Description: Vibration Cooking was first published in 1970, not long after the term "soul food" gained common use. While critics were quick to categorize her as a proponent of soul food, Smart-Grosvenor wanted to keep the discussion of her cookbook/memoir focused on its message of food as a source of pride and validation of black womanhood.
Brief description: VERTAMAE SMART-GROSVENOR (1937-2016) was a poet, actress, culinary anthropologist, and writer. She is the author of Thursdays and Every Other Sunday Off: A Domestic Rap, Vertamae Cooks in the Americas' Family Kitchen, and Vertamae Cooks Again: More Recipes from the Americas' Family Kitchen. She has served as a correspondent and host for National Public Radio and written for the New York Times, the Village Voice, the Washington Post, Life, Ebony, and Essence.
Review Quotes:
You will learn from Vibration Cooking something about the anger, pride, generosity, and will of one black woman. Vertamae's autobiography-travelogue-cookbook has a rare distinction: There's something in it for everybody--of either sex or any color.
--Washington Post