Ingredients for Revolution
A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses
Distributed for Concordia University Press
Ingredients for Revolution
A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses
In 1972, a restaurant called Mother Courage opened in New York—followed by more than 230 feminist cafes, coffeehouses, and restaurants across the United States over the next fifty years. Ingredients for Revolution collects their stories for the first time, showcasing the vital role these institutions played in the fight for women’s liberation, LGBTQ equality, and food justice. Alex D. Ketchum surveys these businesses’ various financial models and dives into broader issues of labor, food sourcing, and cultural programming to understand how these women yoked feminist and capitalist commitments toward a more equitable marketplace. Brimming with archival research, interviews, and photographs, Ingredients for Revolution is a fundamental work of women’s, food, and cultural history.
Author Events
Join Alex Ketchum for a talk about her new book Ingredients for Revolution: A History of Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses.
Join Alex Ketchum for a talk about her new book Ingredients for Revolution: A History of Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses. The book is the first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses that existed in the United States from 1972 to the present. Ketchum will address questions such as: What is a feminist restaurant? Why have LGBTQ+ spaces been important historically AND why are they still important today.
There will be a signing and brief Q&A.
For more event information, click here.
116 Suffolk Street
Join Alex Ketchum for a talk about the role food plays in movements for social change
Wren Awry, editor of Nourishing Resistance: Stories of Food, Protest, and Mutual Aid (2023), and Alex Ketchum, author of Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses (2022), will join us for an exploration of the role food plays in movements for social change. Drawing on their recently published books, Wren and Alex uncover the liberatory potential of shared meals.
Click here for more event information.
Virtual event
Join Alex D. Ketchum in conversation with Jaime Harker for a celebration of Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses.
Since 2018, Dr. Alex Ketchum has been the Faculty Lecturer of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies of McGill University. She is the Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab and the organizer of Disrupting Disruptions: The Feminist and Accessible Publishing, Communications, and Tech Speaker and Workshop Series. Her work integrates food, environmental, technological, and gender history.
This event is co-hosted by Violet Valley Books and Burdock Book Collective. To register, and to get more information, click here.
Virtual event