L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
was in the single digits, super-
vised by his grandmother.

“I quickly moved from
crayons and coloring books
to shredding greens, washing
rice,” Twitty said.

His love of cooking, paired
with his study of anthro-
pology and African-American
studies at Howard University,
precipitated his 2010 food blog
Afroculinaria, where he was
able to document his research
on various foodways.

Twitty’s scholarship has seen
him synthesize his research
and lived experience as a
Black Jew into ever-evolving
ideas about what it means for
marginalized and oppressed
peoples to survive and fl ourish.

African American and
Jewish people share a diasporic
link, he said.

“People get it when you
say that there was a civiliza-
tion we as Jews created that
was portable ... What happens
when you don’t have the holy
city, Yerushalayim, and the
Bais Hamikdash [Temple of
Jerusalem]? Th e base of all these
things — you carry it here and
here,” Twitty said, pointing to
his head and his heart.

Th e notion of carrying a
culture and sense of home
internally is shared by the
African diaspora, Twitty
Chai. argued. Preservation of
ancestry and culture takes
place when one partakes in a
variety of practices.

“You march, you dance, you
cook, you preach, you sing,
you write, you create and you
reinterpret the reinterpreted,”
he said.

Internally, diasporic peoples
also carry the memories of
ancestors, which is combative
against “historic and cultural
amnesia.” “Someone told me recently
that the most radical thing they
think we can have these days
is a long memory,” said event
moderator Daniel Samuels,
WNMAJH public programs
manager. Twitty agreed and wove
these abstract ideas about
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JEWISHEXPONENT.COM the past, Twitty is far from eager
to understand his research as
defi nitive or comprehensive.

His work is as ever-changing
as the identities he holds and
the person he is becoming.

“We don’t have to have
all the answers; some of the
answers reveal themselves;
the conversation is sometimes
the answer,” Twitty said. “We
as the Jewish people — our
identity is complex for a reason
because it’s not supposed to be
easy. We are supposed to be a
God-wrestling people.”
Twitty was hosted by
WNMAJH in partnership
with Jews in ALL Hues as part
of the museum’s mission to
create “educational programs
and experiences that preserve,
explore and celebrate the
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States,” Samuels said.

For Jews in ALL Hues
founder and Executive Director
Jared Jackson, acknowledg-
ment of Twitty’s work from
other institutions is a step
toward expanding the roles
that Jews of color sometimes
fall into when in predomi-
nantly white spaces.

“It’s oft en the case where
there are Jews of color who
are presenting, and all we talk
about is racism or all we’re
called upon to talk about is
racism,” Jackson said. “It’s
really good to see that ... we’re
getting into more celebratory
spaces.” ●
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intergenerational memory and
diaspora with stories of his
family. He challenged preconceived
notions about Ashkenazi food
being bland and heavy: “It’s
the food of the people; you’re
talking about people who were
necessarily inventive, frugal,
creative. Th e food had color.”
He dismissed the reductive
history that soul food was a
cuisine developed by Black
enslaved people using food
scraps from white slave owners:
“You’re denying the resistance
of enslaved people, you’re
denying agency, ownership, the
fact that they actually curated
the passing down of culture
from Africa to America,”
Twitty said.

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