The fifth annual Soul Food Sampling event will be served on Feb. 9, 2019 at St. Luke & Odd Fellows Hall in Blacksburg.
Seating times in the airy 110-year-old Greek Classic frame lodge are 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
“Come join the community for some delicious soul food with a side of local history,” Rhonda Morgan, executive director of the Blacksburg Museum and Cultural Foundation said in a phone interview. “It generally sells out pretty quickly. We can only accommodate 18 people at a seating. A resident joins each table to just kind of talk about their memories of the hall and the New Town community. And the recipes are authentic from that group.”
Tickets are $25 and, if the weather is bad, the date shifts to Feb. 23, 2019.
The culture-sharing event is presented by a diversity of organizations including the Blacksburg Museum & Cultural Foundation, the Odd Fellows Committee, the Virginia Tech Foundation, the North End Merchants, Downtown Blacksburg, Inc. Champs Sports Bar and Cafe, and Blue Ridge Mountain Catering & Wikiteria Market & Cafe.
“Food is an important aspect of every culture,” the foundation’s event announcement said. “How it is procured, prepared, and consumed differs as cultures develop over different times, places, and circumstances. Today, “soul food” describes certain tastes and ingredients as well as the traditions of survival, community cohesion, and caring family relationships.”
The event includes a brief discussion of the history and traditions of soul food, the recollections of residents of the former New Town neighborhood where the hall is located, and delicious samplings of traditional soul foods.
“Guests will enjoy great company in an atmosphere of lively conversation, informative discussions, and excellent examples of this truly American cuisine,” the announcement said.
The site of the sampling is rich in meaning. St. Luke & Odd Fellows Hall, the last remaining structure of New Town, served as the community-gathering place during segregation from the early 1900s until the mid-1960s. Over time, the neighborhood of New Town around the hall was lost, leaving St. Luke & Odd Fellows Hall to serve “as an important reminder of the resilience, pride, self-reliance, and community spirit of the people who lived in New Town as well as the injustice that segregation imposed,” the Blacksburg website dedicated to New Town reads.
Now, these samplings set a welcoming table for conversations around foodways, history and future, answering questions of “What are the traditions that make this cuisine truly original?”, “Where did the term “soul food” come from and what does it symbolize?,” “What are the special ingredients and preparation methods that characterize soul food?” and “How does it differ from other American cuisines? Most importantly, how does it taste?” the announcement said.
“A lot of things are so organic. Last year, people just stood up and sang. It ‘s just the sweetest event ever. It’s so community minded and it really is wonderful. I think everybody should experience it at least once,” Morgan said.
