Jonny May's Soul Kitchen

Jonny May’s Soul Kitchen takes place during the times of the complex and controversial gentrification of Northeast Portland, where the character of Jonny May struggles with the decision of selling the family restaurant and moving out of the rapidly changing neighborhood, or resisting the changing times by continuing to nourish the community that raised her.

The play received its first workshop production in the fall of 2007, during the Herberger College of Fine Arts’ New Work Festival.

The play deals with the issue of racial identity and the commodification and exploitation of culture. Jonny May’s recipes serve as a metaphor for “blackness” or racial identity as a means of survival. The use of this metaphor allowed the play to explore the ways “blackness” is authenticated and simplified for means of mass production. For example, in the play, when Harry Davis seeks to purchase the restaurant and the recipes from Jonny May, he is, in a sense, buying a blueprint for her “blackness”—that once in his possession can be imitated and reproduced. At the end of the play Jonny May’s refusal—in the form of burning her grandma’s recipes—is a way of reclaiming her own identity by not allowing it to be replicated and consumed.

Production History:

The Herberger College of Fine Arts' New Work Festival, Arizona State University,

Tempe, AZ. Directed by Patrick Demers.

Publication:

Jonny May's Soul Kitchen, Arizona State University, 2008