For one afternoon in early February, in honor of Black History Month, Columbia Business School’s Geffen Board Rooms were decked out to resemble a 1940s-era Harlem apartment. The organizers of the afternoon’s event, Flavorful Legacies, which was open to faculty and staff from across the university, wanted guests to feel as though they’d stepped into a Harlem “rent party”—a common occurrence in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. Black families of the Great Migration who settled in Harlem had to devise creative means to afford high rent prices, which were often inflated by racist landlords. By way of one solution, many families invited neighbors over for a plate of food—in exchange for a quarter toward rent.
Lisa Andujar, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at CBS, and one of the main organizers of the Flavorful Legacies event, said the afternoon was designed to foster a deep appreciation for the resourcefulness, innovation, and food-based entrepreneurial spirit of Harlem’s early residents. The event was organized by the DEI Office, with valuable support from Pat Lilly, Assistant Director at the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change.
“[The rent parties] were an entrepreneurship venture,” Andujar said. “The people who came up from the South had to figure out how to raise money with what they had.”
Upon arrival to the Flavorful Legacies event, each of the roughly 75 attendees received a cup of potato salad—prepared by Harlem’s own Charles Pan-Fried Chicken, one of the event’s five vendors. Attendees in turn offered the canned goods they’d been asked to bring (instead of quarters), which were later donated to a local church. Attendees also had the option to make a donation to Columbia Community Service. On the walls were screens projecting photos and news clippings from decades prior, on the tables were dominoes and card games, and performing spoken-word poetry was David Roberts, also known as “D-Black.” Curtis Sherrod captivated the audience with stories that, combined with the decor, brought the entire scene to life.
Andujar says another goal of the event was to strengthen the CBS community’s ties with local Black-owned businesses, and it did so by highlighting both their culinary creations and their entrepreneurial journeys. After the rent-party portion of the afternoon, attendees were invited to a panel discussion moderated by Columbia Journalism School’s Ty Lawson, in which each of the restaurant entrepreneurs participating in the event had the opportunity to share their stories of success, and occasional struggle. Listeners heard from the owners of Brooklyn’s Aunts et Uncles and Harlem’s Tsion Café, Make My Cake Bakery and Café, Charles Pan-Fried Chicken, and Fauzia’s Heavenly Delights.
Pat Lilly noted that the afternoon did spark new connections, both between the Columbia community and the restaurateurs, and among the restaurateurs themselves.
“The vendors, talking among themselves, were realizing, ‘Hey, our stories are so similar; we went through the same thing you’re going through.’ They were able to learn from each other,” Lilly said. “And afterward, we got a lot of requests from Columbia staff and faculty: ‘Can we use them for events?’”
That interest from Columbia community members was particularly heightened during the final portion of the event, when a set of doors between the board rooms swung open to reveal a Harlem Renaissance-style salon, with samples of food from all five vendors on display and available for the tasting. As attendees tried the signature dishes, the vendors were on hand to share histories of their recipes, offer more information about their own backgrounds, and discuss possible mentorships, partnerships, and internships.
“For the businesses, it was a great way to get new customers,” Lilly said, “and for attendees, an opportunity to experience new food.”
And for everyone who was part of Flavorful Legacies, the event was a reminder of the ingenuity linking food and entrepreneurship in the Black community’s past, present, and future.