Peoria Public Library - Local History Collection

Next Monday, June 15!

One week from today!

Join us on Monday, June 15th as we welcome award-winning author Michael W. Twitty to Peoria!
Program is from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at Main Library, auditorium. No cost to attend.

Twitty's groundbreaking book, "The Cooking Gene," has earned numerous prestigious accolades, including The James Beard Award for writing and Book of the Year. Twitty is the first black writer to receive this award.
Come hear him speak about this acclaimed food memoir in which he explores the roots of Southern cuisine, tracing his own ancestry from Africa to America, and from slavery to freedom.

Excerpt:
"Cooking from a place of heritage, identity and belonging is a powerful thing fraught with class and cultural politics...
"Once upon a time I was just black or brown; you pick the color designation. I was an orphan of the West, the descendant of unwitting and unwilling Americans. Soul food was just that -- for a sad people with amnesia and massive Stockholm syndrome trying to cook their way to some semblance of self-understanding and truth.
"Everything we tried to do was a poor imitation or with faulty memory; nothing was taken on its own merit, left to its own context. No, we were messy and inferior and confused.
"And now I know I am not that."

It's National Library Week! In the April 23, 1963 Peoria Journal Star, the library celebrated by employing a grocery store theme.

This year's national theme is "Find Your Joy," and we invite you to find your joy at any of our five library locations, but especially at our Local History and Genealogy Collection at the Main Branch.