We won! A Webby and a James Beard Award

Martha and The Sisters

Yesterday was a banner day at The Kitchen Sisters. In the morning, we learned that we won a Webby Award for our Radiotopia podcast The Kitchen Sisters Present. In the evening, we were honored with a James Beard Foundation Award (the Oscars of food) for our NPR series Hidden Kitchens: War and Peace and Food, heard on Morning Edition.

We want to thank everyone at Morning Edition, NPR’s The Salt, and Radiotopia for supporting our work. And all the people we collaborated with across the globe on these stories. None of these projects would be possible without support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. We thank the staff of these important American institutions for all they do.

Notes from The Kitchen Sisterhood – Spring 2017

Dear Friends,

The last time we sent you Notes From The Kitchen Sisterhood we were urging you to vote. It’s a whole new ballgame now with arts, culture, climate, healthcare, immigrants all threatened and the mother of all bombs bursting in air. All around us storytellers, artists, organizers, teachers, librarians, athletes, scientists are stepping up, rising to this moment. We wanted to share a few things from our world and the world of those we admire.

On the homefront, The Kitchen Sisters have a bit of a Trifecta at the moment and now we need to ask for your vote.

Our podcast, The Kitchen Sisters Present (until recently known as Fugitive Waves), was just nominated for a Webby Award for best documentary podcast. Please help us claim the title. Vote here, vote now!

We are also thrilled to say that we have been nominated for a 2017 James Beard Award for our latest season of NPR stories, Hidden Kitchens: Kimchi Diplomacy: War and Peace and Food.

And our TED Talk about Wall Street, the self-schooled San Quentin inmate and stock market savant is now online. Take a look.

Forward ever,

The Kitchen Sisters
Davia & Nikki

Events we are going to / wish we were going to:

The Unplugged Soul: A Conference on the Podcast. The Kitchen Sisters, Benjamen Walker, Christopher Lydon, Jeff Emtman and a slew of other podcasters. April 14-15, Heyman Center, Columbia University.

Here and Home: A retrospective of the work of California photographer Larry Sultan. April 15-July 23, SFMOMA

Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to summit of Mount Everest and kayak the Grand Canyon, in conversation with Davia about his book, No Barriers, May 2, Lighthouse for the Blind, SF

Fake News Room: A response to Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel’s 1983 exhibition “Newsroom.” Artists include Jason Fulford, Jim Goldberg and Dru Donovan, as well as The Kitchen Sisters. Open now through April 29 at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco

What we’re watching:

Mifune, directed by Stephen Okazaki

I Called Him Morgan, directed by Kasper Collin. The jazz tragedy of Lee Morgan, exquisitely rendered.

An Inconvenient Sequel. Al Gore’s climate change sequel. Truth to Power.

Century of Self, Adam Curtis’ 2002 BBC documentary.

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party

What we’re making:

This year, we are embarking on a new NPR/podcast series called The Keepers–activist archivists, rogue librarians, collectors, curators, historians–keepers of the culture and the cultures and collections that they keep. Guardians of history, large and small. Protectors of the free flow of ideas and information. People afflicted with what French philosopher Jacques Derrida called “Archive Fever.”

We welcome your tips and suggestions for who and what needs chronicling.

What we’re reading:

Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates

A Really Good Day by Ayelet Waldman

True South by Jon Else

Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living, edited by Manjula Martin

Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

What we’re cooking:

Potlikker Papers by John T. Edge. A people’s history of the modern South set on farms, in kitchens and at tables.

King Solomon’s Table by Joan Nathan.

The President’s Kitchen Cabinet by Adrian Miller. African Americans who fed the First Families, from Washington to Obama.

Tartine All Day: Modern Recipes for the Home Cook by Elisabeth Prueitt

Music we’re spinning:

Save the Country by Laura Nyro.

We recently attended the SF Symphony Pride concert, a staggering night of LGBTQ music from Henry Cowell, Lou Harrison, Stephen Sondheim and more. What got us most was was when conductor Michael Tilson Thomas accompanied Audra McDonald singing Laura Nyro’s barnburner Save the Country. It is our new national anthem.

Podcasts we’re pumping:

RadioPublic podcast app. Free podcasts!

S-Town from Serial and This American Life. You know you wanna hear it.

The many splendored podcasts from the Radiotopia collective

Citizens we’re admiring:

Russ Kick, investigative archivist from Arizona and founder of the Memory Hole. Russ finds and preserves documents the government tries to keep hidden. A keeper.

Magnus Toren runs the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur that has been closed since mid-February after Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge into Big Sur was damaged due to relentless winter rains. They’re now raising funds to open The Henry Miller Library in the Barnyard in Carmel, bringing Big Sur to “town.” They could use your support.

Years ago we recorded Brian Eno talking about the weekly Tuesday “Sing” he holds with his friends–not professional musicians, just pals, gathered standing around a table, singing a capella for a few hours. Times like these call for communal singing. As Brian says, “Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness. And then there are what I would call ‘civilizational benefits.’ When you sing with a group of people, you learn how to subsume yourself into a group consciousness because a capella singing is all about the immersion of the self into the community.”

Graffiti artists in Ho Chi Minh City Pushing Back Against Official Censorship. “For many in Vietnam, the spray can is a tool of rebellion—illicit spray-painting is a way of defying restrictions in an authoritarian country where artists must have their work approved before exhibitions, shows are routinely shut down, and works deemed controversial are replaced by a black ‘X’ on gallery walls.”

Subscribe to our Webby Award nominated podcast

So Many Stories in Store

In 2017 we all move into unknown territory. It’s times like these that call for strong stories. Bruce Springsteen said it best, “People need stories in hard times. People go to storytellers when times are like that.” People go to storytellers when it’s hard to decipher the world, when they need to feel hope and possibilities, when they just want a good tale. Here at The Kitchen Sisters we are getting ready to tell some of the deepest stories we’ve done yet. Stories that keep the spirit moving and light the path. Stories that reveal new ideas and new community leaders.

Today we ask for your support, and for your ongoing collaboration. It is our community that makes these stories possible. Our stories, our internship and mentoring program, and our many community visions. To those of you who have supported and collaborated with us over the years, thank you. To those of you who have recently discovered us, welcome to The Kitchen Sisterhood.

In 2016 your contribution helped spawn so much new work. Our series, Hidden Kitchens: War and Peace and Food aired to much acclaim on NPR’s Morning Edition. Some 14 million people around the world heard these stories of the transformative power of food. There are more in store in 2017.

2017 also has many other projects in store — our new series about archivists as activists — about librarians and historical society curators who are keepers of the history and embroiled in battles and deeply committed to preservation, a free press and the truth. We’re also deep in the weeds on our second book, Show the Girls the Snakes, and working still on our Broadway musical and more. And we are gearing up for a new year of interns, mentoring and workshops.

We have also been asked to create an installation for Prospect.4,the International New Orleans Triennial (sort of the Venice Biennale of New Orleans that was created in the wake of Katrina to help revive the city through culture) where we’ll be collaborating with the Houston-based art collective, Otabenga Jones and Associates. Prospect.4 opens at the end of 2017 and goes for three months. Perhaps we’ll see you there.

Deep thanks for your support, your ideas, your music, your stories, all the things you share with us.

Keep the faith,
Davia & Nikki

Kitchen Sisters Interviewing, Recording & Podcasting Workshop, Dec 8 in SF

Time again for The Kitchen Sisters Recording, Interviewing & Podcasting Workshop. Davia Nelson is holding a new one on Thursday, December 8 at Francis Coppola’s historic Zoetrope building in San Francisco. This three-hour session is designed for those who want to acquire and hone their skills for radio, podcasts, film, documentaries, storytelling, oral histories, family histories, news, and other multimedia platforms.

The Workshop covers interviewing and mic’ing techniques, sound gathering, use of archival audio, field recording techniques, recording equipment, how to make interviewees comfortable, how to frame evocative questions that make for compelling storytelling, how to build a story, how to pitch a story, how to create a podcast, how to listen.

The session is customized to fit the projects you are working on. So come ready to talk about your stories and ideas too. People who have attended in the past have come from radio, film, multimedia, detective agencies, farms, music, newspapers, journalism, photography, oral history, historical societies, ophthalmology, writing, libraries, archives, web design, restaurants, health care organizations, cheese-making and beyond.

The groups are always lively and surprising and good contacts are made.

Morning Workshop: 10:00 – 1:00pm / Afternoon Workshop: 2:00 – 5:00 pm.

Cost: $150

Come in the morning or come in the afternoon, just sign up for one.

The workshop is in North Beach at 916 Kearny St. on the 6th floor. Of course snacks from Cafe Zoetrope will be served.

Expand your skills, meet new people, support the work of The Kitchen Sisters.

REGISTER NOW.

Notes from The Kitchen Sisterhood / Fall 2016

Sign up for our newsletter here.

Dear Friends,

There is so much going on. But really only one thing going on. Vote. Everything else is noise.

Except it’s not. Not at all, but you know what we mean.

Here is some of what else matters to us in the coming months, in our world and your’s.

The Kitchen Sisters
Davia & Nikki

Books we’re reading:

We’re working on a new book calledShow the Girls the Snakes, a mix of stories, how to tell stories and memoir, so we’re reading every memoir we can get our hands on. Any suggestions? Here’s what we’re reading now:

Speak, Memory – Vladimir Nabokov

My Life on the Road – Gloria Steinem

Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen

And on other fronts:

Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds – Lyndall Gordon

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America – Gilbert King

Dated Emcees – Chinaka Hodge

Events we are going to / hosting / wish we were going to:

Notes From the Field – Master storyteller, Anna Deavere Smith with musician Marcus Shelby. Her new play looks at education, crime, and the Baltimore she left behind. 2econdStageTheatre, New York. (Now playing)

An Evening with Terry Tempest Williams – A Benefit for Point Reyes National Seashore Association, Pt. Reyes, CA. (Oct 22)

Smithsonian Food History Weekend – The Kitchen Sisters talking Hidden Political Kitchens, National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C. (Oct 27-29)

Letter to a Man – Mikhail Baryshnikov in a staging of Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries, BAM, New York. (Oct 15-30)

City Arts and Lectures – Joel Coen in conversation with Davia Nelson. One Coen Brother, one Kitchen Sister, San Francisco, CA. (Nov 29)

Kitchen Sisters Interviewing, Recording & Podcasting Workshop, San Francisco (Dec 8) – sign up here.

Films we’re watching:

Moonlight – Saw this remarkable, hypnotic film at the Telluride Film Festival. Barry Jenkins’ haunting story of a boy coming of age in South Florida. The cast includes Mahershala Ali, Trevante Rhodes and Janelle Monáe.

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – Situated off Italy’s southern coast, Lampedusa has been the first port of call for hundreds of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants hoping to make a new life in Europe. Director Gianfranco Rosi spent months living on the Mediterranean island, capturing its history, culture and the current, desperate everyday reality. His film is gut-wrenching and stunning.

Command and Control – A collaboration between Robert Kenner (Food, Inc) & Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation). How do you manage weapons of mass destruction without being destroyed by them?

Cameraperson – Over the past 25 years, Kirsten Johnson has worked as a camera operator or cinematographer on more than 50 documentary films, including Citizenfour, The Invisible War, and Fahrenheit 9/11. Now she’s directed Cameraperson, which she calls a visual “memoir.” It incorporates footage she shot for various documentaries over that quarter century. –Boston Globe

Threads we’re pulling:

Scraps: Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse – Dosa at Cooper Hewitt in NYC

Works on Paper from Permanent Collection – a new collaboration between Fanny Singer and Mariah Nielson.

Lenny – Feminism, style, health, politics, friendship and everything else from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner.

Podcasts we’re pumping:

Radiotopia Fall Fundraiser – Our mighty podcast collective is having it’s annual Fundraiser. If you love podcasts, and we know you do, Radiotopia is the network to support. 15 podcasts and growing — 99% Invisible, Criminal, Radio Diaries, Love + Radio, Millennial, Mortified, Song Exploder, The Allusionist, The Heart, West Wing Weekly, Theory of Everything, the Memory Palace, Strangers, The Truth and ours, Fugitive Waves.

Music we’re spinning:

Anything/everything by Nobel Laureate, Bob Dylan

Ibrahim Maalouf, Lebanese born trumpeter

Hip-hop of old from Jonathan Lethem’s list.

Nintendo themes of old from Michael Chabon’s list.

Angel Olsen

Compared to What – Les McCann & Eddie Harris (listen here)

Projects we’re supporting:

The American Project – Vote
Tuesday, November 8

Can’t Talk, Gotta Run: 10 Women Who Could Flip the Senate
(in case you missed it)

The Edible Schoolyard programs in Berkeley, New York, New Orleans and the Charlottesville Food Justice Network

Rock the Vote

—

Main graphic: “My Eyes In The Time Of Apparition” by August Natterer, 1913
Photo of Dylan: AP Photo/Pierre Godot

Bowling with Grace: The Legend Continues

Kitchen Daughter Rocks Publishing World with Debut Novel – Tuesday Nights in 1980

Dear Friends,

Over the years we have told you about many a Kitchen Sister story and project. Today we write with so much joy and pride we can barely stand it. Nikki’s daughter, Molly Prentiss, has written her first novel, TUESDAY NIGHTS IN 1980, from Scout Press / Simon & Schuster. Available now!

Tuesday Nights in 1980 has already received a heap of advanced praise:

“intoxicating Manhattan fairytale… an absorbing thrilling debut.” —Kirkus Review. “Vital, sensuous, and edgy” —Booklist. A “bold and auspicious debut” —Publishers Weekly.

“A beautifully written story of creation and transformation, set against a backdrop of urban decay and political violence. I loved this book.” —Daniel Alarcón, author of At Night We Walk in the Circles & Lost City Radio.

You get the drift. The girl has a hit on her hands, the first of many novels to come from this remarkable writer.

Perhaps you would like to meet this Kitchen Daughter. Molly has EVENTS in the Bay Area and New York coming up in the next few weeks.

BROOKLYN BOOK LAUNCH
Wednesday, April 6, 7:30pm, Greenlight Books
Celebrate the official launch of the novel at Greenlight Books in Fort Greene. Molly will be in conversation with Claudia Ballard of the William Morris Agency, and editor, Alison Callahan of Scout Press.

SAN FRANCISCO
Wednesday, April 13, 7:30pm, Green Apple Books
Molly in conversation with Tom Barbash, author of Stay Up With Me, at Green Apple Books (the new location on Golden Gate Park).

SANTA CRUZ
Thursday, April 14, 7pm, Bookshop Santa Cruz
Molly returns to her hometown (where she grew up on the commune). She says “it has been my dream since I was ten to write a book and present it at Bookshop.” She also adds “My mom (Nikki) will probably be raising her hand and asking a lot of questions, and like ten of my ex-boyfriends will probably be there, so it should be good.”

SOHO
Monday, April 25, 7pm, Housing Works
Molly in convo with Sloane Crosley, author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake and The Clasp.

If you would like to order a copy of the book, you can do so on Indiebound or Amazon.

All Love,

Davia & Nikki

Notes from The Kitchen Sisterhood

Dear Friends, Sometimes we find the story. Sometimes the story finds us. Here are some projects, events, and collaborations our friends and colleagues are taking on that we want you to know about. Here’s to a creative and disruptive Fall,     Davia & Nikki Projects we’re supporting: Prison Yoga Project: A volunteer-run Hatha Yoga Program in San Quentin working towards restorative justice. Indiegogo. Omnivore Salt Limone: Forger and Forager Angelo Garro introduces another small Sicilian miracle. Kickstarter. Feed Your People: Big Batch cooking for your community. Kickstarter. Books we’re reading: Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ’n’ Roll by Peter Guralnick Out on the Wire: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel Almost Her: The Strange Dilemma of being Nearly Famous by Caroline Paul A Taste for Chaos: The Art of Literary Improvisation by Randy Fertel Weirding the War: Stories from the Civil War’s Ragged Edges by Stephen Berry Events we’re attending (or wish we were): Laurie Anderson’s Habeas Corpus installation at Park Avenue Armory (Oct 2-4)  “Gradually, the truth about Guantánamo has come out. Most of them knew less about Al Qaeda than I did. They were taxi drivers, students, photographers, journalists, and goat herders.” Terra Madre Youth: A gathering of young farmers, artisans, nomads, indigenous peoples on hunger and the future of food at The World Expo in Milan (Oct 3-6) Zen Hospice Project’s benefit, One Night One Heart “Story + Spirit” – Terra Gallery, SF (Oct 7) Smithsonian Food History Weekend, Washington DC (Oct 22-24) Center for Documentary Studies 25th Anniversary Celebration – Duke Univ, Durham (Nov 20-22) Films we hope you see: Ixcanul (“Volcano”), directed by Jayro Bustamante. A beautiful, harrowing story on a coffee plantation in Guatemala Taxi by Iranian director Jafar Panahi Suffragette, directed by Sarah Gavron, with Carey Mulligan & Meryl Streep. The story of the women’s voting rights movement in England. Best of Enemies: Buckley vs Vidal. Two men, ten debates. Directed by Morgan Neville & Robert Gordon Heart of a Dog, directed by Laurie Anderson What we’re listening to: “Hamilton” the cast recording of the Broadway musical, on NPR Music’s First Listen. “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” Passerby by Luluc (on tour now) 69 Love Songs by Magnetic Fields Hat’s Off: Alice Waters receives the National Humanities Medal from President Obama along with Larry McMurtry, Annie Dillard, Jhumpa Lahiri, and others. Podcasts we’re producing: Fugitive Waves / Episode 31: Waiting for Joe DiMaggio Wall Street: San Quentin’s Stock Market Wizard The Secret and Not So Secret Life of Theresa Sparks Don’t miss a single episode. Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | RSS

Bowling with Grace: The First Annual Kitchen Sisters Bowling Party & Fundraiser

Bowling with Grace: The First Annual Kitchen Sisters Bowling Party & Fundraiser

Drinks + Food + Music + Strikes + Bowling Celebrities

Alice Waters, Michael Pollan & Judith Belzer, Armistead Maupin, Amy Tan, Roman Coppola, Ayelet Waldman

Get tickets now: 

Amazing Grace Mulloy is coming to San Francisco for the First Annual Kitchen Sisters Bowling Party & Fundraiser to help up your game and the game of The Kitchen Sisters.

Grace is one rough tough cream puff. She has won most every bowling trophy there is in Santa Maria, California. Grace is a life-long bowler with a lot of tricks up her sleeve and is currently in two leagues. Last week she bowled twice and scored over 175 in both games.

Grace is 91 years old and legally blind. The only things she likes more than bowling are her granddaughter, Brandi (who works with The Kitchen Sisters) and public radio.

Come bowl or just come hang. The drinks and food will flow, all lanes will be ours and all proceeds will go to supporting the next season of James Beard Award-winning Hidden Kitchens stories on NPR, our internship & mentoring program and our new Radiotopia podcast, Fugitive Waves.

Come join Alice, Amy, Armistead, Ayelet, Roman, Judith, Michael, Nikki and Davia for a night of bowling with Grace as she shares her methods and secrets.

Come for the schmooze or come for the shoes.
$150. Includes food, drinks and all the bowling you can stand. ($100 tax-deductible).
Tickets are limited. Get yours now through Eventbrite.

Buy a ticket and you’ll automatically be entered into our Raffle for a brand new PUBLIC bike.

If you can’t come bowl with Grace but still want to support the work of The Kitchen Sisters, you can: kitchensisters.org/support
(all contributions over $50 automatically enter you into the PUBLIC Bike Raffle).

Kitchen Sisters Trifecta: James Beard/TED/NEH

Dear Friends,

A few pieces of good news that we would like to share with The Kitchen Sisterhood.

1) Our series Hidden Kitchens on NPR’s Morning Edition received a James Beard Award nomination! Thanks to all who collaborated with us on this latest season.

2) Also, on the Hidden Kitchens front, we just received word that The Kitchen Sisters have been given an NEH Matching Grant for a new round of global kitchen stories on Morning Edition. We call this upcoming season Kimchi Diplomacy: Stories of War and Peace and Food. Read about all the new NEH grantees here.

3) Last week we traveled to Vancouver and did a TED Talk, Kitchen Sister-style, as part of Pop-Up Magazine live at TED. The video will be up on TED.com soon and we’ll send the link as soon as it rolls.

All this is possible thanks to you, our friends, family and community. It’s your support and collaboration that makes things shake around here.

Sweet Spring,
Davia & Nikki

P.S. The Kitchen Sisters and a hunk of the mighty podcast collective known as Radiotopia (from PRX) are coming to the Boston area next week. We hope you’ll come join us.

Thursday, April 2 – A Night of Radiotopia with Roman Mars (99% Invisible), Benjamen Walker (Theory of Everything), Lea Thau (Strangers) and The Kitchen Sisters (Fugitive Waves) at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 7:00-9:00. Details here: (PDF)

Oh, and if you’re in England this summer, come join us at the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery July 3-5, 2015 at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford.

And with that NEH Matching Grant staring us down, we appreciate your contribution, now more than ever. Support the stories!