Photographs and recipes are a perfect way to link the past with the present. On Thursday, Aug. 7, Our House Culture Center on Germantown Avenue will host a workshop teaching attendees to make cyanotype prints from family recipes.
Cyanotype is an early photographic technique for reproducing images that leaves the resulting copy with a unique blue tinge. Professional artists Qiaira Riley and Yannick Lowery will lead this free two-hour experience, helping attendees make a special keepsake of their family recipes in cyanotype’s unique blue print. The event is titled “Who made the cornbread?”
While attendees are welcome to bring their own recipes, the event focuses on cornbread because of its importance to the American culinary tradition, especially African American culture.
Levester Williams, an artist in residence with Philadelphia-based public art nonprofit Monument Lab, reached out to Riley and Lowery because he wanted to produce a “creative multifaceted opportunity” surrounding cornbread. Riley and Lowery are established in the Philadelphia area and have held art workshops throughout the region, collaborating with organizations including Da Vinci Art Alliance, Mural Arts Philadelphia, and The Arts League.
Riley describes cyanotype as an “accessible, very interesting alternative photography method.” Because the development process, created in 1842, did not require a darkroom, it was something people could do outdoors. That’s why cyanotype is conducive to collaboration in a community workshop.
Riley and Lowery are very close to their grandmothers and hope to honor them through their art. Riley admits cyanotype initially attracted her because her grandmother always wore blue. “The shade of blue that [cyanotype] develops into is a very similar shade of blue that she likes.” Her initial cyanotypes were of her grandmother.
With an M.F.A. from Moore College of Art & Design, Riley was well-versed in area resources and researched historic cornbread recipes in the Winterthur Museum’s cookbook collection. She pulled recipes made by author Maya Angelou and included in Pamela Strobel’s 1969 “Princess Pamela’s Soul Food Cookbook.” Riley’s favorite recipe is sweet potato cornbread drizzled in honey. However, Riley and Lowery suggest readers take a look at Princess Pamela’s vintage skillet recipe.
Riley also encountered historical references to hoecakes made by Hercules Posey, George Washington’s enslaved personal chef. Posey, a revered 18th-century culinary expert, cooked fried cornmeal pancakes for Washington every morning. He also served as Washington’s cook when they resided in the Deshler-Morris House on Germantown Avenue in 1794. In 1797, Posey self-emancipated, leaving Mt. Vernon, the Washington plantation in Virginia, while Washington celebrated his 65th birthday in Philadelphia. Riley and Lowery will make all of the recipes discovered in their research available to attendees.
Riley hopes the monochromatic blue prints will help “people to remember and honor Black food and Black food culture.” She believes the Black culinary experience was once dismissed. She wants to “rewrite that narrative and find creative ways to mesh visual art and culinary arts, and make them one in a way that is also a space for people to honor their family recipes or collective recipes” and personal narratives.
“Who made the Cornbread” will be hosted by Our House Culture Center, 6380 Germantown Ave., on Thursday, August 7, 6-8 p.m. Snacks, including cornbread will be provided. Cost is free, but advance registration is suggested. To register, visit eventbrite.com.
