Jessica B. Harris – författare

Savor the food, flavor, rhythm, and romance of the Caribbean. A truly authentic guide to down-home traditional Caribbean cooking, the kind you'd find at roadside stands, Sky Juice and Flying Fish captures the feel of the Islands, bringing the blue-green sea, the tropical breeze, and the exotic scents of the Caribbean into the American kitchen. A culinary history of each of the Islands provides the perfect introduction to the 150 mouth-watering recipes for appetizers and soups, entrees, side dishes, and desserts, all featuring the distinctly exotic seasonings -- ginger, garlic, chili, coconut, curries, and rum -- of the Caribbean. Begin your meal with plantain chips and a rum-spiked 'ti-punch. Go on to Bajan Fried Chicken from Barbados, complemented by a banana-ginger chutney and served with Jamaican Rice and Peas. Finish up with a sumptuous coconut pudding. A glossary lists ingredients from achiote (small reddish berries) to z'yeux noirs (black-eyed peas), which can be found in grocery stores, Caribbean markets, or through the mail-order source list provided in the appendix.

In this captivating new memoir, award-winning writer Jessica B. Harris recalls her youth “surrounded by some of the most famous creative minds of the seventies and eighties…James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Nina Simone” (New York magazine)—in a vibrant, lost era of New York City.In the Technicolor glow of the early seventies, Jessica B. Harris debated, celebrated, and danced her way from the jazz clubs of the Manhattan’s West Side to the restaurants of Greenwich Village, living out her buoyant youth alongside the great minds of the day—luminaries like Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. My Soul Looks Back is her tribute to that fascinating social circle and their shared commitment to activism, intellectual engagement, and each other. With “simmering warmth” (The New York Times), Harris paints evocative portraits of her illustrious friends: Baldwin as he read aloud an early draft of If Beale Street Could Talk, Angelou cooking in her California kitchen, and Morrison relaxing at Baldwin’s house in Provence. Harris describes her role as theater critic for the New York Amsterdam News and editor at then-burgeoning Essence magazine; star-studded parties in the South of France; drinks at Mikell’s, a hip West Side club; and the simple joy these extraordinary people took in each other’s company. At the center is Harris’s relationship with Sam Floyd, a fellow professor at Queens College, who introduced her to Baldwin. More than a memoir of friendship and first love, My Soul Looks Back is a carefully crafted, intimately understood homage to a bygone era and the people that made it so remarkable.

For over forty years, professor and culinary historian Jessica B. Harris has collected postcards depicting Africans and their descendants in the American diaspora. They are presented for the first time in this exquisite volume. Vintage Postcards from the African World: In the Dignity of Their Work and the Joy of Their Play brings together more than 150 images, providing a visual document of more than a century of work in agricultural and culinary pursuits and joy in entertainments, parades, and celebrations.Organized by geography - Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States - as well as by the types of scenes depicted - the farm, the garden, and the sea; the marketplace; the vendors and the cooks; leisure, entertainments, and festivities - the images capture the dignity of the labors of everyday life and the pride of festive occasions. Superb and rare images demonstrate everything from how Africans and their descendants dressed to what tools they used to how their entertainments provided relief from toil. Three essays accompany the postcards, one of which details Harris's collection and the collecting process. A second presents suggestions on how to interpret the cards. A final essay gives brief information on the history of postcards and postcard dating and its increasing use and value to scholars.