The first exhibition opening in the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s Special Exhibitions Gallery opens Friday, May 5. The exhibit will include a photograph by Port Of Harlem contributor Jason Miccolo Johnson.

Johnson is a past member and officer of the Exposure Group - African American Photographers Association. Two of the group's founding members Sharon Farmer and Milton Williams also have photographs in the exhibit. 

“Photography is about the feelings viewers have when they see the image and I am elated that the first special exhibit features the art of photography,” says Bonita Bing, president to the Exposure Group - African American Photographers Association.

In addition to Johnson, Farmer, and William's photographs, more than 150 photographs and related objects will be on display in the exhibition “More Than a Picture: Selections From the Photography Collection at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.”  The photos will be on the Concourse Level which will be used to mount temporary, short-term exhibitions in addition to the museum’s permanent inaugural exhibitions.

The photography showcases a striking visual account of key historical events, cultural touchstones, and in-his-hands and communal moments to illuminate African American life. From the eras of slavery and Jim Crow to Black Lives Matter, “More Than a Picture” presents a range of American experiences that look beyond the surface to see the photographs’ significance to history and cultural meaning.

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“Photography plays an important role in constructing memory," says Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum’s director.

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“Photography plays an important role in constructing memory. Images act not only as repositories of memory but also as stimulants and beacons for remembering,” says Lonnie G. Bunch III, the museum’s director.

Johnson’s recent works include YOURS NATURALLY: Beauty That Grows On You – photographs of women with natural hairstyles including Port Of Harlem contributor Kennedra Tucker. Tucker wrote the last issue’s lead story, Creeping Obesity: The Silent Killer. History making photographer Farmer recently conducted a workshop during the A Port Of Harlem Fall at the Alexandria Black History Museum with George Tolbert and featured on WUSA-TV’s Great Day Washington.

Back in 1991, Laurence Fishburne delivered an insight into gentrification and drugs in the 1991 movie “Boys N the Hood.” Twenty-six years later, the words are still true. 

Also from Our Archives:
Gentrification – Blacks Tricked?

BLAK MARKET, a curated vendor market featuring designers and artisans of color, returns on Saturday, May 6, 11:30am-5:00 pm, to a new Brooklyn location, St. Francis de Sales School, 260 Eastern Parkway. The market is about one block from the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, in the Prospect/Crown Heights neighborhoods. The monthly market ends in October, says coordinator Duane Thomas, and is free.

The monthly market is timed to coincide with Target First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum and will feature unique fashion, limited edition jewelry, and one-of-a-kind accessory items as well as beauty products, art, books, and edibles.

Admission to the Brooklyn Museum is free from 5p to 11pm on the first Saturday of every month.

• San Francisco became the first city to provide no-cost two-year college education.
  
  
• New York is set to become the first state to offer free tuition at public four-year colleges. (Tennessee, Oregon, and Minnesota already have free community-college programs.)
  
  
• The College for All Act was introduced in the US Congress - to be paid for by a small tax on Wall Street speculation - the bill eliminates tuition at public universities for families earning up to $125,000 a year, makes community college free for everyone, and provides student loan debt relief by cutting interest rates in half.
  
  
• Judge Gonzales Ramos held - once again - that Texas’s current photo identification law, SB 14, was enacted with racially discriminatory intent in violation of the United States Constitution.
  
  

• Tossing aside 45s Justice Department objections, a federal judge has approved an agreement negotiated under the Obama administration to overhaul the Baltimore police force.
  
  
• NPR reports: #GrabYourWallet's Anti-Trump Boycott Looks To Expand Its Reach (#GrabYourWallet, a movement boycotting Trump family products and the companies that sell them.)
  
  
• Georgetown University renames buildings to atone for slavery ties
  
  
• New Orleans to take down Confederate statues

We have not featured a cookbook in some time and Jennifer Hill Booker’s exploration into fusing traditional African American cooking with traditional French cooking was enough for us to take a look at her recipes such as Roasted Pig Feet with Whole Grain Mustard and her life story.

The Pig Feet recipe in "Dinner Déjà Vu" does not call for anything exotic, just the typical onion, garlic, bay leaf, cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper, and vegetable stock. In the recipe’s sidebar, she even lists her love for “castoff pieces” including livers and gizzards.

Chef Hill Booker used the cooking skills she learned growing up in The South while at the Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Paris. Overall, she says, “Southern and French cuisines are really just different sides of the same culinary coin.” 

“Very divisive,” added Chef Hill Booker, about her love for pig feets when at school in France. “Either they love it or hate it, no middle ground! People who love pigs feet love pigs feet, mainly for the silky texture of the gelatin and a bit for the memories of the last time they ate them. Those who dislike them, dislike them because, well they are feet, and not at all cute and cuddly,” she told Port Of Harlem.

She has learned to appreciate both cuisines and spends more time learning and sharing their similarities. “When I explain and demonstrate how similar Southern and French cuisines really are, people want to learn more about both. If their heritage is Southern, I've found that once French cuisine is demystified, they are able to see the similarities between the two and expand their Southern cooking repertoire. In the case of French cooking being their first cuisine, once they see familiar ingredients cooked a different way, they embrace it-often making changes to their traditional dishes.”

In addition to recipes, great photography stocks the book. But, when it comes to trying recipes, I will shy away from the pigs feet, but will try Pickled Shrimp & Onions.

Pickled Shrimp & Onions
Serves 8 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
2/3 cups apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 large lemon, sliced
½ cup flatleaf parsley leaves, firmly packed
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
½ cup Shrimp & Crab Pickling Spice
2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 dried cayenne peppers
12 dried bay leaves
1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced lengthwise

In a large bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, ½ cup water, sliced lemon, parsley leaves, salt, red pepper, and garlic together, and set aside. Add the Shrimp & Crab Pickling Spice and 2 quarts water to a large stock pot over medium-high heat and bring to a rolling boil. Add the shrimp and cook for 3 minutes, until they are bright pink. Drain and set aside.

Layer the hot shrimp, dried cayenne peppers, bay leaves, and sliced onions in a 2-quart glass jar. Pour in the oil and vinegar mixture, making sure all of the shrimp and onions are covered. Cover the jar with a lid, or with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving. The Pickled Shrimp & Onions taste better the longer they sit, and will keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

From Dinner Déjà Vu: Southern Tonight, French Tomorrow by Jennifer Hill Booker, © 2017 Jennifer Hill Booker, used by permission of the publisher, Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.

Thanks to the many who are using our new Share button, at the bottom right - - when viewing Port Of Harlem on the web - - to thoughtfully share Port Of Harlem with their friends. We need to increase our subscription numbers and you can help by inviting your friends to sign up, it’s free!

We just need their email address, first name, and they should at least click on the first list (A - Port Of Harlem magazine (all subjects in the bi-weekly issue). With a subscription, we will deliver them our latest, concise issue to their e-mail box, usually at 11a - - every other Thursday.

Thanks for our support during Small Businsess Week, April 30 - May 6.

Washington
Dismissing the Myths about the Ramsey Homes
Alexandria Black History Museum
902 Wythe Street
Sat, Apr 29, 11a, free

Harmonicist Avon Dews
The Mead Center For American Theater
1101 6 St, SW
Sat, Apr 29, 7:30p–10p, $35-$40

The Vision of an Inclusive Economy
in the District
The Urban Institute
Carnegie Library -- The Map Room
801 K St NW
Fri, May 5, 12p–1:30p, free

14th and U: A 20-year Transformation
Coalition for Smarter Growth
Walking tour
Sat, May 6,10a – 12p,
free registration

America, The Dream (mass choir concert)
All Souls Church Unitarian
1500 Harvard Street, NW
Sat, May 6, 3:30p, free-will offering

Literary Hill Bookfest
North Hall, Eastern Market
7th and North Carolina Ave, SE
Sun, May 7, 11a-3p, free

Seven Last Words of the Unarmed
All Souls Church Unitarian
1500 Harvard Street, NW
Thu, May 18, 7p, $20, under 18 free

Deanwood Day
with a focus on Nannie Helen Burroughs
Deanwood Recreation Center
1350 49th Street, NE
Sat, May 20, 10a, free

New York
FESTAC ''77 40th Anniversary Review & Celebration
Adam Clayton Powell Building
163 W 125th Street
Fri, Apr 28, 6p-9p, free

Kansas City, MO
White Privilege Conference
Marriott Kansas City Downtown
Thu, Apr 27-Sun, Apr 30, $

Coming
Lecture - Contemporary African Immigration
Dr. Nemata Blyden
Alexandria Black History Museum
902 Wythe Street
Alexandria
Sat, May 20, 11a-1p, free

Getting the Most of Your Vacation for Less
Bernadette Champion
Alexandria Black History Museum
902 Wythe Street
Alexandria
Sat, May 27, 11a-1p, free

Fatherless Daughter Reconciliation
Jonetta Rose Barras
Alexandria Black History Museum
902 Wythe Street
Alexandria
Sat, Jun 17, 11a-1p. $5

In E-mail



Creeping Obesity: The Silent Killer
By Kennedra Tucker

On Website

CR Gibbs
(2nd consecutive)

On Facebook

Racism motivated Trump voters
more than authoritarianism