Borderless: Grade 10 English Explores Personal History and Cultural Identity Through Authors’ Visit

The class took some time before Friday to explore Hohn’s book, The Anti-Racist Kitchen, a compilation of 21 recipes from collaborators with different cultural identities, each dish intertwined with a personal story. 

Students read the introduction to the book and were asked to choose a recipe and story of interest. In response, they each shared a recipe and story from their own family culture in an earlier writing assignment. 

The class is exploring themes of collective identity and recently finished reading Maus, which wrestles with themes of the past’s impact on the present and the question of what makes us human.

Hohn began the class with a bit of a show and tell, having brought colorful fabrics and items as an entry point to talking about identity. 

“I like to talk about this fabric when I talk about this book,” said Hohn, “because it has so many stories and ethnicities.”

Holding up a sample with a plaid pattern, which she referred to as “bandana,” Hohn explained that while the cloth takes its name from Hindi and is produced in India, it is the national fabric of Jamaica. She projected a world map on the screen to show the class the geographical relationships between the countries. Additional fabrics in the room, covering the tables, were purchased by Hohn during a trip to Ghana. 

She spoke to students about her background, while also encouraging discussion on the textiles, a map of the parishes of Jamaica, and the Jamaican flag. 

“Mine is a very blended story,” Hohn said. “When you look at people, you don’t know how they identify or understand the whole story—you have to talk to them.” She explained that, while she is Caribbean, she has a German last name. Moreover, many people don’t realize she is Canadian at first impression.

Many of Hohn’s books deal with themes of inclusion and activism. A self-described foodie, she knew she wanted to create a cookbook someday, but when she witnessed the cultural conversation about race and inequality that took place throughout the U.S. and Canada in June 2020 and beyond, she especially wanted that book to celebrate diverse authors. She describes The Antiracist Kitchen as “a celebration of food, family, activism, and resistance in the face of racism.”  

“I wanted a conversation to happen between our two countries,” said Hohn, referring to Canada and the United States. 

Jenn De Leon, a contributing writer for The Antiracist Kitchen, also takes on topics close to her heart that resonate personally. In Brown’s classroom, she spoke about her book, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, a Latinx coming-of-age story that she describes as a memoir.

To engage the class and get the discussion moving, she asked students, working in pairs, to describe a vivid food memory and then to come up with their own six-word memoir title. 

Food and memories are powerful, De Leon said, contributing to a sense of belonging and place. 

“I’ve published four books, and so many more are cooking in my heart,” she told the class. 

Many of De Leon’s books are tied to her personal experiences. She shared the story of her parents, who emigrated to the United States from Guatemala, where they grew up living a very different life. As children in Guatemala, she told the class, her mother and aunt shared a uniform so they could both attend school for part of the day—her mother in the morning, and her aunt in the afternoon.

Consequently, De Leon grew up with the shared family belief that education is “like a set of keys to unlock endless doors,” she said. “Your education cannot be taken from you.” Even so, the pursuit of opportunity through education was not without its challenges. De Leon talked about how, when her family moved to the suburbs for better schools, she started code switching, modifying the way she expressed herself depending on the context or situation. 

“How many of you know what code switching is?” she asked the class, and a few hands went up. That experience, she said, is very common. 

The first in her family to go to college, De Leon wrote Wise Latinas, “the book I needed in higher ed.” 

She also shared how, as an adult, she booked a one-way ticket to Guatemala to learn Spanish and connect with her culture and that of her parents.

She reflects on racial identity and belonging in many of her books, such as in White Space, a collection of essays that span her experience of traveling to Guatemala and exploring her own identity as a Latina American. In Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, as she brings her protagonist through the familiar challenges of navigating a white educational space as a Latina. 

Toward the end of the class, students had the opportunity to ask questions of the authors. Hohn was asked about writer’s block. As someone with ADHD, she said, she has realized sometimes she needs to take a movement break or a switch in the routine in order to make the most out of the moment creatively.

Writing, the authors reminded the class, is a process. Sometimes, you have to go through a lot of first drafts you don’t like in order to get a piece of writing that works. 

For creative writing, there are many potential sources of inspiration. 

“Sometimes you have to get out of your head and talk to people,” said De Leon. “Maybe you’re interested in business, maybe you’re interested in teaching—creative writing is a part of all those fields.” 

De Leon offered parting advice to aspiring writers: “If you’re thinking about writing as a career, there are many types of writing you can do—pull from your roots.”