​Answering the phone for our mid-morning interview, Dr. Jessica B. Harris eagerly awaits the questions I have to ask. With only 15 minutes of her schedule allocated to our conversation I try to make the most of it. However, her extensive resume would take longer than 15 minutes to comb through. Dr. Harris’s career has spanned four decades as a journalist and culinary historian. She was the travel editor for Essence in the 1970’s and has published twelve successful cookbooks studying the cuisine of the African Diaspora.
 
With accomplishments of that magnitude in her rearview, she looks ahead to an important phase of life which is retirement. This starts with cleaning out her office at 

opportunity to choose from, she stood out immediately due in large part to her varied list of creative titles. As a photographer, writer, and filmmaker with focus on the human condition and unapologetic Blackness, I knew she would be the most fulfilling woman for a young amateur artist like myself.