It’s been TWO WHOLE YEARS since I’ve created a new blog for this website. But it’s not like I have been sitting on my asre. Oh no, ya boy has been working! In fact, here’s a very small example of some of the things I’ve done since the last time I posted on Black Food Fridays dot com:

• Worked with Black-led communities to stop THE MAN from adding a manufacturing plant on the shores of their river,

• Won a James Beard Award,

• Freaked out about winning a James Beard Award (not to be confused with Diddy’s “freak offs”),

• Hosted a three city Black-food storytelling event (sponsored by Lawry’s),

• Started a Substack account (which, you should 100% subscribe to),

• Got called hater for having the audacity to ask questions about Keith Lee—then got interviewed by the New York Times about Keith Lee! Go figure.

Most importantly, I’ve been growing as a person so that I can grow as a business owner. Like, I took a DISC assessment and had a executive coach explain what my results mean! Normally, I’d tell you all about it but I don’t want this post to be long for no reason so follow that link if you want to learn more about DISC Assessments. I’ll say this, though: I can’t unsee what I learned about myself! In fact, that’s part of the reason I’m back.

“I used to love H.E.R".” — Common

You may be wondering: why on Earth would KJ restart the blog while also trying to maintain a newsletter as well?

First of all—even though I’m a heathen—I believe that I can do all things, through Christ, who strengthens me.

Secondly, thanks to that aforementioned DISC assessment, I understand that I actually can’t do everything. So I need to make some firm decisions on how I want to spend my finite creative energy supply. The decision that relevant to this discussion is I’ve decided to stop pretending that I don’t want to be the world’s greatest Black food blogger in the world and just go about the business of becoming the greatest Black food blogger in the world. To be clear, being “the greatest” means the following:

1. I want to be the best BLACK PERSON IN THE WORLD who blogs about food,

2. I want to be the best person in the world to BLOG ABOUT BLACK FOOD,

3. I still believe in the power of blogs as a way to get my ideas out into the world.

I’ve spent so much time building up my online presence via video (shoutout to Instagram) that I have completely negated this side of my creativity. Which is sad because I loooooove Writing. Like, if it Writing was a grown woman with melanated skin, natural hair, and an excellent hip-to-waist ratio, I’d marry Writing! At minimum, I’d propose to Writing. And for the sake of argument, can we just agree that Writing would want to marry me back? I mean, how lame would it be for me to personify Writing only to then get rejected after declaration of undying love? Couldn’t be me!

Also, if I can be honest with y’all…the older I get, the less I love being on all the apps. They actually suck. And not in an “user experience” kinda way. I’m referring to a literal sucking of my time and energy. It got so bad, I had to put time limits on how long I could be on Instagram because I was racking up four to 6 hours a day on that mug. Can you believe that?!

The algorithm is both a selfish muthafucka and greedy muthafucka. It’s not ONE or THE OTHER—it’s both! These apps are designed to squeeze every drop of dopamine out of your body, leaving we— the users—nothing more than a shell of our former selves. And no matter how much time you spend on the apps, or making content for said apps—it’s only response is “FUCK YOU! PAY ME (more attention)!” In hindsight, neglecting my beautiful fiancé (Writing) for something that’s as satisfied as Prince’s Mama in the song “When Doves Cry”, seems like a complete waste of my time. In case you were wondering why I brought the late, great Prince’s Mama into this conversation, look no further than the following lyrics:

Maybe you're just like my mother /
She's never satisfied (she's never satisfied)

Prince’s mom had to be the muse for the Instagram Algorithm, right?

Very Smart Brothas, for food.

While my newsletter is lit (have you subscribed yet?!) there are a few downsides.

For one, I’m limited on the amount of words I can use before it truncates my message. Secondly, I am super consciences of overloading someone’s inbox with every little (or big) food related idea or tidbit of information I come across. Lastly, no matter how much I love any platform, the truth is I don’t own those apps or any of the data they collect by me being on said apps. Any searches for my name will bring one of the many apps I’ve given consent to do God-Knows-What with my information. And I said God-Knows-What because I couldn’t tell you, if my life depended on it, what permissions I’ve given these maleficent social media applications!

I ain’t NEVA, EVA read the terms and conditions agreement for any social media platform I have ever graced with my digital presence. From BlackPlanet to Myspace and everything after, I have never sat down to read any of their full T&C. Now that I mention it, I didn’t even read the T&C for the company that’s hosting this website (who I will not mention because they are paying me to do so). I hope to GAWD they aren’t creating a doppleganger of me because I unwittingly gave them express written consent to do so.

Anyway, when someone does do a search for my name, I’d like MY website to be at the top of the results. The best way to ensure that happens is to get back to providing worthwhile content for the people! Besides, Instagram doesn’t my help improving their SEO. They seem to have a pretty good handle on all of that.

As for what you can expect going forward, expect the same type shit I was doing back in 2022. But better! Humorous, thoughtful, insightful, and valuable are words that come to mind, when I think about how I want people to feel after reading any of my post. In fact, my goal is to become the Very Smart Brothas of Black food. Yeah, that’d be nice…

But, in a perfect world (which, unfortunately, is not the world we are currently occupying) I would become the Michael Harriot of Black people food. Have you ever read any of his columns, listened to his outstanding Black History podcast, or read his “Black AF History” book? This man is everything I hope to be as a writer—except I want to write about chicken wings in strip clubs and explore the world of catfish and spaghetti (yes, that is a thing). And the best way to make that happen is to write as often as I can and post said writings on a website that I control.

So yeah, I’m back and ready to take things to the next level. Speaking of which—I’ll be hosting a lunch and learn conversation at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Art + Culture, in Charlotte, on October 4th. I’ll be in conversation with the homie and award winning host of the Netflix show, “High on the Hog”, Stephen Satterfield. I’ll make sure to take plenty of pictures and do a write-up on that experience when it’s all over. And as a heads up, I’ll be in New York City on October 13th, hosting EatOkra’s first Culinary Creatives Conference! I’ll give you more details on that as it approaches but feel free to go and get your ticket now!