As Minnesotans celebrate Juneteenth as a state holiday for the second year, we would like to pass along this story about Minnesota playwright and activist Rose McGee. McGee’s long-running play, “Kumbayah The Juneteenth Story,” has been bringing the meaning of this holiday to life for communities across our state and several others, through the power of storytelling, music, and sweet potato pie.
If you’re a fan of Minnesota Public Radio, you’ve probably heard of McGee. She’s the founder and president of the nonprofit Sweet Potato Comfort Pie (SPCP), the organization known for its two largest annual events, their January “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday of Service” and their summer “Jubilee in Celebration of Juneteenth.” In many of the events led by SPCP, the sharing and symbolism of sweet potato pie features heavily.
The healing power of sharing, listening, and action
Sweet potato pie is known as a traditional dessert in Black history. But it would be too easy – and incomplete - to stick with that narrow definition. “Sweet potato pie is the ‘sacred dessert’ of Black people, and it has power,” explains McGee. “Not only does it give us energy, this pie links us to history, it soothes our spirits and renews us for the much-needed work.”
McGee founded SPCP in 2014 after seeing news coverage of the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and feeling called to take action. Within days, she was responding to that call. “On Friday, August 29, 2014, at the crack of dawn, my son Adam and I hit the road with 30 freshly-baked sweet potato pies in the trunk of my car… Upon arrival, first I asked permission of each person as I offered them a gift of a pie and soon discovered that each one had something to share about how the pie had come at just the right time. And so I listened.”
For generations, McGee explains, when people baked these pies with others, delivered them, and gathered together for reflection, “the pies became far more than a vehicle of comfort food and culture – they were a catalyst for change.” Since that day in Ferguson, McGee’s “baketivism,” as she calls it, has been helping new generations discover and re-discover the role of the sweet potato pie in building and sustaining communities.
If you have attended a performance of “Kumbayah The Juneteenth Story,” you may have witnessed a “Pie Ceremony.” You’ll have another opportunity this year, just prior to a June 21st performance at the University of Minnesota’s Northrup, where nineteen pies will be given to “community ambassadors whose work demonstrates the organization’s values.”
The secret ingredient
Toward the end of an interview with MPR last year, Cathy Wurzer asks McGee, who freely shares her own recipe on her website, “what is the secret to a perfect sweet potato pie?”
It’s “L-O-V-E,” says McGee. “If you’re using my recipe, taste the batter… if you like what you’re tasting, go with that. But if you decide, hmm I think I’d like a little bit more cinnamon… or maybe I want to add a little bourbon…” McGee hopes you’ll do it. This pie is about honoring the past and learning from it without getting stuck there. The perfect pie happens when you add what you love and share that with others.
This, she says, is a “universal recipe from the community.”
On behalf of everyone at SkyWater Search Partners, we wish you a happy and fulfilling Juneteenth. We also hope you will find at least one small slice of sweet potato pie and a moment to imagine the countless hands that carried it across so many generations and infused it with love for you to enjoy.
