Suzanne Cope — Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement
When:
Monday, Mar 13, 2023 6:00p -
7:30p
Monday, Mar 13, 2023 6:00p -
7:30p
Where:
Commonwealth Salon of the Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Admission:
FREE
Hosted by:
Categories:
Food, History, Lectures & Conferences, Social Good
Event website:
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/63c6b8db1844683155dd8c44
Learn about how food was used by women as a potent & necessary ideological tool in the rural south & urban north to create lasting change.
A narrative journalist with a focus on food and women's work as a tool for social and political change will discuss how food was used by women as a potent and necessary ideological tool in both the rural south and urban north of the United States to create lasting social and political transformation. After the conversation ends at 7 PM, there will be an author signing facilitated by Trident Booksellers and Cafe until 7:30 PM.
To attend, please register at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/author-talk-with-suzanne-cope-power-hungry-tickets-517774516517.
About the book
In early 1969 Cleo Silvers and a few Black Panther Party members met at a community center laden with boxes of donated food to cook for the neighborhood children. By the end of the year, the Black Panthers would be feeding more children daily in all of their breakfast programs than the state of California was at that time.
More than a thousand miles away, Aylene Quin had spent the decade using her restaurant in McComb, Mississippi, to host secret planning meetings of civil rights leaders and organizations, feed the hungry, and cement herself as a community leader who could bring people together—physically and philosophically—over a meal.
These two women’s tales, separated by a handful of years, tell the same story: how food was used by women as a potent and necessary ideological tool in both the rural south and urban north to create lasting social and political change. The leadership of these women cooking and serving food in a safe space for their communities was so powerful, the FBI resorted to coordinated extensive and often illegal means to stop the efforts of these two women, and those using similar tactics, under COINTELPRO—turning a blind eye to the firebombing of the children of a restaurant owner, destroying food intended for poor kids, and declaring a community breakfast program a major threat to public safety.
But of course, it was never just about the food.
About the author
Suzanne Cope is a narrative journalist with a focus on food and women's work as a tool for social and political change. In addition to her book POWER HUNGRY, she has written about similar topics for the New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN, BBC, and Washington Post among others. Dr. Cope teaches writing at New York University and is working on her next book, Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis.
About the BPL's COVID-19 health and safety protocols
- Program attendees are recommended to wear masks covering their noses and mouths.
- Read the BPL's latest COVID-19 guidelines for visiting the library.
- Program presenters will remove their masks during the program.
