VERTAMAE SMART-GROSVENOR (1937–2016) was a poet, actress, culinary anthropologist, and writer. She is the author of
Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap,
Vertamae Cooks in the Americas’ Family Kitchen, and
Vertamae Cooks Again: More Recipes from the Americas’ Family Kitchen. She has served as a correspondent and host for National Public Radio and written for the
New York Times, the
Village Voice, the
Washington Post, Life, Ebony, and
Essence.
Vibration Cooking was first published in 1970, not long after the term “soul food” gained common use. While critics were quick to categorize her as a proponent of soul food, Smart-Grosvenor wanted to keep the discussion of her cookbook/memoir focused on its message of food as a source of pride and validation of black womanhood and black “consciousness raising.”
In 1959, at the age of nineteen, Smart-Grosvenor sailed to Europe, “where the bohemians lived and let live.” Among the cosmopolites of radical Paris, the Gullah girl from the South Carolina low country quickly realized that the most universal lingua franca is a well-cooked meal. As she recounts a cool cat’s nine lives as chanter, dancer, costume designer, and member of the Sun Ra Solar-Myth Arkestra, Smart-Grosvenor introduces us to a rich cast of characters. We meet Estella Smart, Vertamae’s grandmother and connoisseur of mountain oysters; Uncle Costen, who lived to be 112 and knew how to make Harriet Tubman Ragout; and Archie Shepp, responsible for Collard Greens à la Shepp, to name a few. She also tells us how poundcake got her a marriage proposal (she didn’t accept) and how she perfected omelettes in Paris, enchiladas in New Mexico, biscuits in Mississippi, and feijoida in Brazil³-
![Vibration Cooking or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/6/6/8/2_341232.jpg)