Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food and Power March 1, 2008

Using a recipe of scholarly analysis, personal interviews, film, advertisements, cookbooks and literature, Williams-Forson examines the complex role of the chicken in African American life, paying special attention to the connection between chickens and African American women. From slavery to the present, families have been fed with chickens raised by these women, who have made their livings cooking and serving in houses, restaurants, on the roadside, at the harbor and in churches.