Vertamae Grosvenor

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Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor (born 1938 in Hampton County, South Carolina) is a culinary anthropologist / griot, food writer, and broadcaster on public media.

She appeared in the film Daughters of the Dust (1992), directed by Julie Dash, which was about a Gullah family in 1902, at a time of transition on the Sea Islands.

Early life and education

Vertamae Smart was born in 1938 and raised in Hampton County, South Carolina in the Low Country. She grew up speaking Gullah, as her parents' families had been in the area for centuries and were part of the culture. She grew up on Low Country cuisine, and recounted her grandmother Estella Smart's way with oysters in her first cookbook, published in 1970. She became interested in food and cooking as expressions of culture.

Early career

In 1959 at the age of 19, Smart took off for the bohemian circles of Europe, traveling to Paris, France; cities in Italy, and other European countries. In Paris, she recognized that a Senegalese woman selling food on the street was using techniques she knew from home; and she began to write about food and cooking as expressions of culture.[1]

She eventually settled in New York City, where she was attracted to the Black Arts Movement. For a time she was a chanter, dancer, costume designer, and member of Sun Ra's Solar-Myth Arkestra.[2]

Broadcasting

Grosvenor has been a long-time contributor to public broadcasting in the United States, and a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered. She is a regular contributor to NPR's Cultural Desk. Early notable programs were her 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.[3]

From 1988 to 1995, she was the host of NPR's documentary series Horizons, which was discontinued. Her work there included specials on the AIDS crisis in the United States, which won two awards in 1990; as well as a program on South Africa.[3]

She is also the host of Seasonings, a series of holiday specials on food and culture.

Writing

Grosvenor is the author of Vibration Cooking, also known as The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl. The cookbook, originally published in 1970 and printed in several editions since then, is an autobiographical culinary cookbook. She wanted to emphasize cooking as a source of pride and black consciousness. It also documents her journey from the dusty roads of South Carolina to the bright lights of cities in France, Italy, and other European countries, and her final destination in New York. Through her experiences, Vertamae uses food as a means of introducing the reader to people, places, rituals, and international culinary delights.[2]

Vibration Cooking focuses on Low Country cooking and Geechee (or Gullah) cooking. The book emphasizes spontaneity and intuition in the kitchen. Grosvenor shows the reader how to cook by "vibration," rather than precisely measuring ingredients, and how to "make do" with ingredients on hand. She captures the essence of traditional African-American techniques of the Low Country. Her book uses its hearty, simple, healthful, basic ingredients, including shrimp, oysters, crab, fresh produce, rice, and sweet potatoes. The first edition is now a classic-cookbook collectors' must-have.

Grosvenor's Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap (1972) was published by Doubleday as a work of sociology. She has published additional books on cooking.

In addition to books, she has been a contributing editor to Élan and Essence magazines. She has published articles in the Village Voice, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Personal

Smart married Mr. Grosvenor. They had a daughter Kali, and later separated. Kali is married and a poet, essayist and author.

Grosvenor later had the daughter Chandra Ursule Weinland. She is married and an actor, visual artist, and poet.

Honors

See also

Publications

  • Smart-Grosvenor, Vertamae. Vibration Cooking: The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl. Ballantine Books, 1992. ISBN 0-345-37667-6.
  • Grosvenor, Vertamae. Vertamae Cooks in America's Family Kitchen. KQED Books, 1996. 0-91233388X.
  • Grosvenor, Vertamae. Vertamae Cooks Again. Bay Books, 1999. ISBN 0-912333-91-X.
  • Vertamae, Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap, New York: Doubleday, 1972

References

  1. ↑ Brief Bio: "Vertamae Grosvenor", The Writers Almanac, American Public Media
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Vibration Cooking: or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, University of Georgia Press, 2011
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bio: "Vertamae Grosvenor", NPR

External links

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