Ann Arbor Reloaded

It a great time to be spending the rest of the week in Michigan. I will be starting with a residency at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I will be giving a workshop of Afro Futurism: A Black Odyssey with students and a whole session with staff from the dining services. Fela Kuti once said that where African music goes, it stays. I salute Baba Fela for those words. Thanks to my dear brother and senior in activism and stand up I first came to Umich back in 2018 for the first time to speak to a class.

I argued that it is unconscionable that African food ranks so low in the American market. I hear a lot of competition between this Jolof Rice from this place and the other while the market share that Africans commands is a tiny fraction relative to our population and the historical contribution of Africa to American food. While competitions have their place, the league you compete in matters more than just winning. You might be a heavyweight playing in a high school league.

After my lecture, my point got to Steve Mangan, the head of dining services of a cafeteria that serves over 27,000 students. While taking a tour of the main dining hall, I met the amiable head. We struck a conversation and in an almost joking manner, Steve asked me if I could start an indigenous chef program at Umich. I was all in. We agreed on starting the following year. I worked with @chefturchan and staff to create a whole line of recipes. Those recipes with names that fills me with nostalgia about my village and African flavors that mimic Afro Beat and Jazz. I am back again to share and to learn. That is the way of the future. I actually saw the first kosher kitchen at Umich during my last visit. Since then, they have added a Halal kitchen. My fight now is that in not too distant future, they will add an Afro Futurism kitchen. That is a small request to make in the effort to restore a vanquished African food culture in the West and at home. History is good Learn but Future is best to have.

Eat well

Chef Kabui

The Hex Kitchen is a collaboration between Chef Kabui and the Hex community in a bid to promote food literacy, mindful eating and wealth creation. There is a natural connection between those who are fighting against fiat currency and those engaged in the struggle against fiat food. The two social ills of fiat currency and fiat food are at the heart of the tyrannic global world system we are now living in. That tyranny is directly connected to the climate crisis we face and there is no way we can solve one part of the problem without being mindful of the whole system, For a start, the Hex Kitchen is keen on addressing the issues of real money and real food as a basis on regaining our sovereign power. It is no accident that the struggle for food justice would find allies in cryptography and more specifically cryptocurrency. It is not a usual collaboration but yet it is one that makes sense on many levels. Chef Kabui has been studying and applying the power of food literacy, mindful eating and food justice in the struggle against oppression in general and specifically to people of African descent.

Chef Kabui has studied the disciplines of politics, anthropology and culinary arts and has designed a cuisine or rather an approach to food that is informed by the above experience and the indigenous knowledge that he gained from his Kenyan family’s history as sustainable farmers for generations. The combined experience and education resulted in the creation of a cuisine called Afro Futuristic Conscious Cuisine. It is a combination of the most sustainable practices in the growing, preparation of food with the goal of causing the least damage to the environment and maximizing the health benefits of the food. Those two conditions are necessary for a mindful community that ensures that justice thrives.

Chef Kabui has been pushing organic food and healthy eating based on his research and his own experience. The idea of healthy food and justice is not something that chef Kabui got into but was born in it. His family operated a farm and his father ran a restaurant in the capital city of Nairobi. Kabui grew up in the village with his mother where they grew almost all the food they consumed. It was at his family farm that he Kabui developed a love for fresh food and the art of consuming food following the natural cycles of seasons.

The collaboration aims to share the skills for healthy food to the Hex community and beyond. No community can survive without food and the Hex community is no different. The Hex Kitchen is another assembly point for the community to be nourished both physically and socially. While wealth is private, food is social and having a kitchen for the community to assemble is a great option for a community that is causing ripples across the world.

What to Expect

The Kitchen will have virtual classes, content on Youtube and other social media presence for a start. The goal is that the Kitchen will have a physical place that will have a kitchen in a farm that will grown food and have space that guest can visit. The farm will have a demonstration farm for the vegetables, fruits and herbs,

For the schedule of upcoming classes please visit our events section and find a class that is fit for your schedule.