Inheritance Stories Part 2: Oral Histories and Food Memories
Role: Producer, publisher
In January 2021, I was on a zoom call with thirteen Japanese American women in their 60s and 70s. We are working on a community cookbook together and during our first meeting, each woman talked about why she was interested in the project. In every case, the answer was stories. Each woman told fragments of memories—about their aunties on farms cooking for dozens of siblings; mochi making with usu stones; using chopsticks to poke their least favorite ingredients out of maki-zushi rolls as kids. While listening, I realized that these memory-based stories about food are my catnip, which is to say, they make me spin in circles, chase my tail, and bat at nothing in intoxicated happiness.
Somehow, within a few days, I was asked if I would host an interactive workshop for Oregon Humanities on April 3, 2021 that engages people in questions about food and community. The topic and activities were mine to invent. I decided to merge this new drug I had discovered (food memory stories) with an old project called Inheritance Stories. A decade ago, my friend Chris and I built mobile recording booths to collect stories from people working in food about their sense of inheritance. Both then and now, I am interested in how we each hold and maintain cultural traditions even as we evolve them. I also want to put the spotlight on people who may not seek it, or who are sometimes made invisible, but whose lives and stories are entangled in our own.
I learned a lot from Chris and my project. Namely, write questions and then test them! People do well with a little guidance and love to talk about other people in their life rather than themselves (even if, in doing so, they are doing both). Have someone there to listen and prompt. Have someone else to take notes or record—listening is a job unto itself.
This new iteration, which I am also calling Inheritance Stories, requires three people: the storyteller, the interviewer, and the recorder. Each person cycles through each role so there is balance and an opportunity to practice different skills and roles. The basic premise is to ask each person to share a recipe they learned from someone in their life that they still cook, to really listen to them, and to record their story in a way that transmits their voice.
I invited two of my closests to test this idea with me: Stef Choi and Nancy Wong. I wrote questions as a starting point. Stef interviewed Nancy, and I took notes; I interviewed Stef, and Nancy took notes; Nancy interviewed me, and Stef took notes. We each played every role, and in so doing discovered a catharsis in the story telling, a high in listening and learning, and a focused challenge in recording. From our experience, we created a small zine which includes a framework for how to collect an oral history. This project rejects ideas of authority in publishing and authorship. I want to embrace the culture of kinkos zines that capture real people doing their thing. You can purchase the zine and also find the framework on my Substack.
As this project evolves, I will share updates here. In the meantime, feel free to read the first three Inheritance Stories:
Nancy’s Mom’s Zong, Sticky Rice Dumplings
Chris’ Larb Mueng, Stef-style
Lola’s Dad’s Omelets
