WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.160 align:middle line:90% Of course, that core family-- 00:00:02.160 --> 00:00:05.250 align:middle line:84% the one that supposedly always has 00:00:05.250 --> 00:00:09.170 align:middle line:90% to take you in no matter what? 00:00:09.170 --> 00:00:13.230 align:middle line:84% That core family has been, for me, 00:00:13.230 --> 00:00:17.150 align:middle line:84% a real source of love and contention 00:00:17.150 --> 00:00:19.200 align:middle line:90% and all of those things. 00:00:19.200 --> 00:00:21.890 align:middle line:84% But one thing we did agree on was 00:00:21.890 --> 00:00:24.440 align:middle line:84% that for all of the picnic holidays, 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:28.850 align:middle line:84% like Labor Day and Memorial Day, that we 00:00:28.850 --> 00:00:30.830 align:middle line:90% would get together and eat. 00:00:30.830 --> 00:00:33.500 align:middle line:84% Food-- food was the connecting force. 00:00:33.500 --> 00:00:37.970 align:middle line:90% And so I grew up in-- 00:00:37.970 --> 00:00:40.490 align:middle line:84% as many of you may know, I grew up in the Midwest. 00:00:40.490 --> 00:00:44.780 align:middle line:84% And you could probably hear that, and yet-- 00:00:44.780 --> 00:00:45.980 align:middle line:90% in Akron, Ohio. 00:00:45.980 --> 00:00:51.200 align:middle line:84% And because of the politics of this nation, 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:54.440 align:middle line:84% most of my neighbors and most of my relatives 00:00:54.440 --> 00:00:58.070 align:middle line:84% came from the South, looking for jobs, in the '20s. 00:00:58.070 --> 00:01:01.400 align:middle line:84% And so there's a curious and interesting sense 00:01:01.400 --> 00:01:07.430 align:middle line:84% of moving that Southern cuisine and language all the way up 00:01:07.430 --> 00:01:12.530 align:middle line:90% into the Midwest. 00:01:12.530 --> 00:01:17.510 align:middle line:84% "Family Reunion"-- "30 seconds into the barbecue, 00:01:17.510 --> 00:01:21.740 align:middle line:84% my Cleveland cousins have everyone speaking Southern, 00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:27.680 align:middle line:84% broadened vowels and dropped consonants, whoops and caws. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:33.320 align:middle line:84% It's more osmosis than magic, a sliding thrall back to a time 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:37.220 align:middle line:84% when working the tire factories meant entire neighborhoods 00:01:37.220 --> 00:01:40.370 align:middle line:84% coming up from Georgia or Tennessee, 00:01:40.370 --> 00:01:46.880 align:middle line:84% accents helplessly intact, while their children, inflections 00:01:46.880 --> 00:01:50.240 align:middle line:84% flattened to match the field they thought they were playing 00:01:50.240 --> 00:01:56.150 align:middle line:84% on, knew without asking when it was safe to roll out a drawl, 00:01:56.150 --> 00:02:00.980 align:middle line:84% just as it's understood "potluck" means resurrecting 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:05.300 align:middle line:84% the food we've abandoned along the way for the sake of sleeker 00:02:05.300 --> 00:02:07.290 align:middle line:90% thighs. 00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:09.750 align:middle line:84% I look over the yard to the porch 00:02:09.750 --> 00:02:12.900 align:middle line:84% with its battalion of aunts, the wavering 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:15.720 align:middle line:90% ranks of uncles at the grill. 00:02:15.720 --> 00:02:20.490 align:middle line:84% Everywhere else, hordes of progeny are swirling, 00:02:20.490 --> 00:02:23.640 align:middle line:84% and my cousins yakking on as if they 00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:26.880 align:middle line:84% were waist-deep in quicksand but, like the books recommend, 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:31.920 align:middle line:84% aren't moving until someone hauls them free. 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:35.220 align:middle line:90% Who are all these children? 00:02:35.220 --> 00:02:38.130 align:middle line:90% Who had them, and with whom? 00:02:38.130 --> 00:02:40.410 align:middle line:84% Through the general coffee tones, 00:02:40.410 --> 00:02:44.580 align:middle line:84% the shame genetics cut a creamy swath. 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:49.260 align:middle line:84% Cherokee's burnt umber transposed onto generous lips, 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:54.390 align:middle line:84% a glance flares gray above the crushed nose we label 00:02:54.390 --> 00:02:56.550 align:middle line:90% 'Anonymous African.' 00:02:56.550 --> 00:03:01.530 align:middle line:84% It's all here, the beautiful geometry of Mendel's peas 00:03:01.530 --> 00:03:03.930 align:middle line:90% and their grim logic. 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:09.030 align:middle line:84% And though we remain clearly divided on the merits of okra, 00:03:09.030 --> 00:03:12.090 align:middle line:84% there's still time to demolish the cheese grits 00:03:12.090 --> 00:03:15.960 align:middle line:84% and tear into slow-cooked ribs so tender 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:20.100 align:middle line:84% we agree they're worth the extra pound or two our menfolk 00:03:20.100 --> 00:03:23.490 align:middle line:84% swear we'll always bring them home. 00:03:23.490 --> 00:03:27.090 align:middle line:84% Pity the poor soul who lives a life 00:03:27.090 --> 00:03:33.990 align:middle line:84% without butter, those pinched knees and tennis shoulders 00:03:33.990 --> 00:03:35.516 align:middle line:90% and hatchety smiles." 00:03:35.516 --> 00:03:38.070 align:middle line:90% 00:03:38.070 --> 00:03:39.450 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:03:39.450 --> 00:03:40.280 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:41.265 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:41.265 --> 00:03:43.990 align:middle line:90% 00:03:43.990 --> 00:03:44.490 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:03:44.490 --> 00:03:49.350 align:middle line:84% You don't have to clap after each poem, 00:03:49.350 --> 00:03:54.630 align:middle line:84% though I must say I'm on the side of not liking okra. 00:03:54.630 --> 00:03:56.320 align:middle line:90% My husband loves it. 00:03:56.320 --> 00:03:59.970 align:middle line:84% We have this argument all the time. 00:03:59.970 --> 00:04:03.110 align:middle line:84% It's a consistency thing, you know? 00:04:03.110 --> 00:04:04.000 align:middle line:90%