Hidden Figures: Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor #WomensHERstoryMonth 24/28 (Patreon)

Hidden Figures: Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor #WomensHERstoryMonth 24/28

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor (April 4, 1937 – September 3, 2016) was an American culinary anthropologist, griot, food writer, and broadcaster on public media. Born into a Gullah family in the Low Country of South Carolina, she moved with them as a child to Philadelphia during the Great Migration. Her travels informed her cooking and appreciation of food as culture. She was known for her cookbook-memoir, Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl (1970), and published numerous essays and articles. She produced two award-winning documentaries and was a commentator for years on NPR, serving as a contributor to its NOW series. Grosvenor also appeared in several films, including Daughters of the Dust (1992), about a Gullah family in 1902 during a time of transition on the Sea Islands, and Beloved (1998), based on Toni Morrison's 1987 novel of the same name. She was in a National Geographic documentary about the Gullah people. For three years, she was an active member, backup singer, dancer, costume designer, and cook for Sun Ra's Arkestra. She was also a cook for the Free Breakfast Program for the Black Panthers. Grosvenor was a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered and a regular contributor to NPR's Cultural Desk. Early notable programs were her documentaries Slave Voices: Things Past Telling (1983), and Daufuskie: Never Enough Too Soon, which earned her a Robert F. Kennedy Award and an Ohio State Award. From 1988 to 1995, she was the host of NPR's documentary series Horizons. Her work there included AIDS and Black America: Breaking the Silence on the AIDS crisis in the United States, which won two awards, a duPont-Columbia Award and an Ohio State Award, in 1990. She was the host of the radio shows Seasonings, a series of holiday specials on food, cooking, and culture, which won a James Beard Award in 1996 for Best Radio Show; and The Americas' Family Kitchen, which led to a television spinoff called Vertamae Cooks. Grosvenor is the author of several books on Black American cooking, but is perhaps most famous for Vibration Cooking: or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl (1970), an autobiographical cookbook and memoir. Vibration Cooking: or, the Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, was published in 1970 and reprinted in 1986, 1992, and 2011. Grosvenor spent the last decade of her life in an artist’s colony in Ridgeland, South Carolina, just a county away from where she was born. She suffered an aneurysm in 2009, followed by a surgery that left her with residual health problems that eventually overwhelmed her body. Her daughters brought her to New York. She died in the Bronx in September of 2016 of indeterminate causes. #HiddenFigures #VertamaeSmartGrosvenor ****************** Merchandise! MAKE SURE U GETTA SHIRT!! https://www.teepublic.com/user/sssseren Follow me on social media! Instagram: @sensei_aishitemasu Personal Tumblr: http://sensei-aishitemasu.tumblr.com Tumblr for my work: https://sssseren.tumblr.com Snapchat: sssseren GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/tc5wh7q Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/seren_sensei ****************** Did you know I wrote a book? ☺️ 'So, About That... A Year of Contemporary Essays on Race and Pop Culture' Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/About-That-Contemporary-Essays-Culture-ebook/dp/B013V0CHK6 Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B013V0CHK6 Digital download (e-book): https://gumroad.com/l/IkUa ****************** Links: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvZygIwHj0q/ Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor | Our Mothers' Kitchens (Phila Print shirt): https://philadelphia-printworks.myshopify.com/products/vertamae-grosevener-our-mothers-kitchens Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl (Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Vibration-Cooking-Travel-Notes-Geechee/dp/0820337390 Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl: https://muse.jhu.edu/book/11424 Obituary: Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor died on September 3rd: https://www.economist.com/obituary/2016/09/24/obituary-vertamae-smart-grosvenor-died-on-september-3rd Remembering Culinary Griot And NPR Commentator Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/04/470547500/remembering-culinary-griot-and-npr-commentator-vertamae-smart-grosvenor Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor Is the Unsung Godmother of American Food Writing: https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/evmbwj/vertamae-smart-grosvenor-vibration-cooking-profile Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor Dies at 79; Celebrated Gullah Food and Culture: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/arts/vertamae-smart-grosvenor-dies-at-79-celebrated-gullah-food-and-culture-on-npr.html Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertamae_Smart-Grosvenor