Woodard’s Flying Juke is a traveling celebration of Black Rural Culture. This supper series was developed as a part of the Woodard’s Garage Restoration Project, a preservation effort that will turn a historic Black owned mechanic shop into a special third space for artists to create and pilot new work. From playwrights to chefs, sculptors and textile designers. Behind the makers studio is a secret Juke Joint inspired Supper Club with curated records and live music.This supper series uplifts the narrative that Juke Joints were important for Black rural economies and cultivated a space for oppressed people to feel free, even if for 1-night. The food culture and music born from these spaces is an important part of our heritage and as we explore these ingredients with the guidance of Gabrielle and her team, together we will reclaim this narrative and remember how we’ve found joy, home, and safe space in the past, present and future.We’re landing in Durham NC at Nana’s Rockwood on Sunday, April 27th. If you’re also flying in make sure to subscribe to Gabrielle’s newsletter for Hotel suggestions and other happenings about town that weekend. Take off work on Monday, if you can!
Gabrielle E. W. Carter is your cast iron wielding, storytelling, placemaking host. She is the great grand, and grand daughter of pit cooking, moon shining & Juke Joint running proud country folk.
Gabrielle is a Cultural Preservationist and Culinary Artist who uses Diasporic and local foodways as a vehicle to reimagine wealth, marginalized food systems, and inheritance. Her work uses oral history and intuitive cooking to engage audiences around rural food and land traditions.
In 2018 she returned to her family’s homeplace in Central North Carolina, where she is archiving her own familial foodways. Her recipes and storytelling have been published and featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Southern Living Magazine. She has done cooking demonstrations for the Culinary Institute of America, host’s seasonal suppers focused on land relationship and place, and can be seen in the Peabody Award winning Netflix series, High on the Hog.
In 2020 she co-founded the North Carolina based Black Farmer CSA, Tall Grass Food Box, an equity focused platform created to support and encourage the sustainability of Black farmers. This work has been covered by NPR, Scalawag Magazine and The Nation.
Gabrielle can’t wait to sit a piece of hot, hard fried Carolina bbq catfish on your plate.
