and in fact and indeed inspired me to refresh it.
There are abridged biographies of certain people throughout the book. What compelled you to include those?
Simply because I think that if we learn about each other across the African diaspora, we're all richer for it.
This time, I've included not only the biographies — and they're biographies of people who are ancestors, no one alive is included in that section — but there is one from Brazil, one from the Caribbean, one from the African continent and one from the US.
In the refreshing of the book, I have included an LGBTQ+ person for each of the seven nights because I think we need to widen the net and let more people into the tent.
You've had such an amazingly storied career. What's next for you?
I've got a new book coming out in June called "Braided Heritage" that's about the foundational food of the United States. Stick around, have a look at that, it's interesting — I think! — hopefully everyone else will, too.
What's next? I've got two other books in the pike to follow after that. My retirement renaissance keeps being as busy as ever.
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