Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness
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Anthropologist Ashanté M. Reese, professor of African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin, examines food not simply as sustenance, but as a means through which Black communities create connection, care, and resilience. Expanding on a broader multimedia project, also called Gather, Reese considers how everyday acts surrounding food (cooking, gardening, mourning, celebrating, organizing) become forms of collective nourishment and mutual support.
Structured around four places and types of gathering—gardens, family reunions, repasts, and protests—the book combines ethnographic research, personal narrative, and cultural analysis to explore the relationship between food and community life. Reese argues that many of the practices associated with “food justice” already exist within Black communal traditions, often outside institutional frameworks.
More reflective than prescriptive, Gather situates food within broader conversations about memory, inequality, ritual, and care, offering a thoughtful study of how people sustain one another through shared meals and shared space.
Hardcover.
Published on April 14, 2026
