Thankful

Kinda complicated, but still so thankful.

After taking space, I’m thankful for the 12 Feasts I’ve curated and all my collaborators and supporters in those elaborate adventures! I’m also thankful for ending that chapter and opening the floodgates to such fun work... more work than I ever expected, but nonetheless so fulfilling and exciting.

I’m thankful to be in Chicago with my family, and to be able to visit some significant childhood places, many likely for the last time.

I’m also thankful for something a lot more complex. I’ve never acknowledged this on social media, but one thread of my family history stretches back to the Mayflower and another goes to the Mississippian Chickasaw tribe. So today, as many folks indulge the false narrative of a “Thanksgiving Feast” without the burden of thinking about colonialism and genocide, I will be giving a deep thanks and reparation for the land that I am on. Chicago was derived from “chicagoua”, the local Miami and Potawatomi languages term for ‘wild garlic place’ or ‘wild onion place.’

So I ask you all: do you know the deeper story of the place where you are today? Comment below with its ancestral or native name, or let me know if you want help, and I’ll help you research it.

A thousand thanks to @grove.haus / @naturallyella for this photo at my last feast with my wonderful best friend @aroweculinary.