Azania Tripp’s Okra and Indigo is a culinary storytelling art experience that shares the story of historical chefs within the Black/African American community and Black Minnesotan’s relationships with food. This art exhibition is inspired by the book High on the Hog by Dr. Jessica Harris, and accompanying TV series by the same name. Tripp is an artist in residency at the Minnesota African American Heritage Museum and Gallery (2023-2024).
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In 2018, Azania worked in a local college’s Equity and Diversity department, where she managed a greenhouse and community garden. One of the students she was working with suggested planting okra. She asked the student what the plant was because she had never heard of it before. They explained that it was a vegetable common in Liberian soups. When Azania watched High on the Hog in 2020 she learned that okra wasn’t only in Liberian soups, but a foundation in the Pan-African food culture. The artist is highlighting okra because, for her, it represents the intergenerational connection within our community.
The artist interviewed five local community members about their family food stories and their evolving relationship with the foods they eat and grow. The exhibition includes collage portraits of each community member she interviewed, a collection of visual art pieces of plants called The Okra Garden, a functional family-size table that the artist built in partnership with Frog Tree Farms, and 6 chairs around the table represent historical chefs who were pivotal in culinary history.
