Ink & Ingredients is an underground lit-cooking society for adults who read with their whole body, Black women authors, one book, one theme, every month, split between literacy practice and hands-on cooking.
We want to foster reading and comprehension - but we don't skip the basics to get there. Every session lays the foundation first: how to annotate, how to journal instead of just brain dump, how to cite a source, how to find the throughline between what you read and what you already know.
Americans read an average of 12.6 books a year — the lowest number Gallup has recorded since it began tracking this in 1990. The typical, or median, American reads just 4 books a year; the average is pulled upward by a small share of very heavy readers.
Reading level tells a harder story. The average American reads at only a 7th- to 8th-grade level, and more than half of U.S. adults score at Level 2 literacy or below — proficient enough only for the most basic reading tasks.
That's not a knock on anyone. It's a system that stopped investing in reading a long time ago. We're building it back — one book and one meal at a time.
Knowledge is power isn't enough. Real power comes from clarity, understanding, and empathy — the ability to hold information well enough to hand it to someone else, so they walk away both educated and understood. That's what Ink & Ingredients is built to do.
A Chapter for Us is a year-long underground literary-culinary society for adults. Each month, we gather around one book by a Black woman author and one ingredient, and we move through an evening served in courses. The book is how you come in, and the culinary classroom is where the reading comes alive.
History doesn't get to be comfortable just because it's over. Food for Thought is a monthly deep-dive, books and articles by Black women, into the stories America would rather skip: the power, the pain, the joy, and the responsibility that honest history demands.
Chapter for Us
Saturday, October 24, 2026
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Saturday, November 14, 2026
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Friday, December 11, 2026
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