One thing social media offers us is connection to the incarcerated members of our community. Meet Willie Hampton — a Black elder in a Memphis prison kitchen who hosts a cooking show on TikTok. From turning soda cans into stoves to combining unusual ingredients, incarcerated chefs like Hampton teach us about much more than food.
The food services in prison facilities across the country are disgraceful; rotten food isn’t even half the story. But when incarcerated people acquire and tinker with ingredients to create appealing and nutritious meals, that’s pushing back against a dehumanizing system and industry that assumes people in prisons don’t even deserve the bare minimum.
Some people have started their own businesses once released from prison, applying solidarity and smarts to employ other formerly incarcerated people facing barriers to re-entry, or address food insecurity in the communities they had been forced to leave.
And, while the prison system seeks to isolate and break down incarcerated people, replicating familiar dishes behind bars also forges community and keeps the culture alive among those inside — much like Black Americans who brought southern dishes up north during the Great Migration.
Those who cook in prison and share their recipes with us practice skilled agency, community survival, and even joy. But if we think beyond prisons, imagine how much these culinary tastemakers could accomplish.