The Symbol of Food in Black Girl, Call Home
Food as a Vessel of Care, Heritage, and Resilience
In Jasmine Mans’ 2021 poetry collection Black Girl, Call Home, food appears as a recurring concrete symbol that carries maternal love, cultural memory, and communal strength. Through poems like “Macaroni and Cheese,” “Grits: 1967,” and “The Repass: Our Own Restaurant,” Mans transforms everyday meals into anchors of identity and connection. The kitchen itself becomes a stage where care, conflict, and intimacy unfold. This analysis traces how food’s meaning shifts across the collection and explores its ties to central characters and themes.
Where Food Appears
Food is most explicitly referenced in three poems:
| Chapter | Title | Literal Food | Role in the Collection |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Macaroni and Cheese | Macaroni and cheese | A one‑line poem linking grace and mercy to a single mother’s care |
| 12 | Grits: 1967 | Grits | A title that anchors a staple to a year of civil rights upheaval |
| 26 | The Repass: Our Own Restaurant | Communal repast after a funeral | A meal that reclaims loss as community nourishment |
Beyond these chapters, the kitchen recurs as a setting for mother‑daughter dynamics: the mother’s hair salon in the kitchen (chapter 2), the mother voicing a slur at the kitchen table (chapter 10), the first time the speaker calls her mother a bitter word (chapter 11), and a dramatic monologue where the mother yells while cooking (chapter 86). Food preparation and consumption are never far from these moments of love and tension.
How the Meaning of Food Changes
Macaroni and Cheese: From Comfort to Spiritual Foundation
In “Macaroni and Cheese,” the speaker states: “I know grace and mercy was raised / by the same single mother.” The poem personifies abstract virtues as siblings nurtured at a domestic table. Macaroni and cheese—a soul‑food staple often associated with family gatherings—becomes a metaphor for how spiritual qualities like grace and mercy are cultivated through everyday love. The line reframes single motherhood not as a deficit but as a source of resilience. Here, food is not just comfort; it is the tangible medium through which a mother passes on what is holy.
Grits: 1967: Heritage Anchored in History
The title “Grits: 1967” pairs a humble Southern dish with a pivotal year of the Civil Rights Movement. Though the poem’s text is not supplied, the outline suggests it explores memory, identity, and cultural roots. Grits—a food born of African American resourcefulness—carries the weight of generational survival. By stamping it with “1967,” Mans connects personal heritage to a collective struggle. The meaning of grits shifts from simple breakfast fare to a symbol of endurance and historical awareness.
The Repass: Our Own Restaurant: Reclaiming Grief
A “repass” is the meal shared after a funeral in many Black communities. In chapter 26, Mans titles the poem “The Repass: Our Own Restaurant.” The phrase “our own” signals ownership and agency. The repass transforms a space of mourning into one of nourishment, community, and deliberate reclamation. Food here is no longer (just) private or domestic; it becomes a public ritual that sustains survivors and honors the dead. The meaning of food expands from family care to communal healing.
Character Connections
Momma (the Mother)
The mother figure is the primary provider of food and the one who orchestrates the kitchen. In “Momma Has a Hair Salon in the Kitchen,” she merges care for hair with care for home, both involving nurture. The mother’s cooking is an act of love—whether it is preparing macaroni and cheese or speaking through food as her way of showing God. Yet the kitchen is also where she exerts control. In chapter 86’s “Monologue: Mother Yells at (Insert Name of Black Girl Here),” she cooks while confronting her daughter, tapping a wooden spoon on the table. Food and discipline intertwine, showing that care and conflict coexist.
The Speaker
For the speaker, food is a lens through which she understands her mother and herself. She inherits a tradition of resilience symbolized by grits and macaroni and cheese. Her journey toward self‑acceptance involves reckoning with the nourishment—and sometimes the pain—that came from her mother’s kitchen. The speaker’s voice grows as she learns to articulate the silent love that food represents, as seen in the poem “That Was Her Way of Showing God” (chapter 3), where everyday acts are spiritual demonstrations.
Nana and Father
While the outline does not place Nana or the father directly in food‑centered poems, the collection’s broader themes of heritage suggest that food traditions pass through grandmothers and extended family. The repast, for instance, involves the whole community, implying ancestors and elders.
Theme Connections
The food symbol weaves through the collection’s core themes:
- Identity and Self‑Acceptance: Grits and macaroni and cheese ground the speaker in her cultural roots, helping her reclaim a sense of self.
- Mother‑Daughter Relationship: The kitchen is the primary stage for their bond—both nurturing and fraught.
- Black Womanhood and Resilience: Single motherhood and communal meals celebrate the strength of Black women raising families and communities.
- Trauma and Healing: The repast transforms grief into a shared act of healing. Food becomes medicine for the spirit.
- Home and Belonging: The act of cooking and eating together creates a portable home—a sense of belonging that persists even after loss.
Study Questions
1. In the poem “Macaroni and Cheese,” what does the speaker imply about single motherhood?
Answer: The speaker personifies grace and mercy as siblings raised by the same single mother, suggesting that spiritual virtues are nurtured through everyday domestic love. The poem reframes single motherhood as a source of strength and resilience, not absence.
2. How does the title “Grits: 1967” combine food with history?
Answer: Grits are a soul‑food staple rooted in African American culinary heritage. Coupling them with 1967—a year of intense civil rights activism—connects personal memory to a collective struggle for justice. The title implies that food carries the weight of cultural identity and historical survival.
3. What does the phrase “our own restaurant” in “The Repass: Our Own Restaurant” suggest about community ritual?
Answer: The phrase claims ownership over a space of mourning, transforming a funeral repast into an act of reclamation. It emphasizes that the community provides its own nourishment and belonging, turning loss into a shared ritual of care.
4. How does the kitchen function as a symbolic space in Black Girl, Call Home?
Answer: The kitchen is where the mother expresses love through cooking and prayer (chapter 2), where difficult truths are spoken (chapter 10), where arguments erupt (chapter 11), and where discipline is enacted (chapter 86). It is a domestic stage where care and conflict coexist, reflecting the complex bond between mother and daughter.
For a deeper exploration of the collection’s central ideas, visit the main Black Girl, Call Home page and its related theme pages on mother‑daughter relationships, Black womanhood and resilience, trauma and healing, and home and belonging. Profiles of key characters such as the speaker and Momma offer additional context for understanding how food nourishes both body and spirit in Mans’ poetic world.