Alicia, it's so exciting to see the journey you've taken with these essays.
When I now read back through older ones, and when I remember first reading you, I can still always see this kernel that your questions/thoughts have always circled around, and the kernel hasn't changed - maybe perhaps just the confidence and desire and ability to delve deeper and deeper into what you were understanding really lights a fire under you as your reading and work projects guided you.
I always love to be able to reflect back and see that kernel, the why of it all that leads us to be readers and writers in the first place, that hasn't ever really changed, even as reading and discussions and maturity lead to perhaps more open-minded considerations of the questions (I'm talking here about myself, too, really, in that my somewhat binary thinking on so many of the very topics you tease out in your work, such as whether it's "right" to eat meat for example, has evolved over the years, too - but that the kernel of why I ever asked myself that question in the first place is always there and the same, if that makes sense?).
Sorry for such a rambly note. I just felt as I was reading this essay how grateful I am for your work, and how rare a thing it is to have the privilege to see someone's considered and measured and beautifully written thought processes teased out on a consistent weekly basis over a period of years. You so deserve any and all good things happening off the back of that, and I feel you pave the way in reminding us: questioning and reading and writing and sharing as a way of life is, and should be, seen as so much more essential and beautiful and worthy (and in worthy I include the notion of it not being such a battle to make a living from, relegating something so important to the sidelines, for those who choose it) than it sometimes is (again, maybe I'm projecting and thinking about the people who don't appreciate thinking and writing like this, people who are like ... why are you overthinking this? Why do you need to tie yourself in knots questioning this? Cos, friends, it's just not a choice for some people, it's how we're wired, and when we try to change that wiring, the outcomes are disturbing!)
This is so gratifying to be told right now, you have no idea! It can feel so strange to think in public like this endlessly, to know you’re often in some ways repeating yourself but in so doing are just trying to get at something deeper.
I really appreciate that you are getting anything out of these essays and have stuck around. Thank you. And yes--some of us are just wired this way!!!
Interesting and provocative. I learned everything I know about leftist recipes and ethical eating at a queer women’s vegan collective squatted cafe in London in the early millennium.
i had actually never considered the question, ‘Is there such a thing as a leftist recipe?’ I had thought a lot about the usual stuff like ingredients, sourcing (everything from where and how to who), culture (and appropriation), generational relationships, all that stuff... but a recipe as ‘leftist’? no --- but then your essay incorporates pretty much everything of this, and in such an intriguing way - it has turned my head around several times, reading it again and again, which is what I hope anything I read can do (but rarely does) -- so, thank you so very much Alicia, for helping me see things a new way, inspiring.....
I should’ve explained exactly what I meant by “leftist” here--my thinking has felt all over the place because of book promo! As well as running out of my favored notebook 😂--but I’m glad this was useful. I think what I’m getting at is that thinking about sourcing, knowledge, relationships as they pertain to food is necessarily in hopes of a certain vision of the world especially when considered in a non-nationalist context.
I have an immediate positive visceral reaction to ‘leftist’ :) it is in my blood, have always identified this way (going back to my early teenage years, when my ‘Catholic left’ identity was very much a chosen one) ... even if what it actually meant was always a bit undefined: ‘all over the place’, for me too
After reading this essay yesterday, it was on my mind while I was looking into information on contributing to a local community fridge/pantry. So far, the only fridge organizers I’ve met have been women; it’s volunteer-run, and the volunteer sign up sheet indicates a woman-majority involvement. This is just another example of what you wrote about, and all points to the question of, who is pushing for liberation through food, and more broadly, care?
This is disappointing but not surprising. I really think it’s such a pivotal point of possible change, and yet it feels so dated to say! But gender still defines relationships to care work, broadly. It’s wild.
I have been writing around some of these concepts lately--well, more like nervously tiptoeing around them--and as your words so often do, am now motivated to keep at it. First action: telling my partner to fuck off more while I enjoy my olives. Could not love this more 💜
I told my husband recently (who cooks more than I do for us) that more women would have been president if they had someone doing all the caretaking. It is indeed infuriating the amount of time women spend doing the caretaking activities that are necessary and good for all of us (and at times fun) but unpaid or undervalued and overburdening.
I keep repeating to my husband that husbands add 7 hours of labor to wives’ weeks! It’s astounding what women take on in care work without realizing--I’ll talk more about wages for housework next week!
Alicia, it's so exciting to see the journey you've taken with these essays.
When I now read back through older ones, and when I remember first reading you, I can still always see this kernel that your questions/thoughts have always circled around, and the kernel hasn't changed - maybe perhaps just the confidence and desire and ability to delve deeper and deeper into what you were understanding really lights a fire under you as your reading and work projects guided you.
I always love to be able to reflect back and see that kernel, the why of it all that leads us to be readers and writers in the first place, that hasn't ever really changed, even as reading and discussions and maturity lead to perhaps more open-minded considerations of the questions (I'm talking here about myself, too, really, in that my somewhat binary thinking on so many of the very topics you tease out in your work, such as whether it's "right" to eat meat for example, has evolved over the years, too - but that the kernel of why I ever asked myself that question in the first place is always there and the same, if that makes sense?).
Sorry for such a rambly note. I just felt as I was reading this essay how grateful I am for your work, and how rare a thing it is to have the privilege to see someone's considered and measured and beautifully written thought processes teased out on a consistent weekly basis over a period of years. You so deserve any and all good things happening off the back of that, and I feel you pave the way in reminding us: questioning and reading and writing and sharing as a way of life is, and should be, seen as so much more essential and beautiful and worthy (and in worthy I include the notion of it not being such a battle to make a living from, relegating something so important to the sidelines, for those who choose it) than it sometimes is (again, maybe I'm projecting and thinking about the people who don't appreciate thinking and writing like this, people who are like ... why are you overthinking this? Why do you need to tie yourself in knots questioning this? Cos, friends, it's just not a choice for some people, it's how we're wired, and when we try to change that wiring, the outcomes are disturbing!)
This is so gratifying to be told right now, you have no idea! It can feel so strange to think in public like this endlessly, to know you’re often in some ways repeating yourself but in so doing are just trying to get at something deeper.
I really appreciate that you are getting anything out of these essays and have stuck around. Thank you. And yes--some of us are just wired this way!!!
Interesting and provocative. I learned everything I know about leftist recipes and ethical eating at a queer women’s vegan collective squatted cafe in London in the early millennium.
These were the kinds of spaces that first enamored me!
i had actually never considered the question, ‘Is there such a thing as a leftist recipe?’ I had thought a lot about the usual stuff like ingredients, sourcing (everything from where and how to who), culture (and appropriation), generational relationships, all that stuff... but a recipe as ‘leftist’? no --- but then your essay incorporates pretty much everything of this, and in such an intriguing way - it has turned my head around several times, reading it again and again, which is what I hope anything I read can do (but rarely does) -- so, thank you so very much Alicia, for helping me see things a new way, inspiring.....
I should’ve explained exactly what I meant by “leftist” here--my thinking has felt all over the place because of book promo! As well as running out of my favored notebook 😂--but I’m glad this was useful. I think what I’m getting at is that thinking about sourcing, knowledge, relationships as they pertain to food is necessarily in hopes of a certain vision of the world especially when considered in a non-nationalist context.
I have an immediate positive visceral reaction to ‘leftist’ :) it is in my blood, have always identified this way (going back to my early teenage years, when my ‘Catholic left’ identity was very much a chosen one) ... even if what it actually meant was always a bit undefined: ‘all over the place’, for me too
As I’m sure you know, my politics are influenced (even if undefined, which I think and hope just means open and understanding!) by the same tradition!
After reading this essay yesterday, it was on my mind while I was looking into information on contributing to a local community fridge/pantry. So far, the only fridge organizers I’ve met have been women; it’s volunteer-run, and the volunteer sign up sheet indicates a woman-majority involvement. This is just another example of what you wrote about, and all points to the question of, who is pushing for liberation through food, and more broadly, care?
This is disappointing but not surprising. I really think it’s such a pivotal point of possible change, and yet it feels so dated to say! But gender still defines relationships to care work, broadly. It’s wild.
I have been writing around some of these concepts lately--well, more like nervously tiptoeing around them--and as your words so often do, am now motivated to keep at it. First action: telling my partner to fuck off more while I enjoy my olives. Could not love this more 💜
I told my husband recently (who cooks more than I do for us) that more women would have been president if they had someone doing all the caretaking. It is indeed infuriating the amount of time women spend doing the caretaking activities that are necessary and good for all of us (and at times fun) but unpaid or undervalued and overburdening.
I keep repeating to my husband that husbands add 7 hours of labor to wives’ weeks! It’s astounding what women take on in care work without realizing--I’ll talk more about wages for housework next week!
Once again, you distill what has been swirling around in my brain! Thank you, A.
Thank YOU! Hope to see you in Baltimore!
Oh, I'll be bringing the whole fam and friends. So so happy that you made time for Charm City.