Black Americans have faced the unthinkable, and while there is still a long way to go, it is worth it High on the pig Netflix The series celebrates the resilience of our people by focusing on the language that connects us all: food.
In the first season of Netflix High on the pig, Hosts Stephen Satterfield Renowned culinary scholar Jessica B. Harris explored the cross-diaspora cuisines that connect our people to the motherland. For the second part of the series, they’re focusing on delicacies stemming from prominent Black communities, including New Orleans, Chicago, and many more.
“I think the whole idea of how much history we have within ourselves that we don’t know, that we don’t examine, that we don’t look at,” Harris told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “We talk to our elders, but not in the same way we did when I was your age or younger. In many families we have given up on the idea of family dinner on a weeknight. We may still do it on Sunday, but that is when There are exchanges.”
“So, what I’m hoping is that this, especially since there’s a lot of intergenerational conversations going on this season, might encourage people your age to talk to people my age,” she continued.
Satterfield has had a very personal experience this season, tracing the roots of his grandfather, who worked as a Pullman porter in Chicago.
“It was a very profound experience, one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever really had on or off camera,” he recalls of the episode in which the crew traveled to Chicago and spoke directly with Pullman operators from the past. “And I’m still processing it in some ways, as I never had the opportunity to meet my grandfather, and Mr. Gaines, actually since filming, unfortunately, has moved on, so I’m holding on to that very much. But it was a profound and honorable thing to lift up my grandfather’s name like that.” “
Beyond simply connecting the rich history of Black Americans and their families through food and fellowship, the name of the show alone holds a lot of power.
“the book High on the pig He begins with the story that allegedly gives us this expression, which goes back to the story of the Master and John the Impostor. The bottom line is that John, an enslaved person, overpowers Masa, gets his own pigs, bypasses the pigs’ feet and ears and tails that his master will give him to slaughter a pig, and once he gets his own pigs, he gets pork and pork chops and all That, and he says he lives high on pig, not feet, but pork.” “I think the whole story around the creativity of the story and the way it speaks to the creativity, if sometimes secret, of African Americans is what has allowed some/many/not as much as I would like to think of us, to live high on the pig,” And many of us live on a higher level of pig than our ancestors did.
Since the black experience has never been monolithic, Satterfield expressed the necessity of using platforms like High on the pig To share our stories.
“There are many black people in our history who have lived high-profile lives, and many of them continue to do so,” he said. “So, I think part of it is, in telling that particular outline of our novels and our stories, which is, in this context, we’re speaking out loud as a more aspirational language.”
He concluded, “I think we try to tell the story of our people in a way that shows what we were trying to get at and what it was like and sometimes also how we felt and what it looked like when food was completely different. The thing for us is a companion, a hug, a place of solace and strength.”
When does High on the Hog return to Netflix?
Season 2 of High on the pig It returns to Netflix this Wednesday.
