TIFTON—Dr. Russell Pryor will speak on “Fried Chicken, Spaghetti, and Tacos: Mass Migration and the All-American Meal” in the final lecture of a three-part series at 6 p.m. on April 7 in Ernest Edwards Hall at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.
Pryor’s lecture addresses a special mural exhibition titled “Coming to America—The Immigrant Experience Featuring the Lost Mural of Ellis Island” which opened to the public in Edwards Hall on Jan. 18. Pryor is an assistant professor in ABAC’s School of Arts and Sciences.
Pryor teaches courses on U.S., world, and food history at ABAC. His lecture will ask us to think about the role successive waves of immigrant women played in creating what we see as an “All-American meal.” The dishes we think of as “American” all have a history.
In his lecture, Pryor will draw out what he sees as the core of what makes the “All-American meal” through three waves of migration–forced migration of enslaved West Africans, the migration of Southern and Eastern Europeans through Ellis Island, and more recent migration from the Americas.
“We won’t have a buffet on hand, but I’ll provide some good recipes, I promise,” Pryor said. “The most ‘American’ cookbook I can think of is one I inherited from my grandmother, Virginia West, who was an ABAC alumnus, Class of 1941. It’s the ‘Montezuma Mennonite Cookbook.’
“It’s full of her notes, and it’s also full of recipes for Americanized dishes that originated all over the world – West Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.”
Dr. John Vanzo, professor of political science and geography in the School of Arts and Sciences, opened the series when he spoke on “Malanija Knavs and the Right Way to Come to America.” Dr. Elizabeth Medley, an assistant professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, spoke on “Rise of the Resistance: Immigrant Women’s Political Activism from Ellis Island to the Modern Era” in the second installment of the series.
The 85-foot mural by Andrew Sabori is a reproduction of the 200-foot mural titled “The Role of the Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America” which was created circa 1935 by Edward Laning as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project.
Sabori and Roberta Sabori conceived the idea for their project when they visited Ellis Island in the New York harbor in 2003. Roberta Sabori examined a photo of the Laning mural in the Ellis Island dining hall. The beautiful work of art was known only to the immigrants passing through Ellis Island since its location was off limits to the public.
When Ellis Island closed in 1954, much of the original mural was lost after a violent storm damaged the building. Following painstaking research, Sabori began painting his reproduction of the Laning mural in 2008.
In addition to the beautiful mural, the exhibit includes Sabori’s original portraits of 35 significant immigrants and facsimiles of relevant documents from the National Archives including passenger arrival lists, census records, draft registration cards, and naturalization petitions.
There is no charge to visit the mural or attend the lectures. Edwards Hall is open from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Fridays.
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