This Jazz Kitchen conversation will cohere around Black women's practices of care and hospitality. We will talk about how we understand and put these concepts into action in our domestic spaces and in the world. Dr. Tammy Kernodle will share insights from her research on pianist Mary Lou Williams' and harpist/pianist Alice Coltrane's apartments/homes, their labor of care, connection, and creativity and what those spaces engendered artistically. Maya-Camille Broussard, founder of Justice of The Pies here in Chicago, shares her insight as a baker who's work sustains a strong justice-focused model. We will discuss how this work and that of women in our own families reflects and shapes an ongoing tradition of Black women's hospitality and care--a tradition that at different times extends, transcends, or works in direct opposition to mainstream, state- and industry-led notions.
MONICA HAIRSTON O’CONNELL
MONICA HAIRSTON O’CONNELL is the founder of Curtis & Cake, an evolving project studio exploring culture and connection at the dessert table. Within this space, O’Connell has run a bespoke wedding and celebration cake business, held seasonal pop ups, and created projects and presentations for Madison Gallery Night, 3Arts Chicago, and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A new project, The Black Repast, links ephemerality, cake design and collective mourning in the age of Black Lives Matter. O’Connell teaches cake decorating classes that emphasize self-expression and improvisation and writes the Foodways column for Edible Madison. She is currently working on a book about sites of Black hospitality.
O’Connell holds a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from New York University and served as the Executive Director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago from 2007-2015. She has been a John Nicholas Brown Center for the Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage fellow and a Chicago Community Trust Fellow. Her work in this vein has been published in the Black Music Research Journal, Women & Music, Chamber Music America Magazine, and the anthology Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies among other venues. She co-authored “Forty Years of Fellowships: A Study of Orchestra’s Efforts to Include African American and Latino Musicians” with Nick Rabkin on behalf of the League of American Orchestras.
Throughout her varied professional lives, O’Connell's through line is Black women’s creative and care work.
TAMMY L. KERNODLE
TAMMY L. KERNODLE is an internationally-recognized scholar and musician that teaches and researches in the areas of African American music and gender and music. She has worked closely with a number of educational programs including The American Jazz Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, NPR, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the BBC. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, anthologies ,and online platforms including NPR's Turning the Table Series and a recent digital exhibit of jazz materials at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Kernodle is the author of biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music and the Editorial team for the revision of the Grove Dictionary of American Music. She has appeared in a number of award-winning documentaries including Girls in the Band, The Lady Who Swings the Band and Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool. Dr. Kernodle currently serves as the President of the Society for American Music and is Professor of Musicology at Miami University.
Maya-Camille Broussard, Justice of the Pies
JUSTICE OF THE PIES is a bakery that specializes in sweet and savory pies, quiches and tarts. MAYA-CAMILLE BROUSSARD established Justice of the Pies in honor of her late father, Stephen J. Broussard. Steve, who dubbed himself the Pie Master, was a criminal defense attorney with a passion for baking and eating anything made with a crust! Justice of the Pies was created to celebrate his love for pies and to honor his belief that everyone deserves an opportunity to reform their lives. Justice of the Pies is committed to delivering amazing pies, quiches and tarts while positively impacting the lives of those who work for us.
Formed as an L3C, Justice of the Pies considers itself to be a social mission in a culinary art form. Our goal is to positively impact the lives of those who work with us. The bakery has previously partnered with DreamOn Education to activate the I KNEAD LOVE Workshop. The one-day workshop provides elementary-aged children from lower-income communities instruction on nutritional development, acquiring basic cooking skills, and encouraging creativity in the kitchen. The primary goal of this program is to contribute to efforts in ending food insecurities. Justice of the Pies also partners with the Cabrini Green Legal Aid (CGLA). CGLA was created to serve legal needs arising from the lack of opportunity, criminalization of poverty, and racial inequity experienced within the Cabrini Green community. Since then, CGLA has grown beyond a single neighborhood to become a citywide, countywide, and now recognized statewide leader in supporting low-income individuals negatively impacted by the criminal justice system. Justice of the Pies and CGLA collaborate on a yearly “pie drive”
to raise money for the organization. Justice of the Pies is committed to providing decency and equality while consistently seeking ways in which it can be a steward for fairness.
Maya-Camille Broussard bio:
Chicago-based Chef Maya-Camille Broussard is the owner of Justice of the Pies, a bakery that specializes in sweet and savory pies, quiches and tarts. Broussard created the company in 2014 in memory of her late father, Stephen J. Broussard, a criminal defense attorney with a deep love for anything made in a crust. As a philanthropist, Broussard formed the “I KNEAD LOVE” Workshop, a culinary enrichment program designed to contribute to the fight against food insecurities for youths in grades 5th-8th, living in lower-income communities that may not have access to healthy food options. Students learn valuable kitchen skills, how to tap into creativity, and the importance of nutrition. Broussard is building a community that loves to eat and satisfy sweet tooth cravings with her subscription-based cooking classes Justice for All. Members learn alongside the chef and enhance their at-home cooking experience with her global food and drink recipes. Broussard considers Justice of the Pies to be a social mission in a culinary art form and aims to positively impact the lives of others through her purpose driven work. A graduate of Howard University and Northwestern University, Broussard partners with the Cabrini Green Legal Aid for it’s yearly pie-drive to raise money for the organization, which provides free legal services for families living in poverty.