Hog jowl is not exotic. It is not trendy. It is not something you share a photo of, or a hashtag for clout. It is jaw meat — salted, smoked and stubborn. And it is one of the main ingredients of Hoppin' John, a New Year's Day dish eaten by African Americans for generations to call in luck, survival and continuity.

I came upon her quietly

Peniel Joseph signing a copy of Freedom Season. I went to the Kennedy Library expecting to hear history. I left thinking about words. At a talk with historian Peniel Joseph and Harvard professor Brandon Terry, the year 1963 came alive — the March on Washington, the murder of Medgar Evers, the bombing in Birmingham, Kennedy’s speech on civil rights. But what stayed with me was the idea of a “moral vocabulary.” It means having the words to tell the truth about what is wrong, to

When Old Massa was alive, I was young and strong as Alfred the ox. I was on the front line in our big fight with the Heywards. Scipio—he was a Heyward—and I got into a fight over a woman who used to live here. She’s dead now, but she was beautiful and she was my girl for a while.

Recently, I found myself in the South, visiting my sister and squeezing in some shopping for an upcoming cruise.