All posts by Nichelle Stephens

blogger, bookkeeper, comedian-ish, event planner, social media strategist, writer

New TRADITIONS

The latest issue of Nichelle Newsletter is up. I was flattered when one of my neighbors here in Savannah mentioned that they read my newsletter. I hope to get more interaction between me and subscribers as the holidays roll up. Halloween candy, Thanksgiving sides, Holiday cooking are great food content. However, I want to write and/or talk about something from personal perspective. For example, I told a friend about how my Dad made frappe with lime sherbet, ginger ale, and sprite for us kids to drink on New Year’s Eve. We would even have it in a punchbowl.

What are some of your holiday traditions, new and old? I think that we will have to start new traditions as the world is forever changed by the pandemic. 700K people have died in the United States.

Shrimp Roll

shrimp roll

Last Monday, I was walking around Greenwich Village and I stopped by Jeffrey Grocery for a late lunch. I had a delicious shrimp roll. I really enjoyed the avocado slices with the roll. It’s a nice touch.

HIGH ON THE HOG

I watched the Netflix docuseries, High on the Hog, last week. It is amazing. The cinematography is great. Stephen Satterfield is a curious host, and it is essential viewing for anyone who wants to learn about American foodways. African American foodways is American foodways just like African American history is American history. This series should be shown in schools. It is like “Eyes on The Prize” for food.

In the docuseries, you see Stephen eating and talking with Dr. Jessica B. Harris who authored the book, High on The Hog. Authors Adrian Miller and Michael Twitty are also featured in the docuseries.

In the latest issue of my food and culture substack, Nichelle Newsletter, I talked about High on the Hog, Black forager Alexis Nikole Nelson, and Black cookout hierarchy. Dr. Regina Bradley wrote a piece for Food and Wine about the hierarchy of the cookout.

Today, I read about some good news. Toni Tipton-Martin is a James Beard Award winning author and she is the editor of Cook’s Country. She has just been awarded the Julia Child Award which is a $50,000 grant, for mentoring and training the next generation of food writers. Ten years ago, I met Toni after a panel discussion at SXSW about Black bloggers and Black people in tech. She told me about The Jemima Code, her blog. The Jemima Code eventually became an award winning book.

First Jab

On a personal and public health front, I got my first jab of the vaccine. Yay! I am surprised at how much getting the vaccine reminded me of voting. It is like a civic duty. The irony is that I live in the state of Georgia where the governor just made it easy for anyone over the age of 16 to get the vaccine while also making it extremely difficult for people to vote.

This week is Holy Week, but it is also the first week of the trial of Derrick Chauvin. There are people who are giving live commentary on TikTok and other social media but I can’t watch. It’s too much.

Check out the latest issue of my newsletter.

Listen to the latest podcast episode.

TWITTER: I LOST MY PLATFORM BUT NOT MY VOICE

Friday afternoon, I glanced at my phone before going on break at work, and I saw something was weird with my Twitter account. Twitter said that I tweeted violent tweets and my account would be on hold for 12 hours. I deleted the tweets and changed my password ASAP. The next morning, I thought it was over. Saturday, I got to work and I see that Twitter has NOW suspended my account. However, I don’t know how someone was able to hack my account again after I changed the password. Immediately, I appealed the suspension, and now I am just waiting. How did this happen?! I would never threaten anyone’s life. I wouldn’t use racial slurs like porch monkey.I may be paranoid but I know that at least company wanted me to give up my Twitter handle because they wanted it. Twitter TOS doesn’t allow for people to sell their handle. I wouldn’t consider giving it up. I have been on twitter for 14 years. I miss tweeting. I am surprised at how anxious I am now that I cannot tweet. This is so bothersome because I think it is partly my fault for letting too many API access my Twitter account. Ugh. This is not how I thought I would spend Christmas week.