Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, "The Gospel of Barbecue"

The poem opens talking about Uncle Vess and his barbecue, which was the leftovers from the hog used by the Master. The entire piece is done in a very southern style dialect, which is often associated with slavery and African Americans. Uncle Vess has high blood pressure and dies, but not until he writes the five verse "Gospel of Barbecue." The first verse is very blunt and to the point: "somebody got to die with something at some time or another." This could be referring to Uncle Vess' own death, or it could be explaining an overview of slavery as a whole. Even though these slaves lived under horrible and harsh conditions, death was inevitable either way. The verses also talk about how you can't trust a white person to cook for you, and how food you were beaten for always tasted the best. The last verse has a more optimistic tone. The speaker talks about all the leftover hog the slaves are given from the master and how even though these are normally parts of the animal that would be discarded, the slaves learned to make use of them with different peppers and seasonings. Even in the tough times of slavery there is a sense of optimistic survival and the urge to make the best of what you have in this poem. The speaker closes by stating, "survival ain't never been no crime against Nature or Maker. See, stay alive in the meantime, laugh a little harder. Go on and gnaw that bone clean." I loved this part because it shows the endurance and resilience of the slaves, even though they are treated as less than human by their masters they are able to realize the good things in life like laughter and the importance of survival and good food.