ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a question: “What are we going to eat?” One thing the African American History, Culture, and Digital Humanities initiative (AADHum) team consistently did was eat. But more importantly, we fed each other. In this chapter, Catherine Knight Steele considers what it means to be fed (both literally and figuratively) and how to move from DH collaborative work agreements to Black DH community through the care required to see colleagues and students in the fullness of their humanity. Here we turn to examples from the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program and Psyche Williams-Forson’s work “Where Did They Eat? Where Did They Stay? Interpreting Material Culture of Black Women’s Domesticity in the Context of the Colored Conventions,” to consider how Black organizations—often through the invisible labor of Black women—intentionally attended to the physical, social and emotional needs of their community. Even as this work is ignored in the history of these racial projects in favor of the more visible parts of their programming, we recognize that we are better thinkers, writers, and teachers when our basic needs are met. Yet too often, the rapid production of DH projects silos people into roles on a research team and replicates the toxic culture of many aspects of hyper-capitalism. This chapter traces the linkages between caretaking through provision of actual food with the practice of crafting a community of research and teaching. Steele also outlines care as a method that attends to both historical work and social media analysis. We detail the decision-making process of forming equitable agreements for labor with student workers, creating a culture of rest, and rethinking provisions to support the work of Black DH.
