Tag: Mutual Aid

Fish Fries Serve As Mutual Aid For Charleston, W.Va.’s Black Community

Drive through Charleston, West Virginia any day of the week, and you’re bound to come across a sign advertising a local fish fry. Within Charleston’s Black community, fish fries have been a time-honored tradition for generations. Our Folkways Fellow Leeshia Lee grew up in Charleston. She says that it was common to see friends and neighbors hosting fish fries — they’d sell fish dinners as a way to raise money for different needs. In this special report, Lee shares her experiences with fish fries, and visits with one of Charleston’s best fish fryers.

This story originally aired in the Oct. 22, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Drive through Charleston, West Virginia any day of the week, and you’re bound to come across a sign advertising a local fish fry. Within Charleston’s Black community, fish fries have been a time-honored tradition for generations. 

Our Folkways Fellow Leeshia Lee grew up in Charleston. She says that it was common to see friends and neighbors hosting fish fries — they’d sell fish dinners as a way to raise money for different needs.

In this special report, Lee shares her experiences with fish fries, and visits with one of Charleston’s best fish fryers.

History Of Fish Fries

Some people would have fish fries for rent parties — they would have a fish fry if they were short on their rent. Or if there was a trip that somebody needed to go on and they didn’t have all the funds, they would whip up some fish and sell it outside. Growing up, it was nothing to go to someone’s house to purchase food for whatever reason they needed it for. 

In our community, I think historically the reason why fish fries are the thing is because it comes from the slave era. And it was what they were allowed to do on Sundays. They were allowed to go fishing. And because it was free — they didn’t have to purchase it — they would catch fish.

That’s how enslaved communities would fraternize with each other, was through cooking and preparing fish, and eating it later on in the day. So I think that the tradition of having the fish fry has been embedded in our community. It is something that we were taught to do, and we do it so well that we use it as a financial means when we don’t have resources to do anything else.

What Makes A Good Fish Fry

I think the most important part of a fish fry is the meaning or the purpose for having the fish fry. Don’t get me wrong, people care about the food, the taste of it. But if it’s for a good cause, people will come out and support your fish fry.  

People use different fish for their fish fries. And a lot of times people use whiting. You usually get the fish, you let it thaw out. And you season it. The main part is how you season your fish. We use cornmeal, and then we use seasoning salt. And you have to get the grease just right. It has to be sizzling and popping. And then you dip the fish and you fry it. And you can’t make it too hard. Some people serve it on croissant bread, and some people serve it on regular white bread. You add hot sauce, tartar sauce, and then it’s good to go.

Texas Pete is the community favorite hot sauce. But sometimes you go to a fish fry and you get the off-brand hot sauce. So I think whatever is there, you just make it work. But I’ve seen some people reach in their purse and pull out some hot sauce. I think that was in one of Beyonce’s songs, where she says she has some hot sauce in her bag.

The sides are very important at a fish fry. Some people like coleslaw, but usually you get the same soul food sides that you would have at a Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner: macaroni and cheese, and greens. And then sometimes people have fish fries with french fries. 

Fish Fries At Charleston’s First Baptist Church

Andre Nazario

Credit: Leeshia Lee/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Andre Nazario is known as one of Charleston’s best fish fryers. He hosts a weekly fish fry at the First Baptist Church in downtown Charleston. Nazario said their recipe at the church is top secret.

“I can’t really divulge those secrets because then I’d have to take you hostage,” Nazario said. “But yes, there is a certain way that we prepare our fish. There’s a certain way that we season our fish. There’s a certain way that we fry our fish. There’s a certain temperature that we fry it at. And there’s a certain crisp that we want, a certain texture that we want to our fish.” 

The fish fries are held at First Baptist Church in the gymnasium. When you walk in, you might see people you know who are waiting for their food. 

“It’s like mini family reunions,” Nazario said. “So we’re bringing people together. You get to talk about it, you strike up some conversation. You hadn’t seen somebody in a while, you hadn’t talked to them, but then they came out to the fish fry. So it’s a way of touching base and staying connected with our community.”

Nazario is the co-founder of Creating the Advantage, known as CTA. CTA is a nonprofit that works with under-resourced youth around Charleston. They support young people to excel in sports and in school. The money from these fish fries helps fund CTA’s activities.

“We set a price for our fish fry, but most of the time people give a little bit more,” Nazario said. “Because when you offer food, that entices them or encourages them to give a little bit more.”

One of the main components of CTA is their basketball program. They train participants in the physical aspect of the sport. And they teach them to cope with the mental challenges of the game. The fish fries play a key role in supporting this program.

A fryer full of fish.

Credit: Leeshia Lee/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

“With the fish fries that we do, the proceeds go directly to the kids,” Nazario said. “It helps fund training. It helps fund trips, it helps pay for uniforms, it helps pay for hotels for the kids, it helps feed our kids. It’s an assortment of things that we do with the funding from fish fries. And again, the best way to someone’s heart sometimes is through their stomach.”

Fish fries are very important to the Black community in Charleston because they allow us to become our own resource. Fish fries are a source of mutual aid when the funds are limited. It allows the community to come together to show that what you’re doing is important to them.

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This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

'We Belong to Each Other' — Appalachian Youth Build Support Amid Pandemic Uncertainty

On March 17, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam banned gatherings of 10 or more people to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Mehyah Davis, 23, was in his second…

On March 17, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam banned gatherings of 10 or more people to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Mehyah Davis, 23, was in his second week of a new job waiting tables at the cryptid-inspired Wood Booger Grill in Norton, Va.

“That week, [my boss] cut the schedule,” Davis recounted. “Everybody only had one shift.”

A week later, the governor banned dine-in service at all restaurants. Davis was out of a job. “I’m about to apply for unemployment as we speak,” Davis said.

The economic toll of coronavirus-related shutdowns has reached even the most rural communities as governments move to stave off an even more dire public health crisis. In Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia combined, more than 750,000 people filed unemployment insurance claims over a two-week period, and economists agree that America has entered a recession.

The job losses hit especially hard for young people who tend to rely on hourly jobs in the service industry and may also depend on university meal plans to get by. Data on the specific impact of a coronavirus-related recession on young people is limited, but with schools and universities across the nation shut down or transitioning to online learning, and 24 million jobs in the leisure and hospitality industries at risk, it’s not difficult to imagine the toll the recession might have.

Lou Murrey, 29, is the coordinator of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project, a regional network that supports young people who want to live and work in Appalachia, rather than contribute to out-migration to urban centers. Since the pandemic began, Murrey has received countless panicked messages from young people in immediate financial need. Some of them were students, like those from Berea College, which closed March 13, suddenly finding themselves without a room and a meal plan.

“Or there were people coming home from West Virginia University worried that, you know, ‘I’m going to have to walk two miles to the library to use the internet,’” Murrey said,  “‘So I can finish my classes so I can graduate.’”

It wasn’t just students. As restaurants like the Wood Booger began to close, Murrey, who uses gender-neutral they/them pronouns, realized young service-industry workers would need help making rent and buying groceries. They began working with activists at the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition to support young people in crisis.

The groups launched the KSEC & STAY Project Mutual Aid Fund on March 20. The fund offers money directly to people in Appalachia between the ages of 14 and 30.

“I had to shut it down after four hours because we were out of money, because we had so many requests,” Murrey said. “And every single one of them was a person in crisis. Every single one of them was like, I need just $100 to help me buy groceries, I need just $200 to pay rent.”

People Helping People

Mt. Sterling, Ky. musician Larah Helayne, 18, lost months of income as live gigs were cancelled or postponed. “I live with my grandparents, and they’re 64 and 67, and my great grandparents and my great uncle all live on the same plot of land, and they’re all immunosuppressed. So I’ve been doing all the errand-running, all the grocery shopping, while also trying to keep up good grades, and attend like 800 Zoom meetings a day.”

The high school senior worries for the members of their school’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance, many of whom are stuck at home with unaccepting family members. So in addition to schoolwork and caring for their family members, Helayne does what they can for friends, dropping off a minifridge for one or lending their laptop to another. Helayne has also offered to pick up groceries for several elderly neighbors who are at higher risk for serious infection from the coronavirus.

It’s work that Murrey and KSEC’s eastern Kentucky coordinator Caci Gibson call “mutual aid,” a kind of generosity that emphasizes solidarity rather than charity.

Although the term ‘mutual aid’ might be foreign to some, it’s central to how Appalachian communities have weathered previous economic hardships. “How many times has a church community rallied around a widow and brought her casseroles so she could eat?” Gibson said. “That’s mutual aid. It’s how we take care of each other here.”

In regular teleconference calls, STAY Project and KSEC members share their struggles with finances, isolation and the uncertainty of the future.

“This is a very uncertain time,” Davis said. “But we do know that even if we can’t physically be with each other and congregate and whatnot, we’re going to continue to show up for each other, whether it be fundraising to get each other resources, whether it be hosting virtual social events.”

“Whether you’re in school or not, your whole world has been flipped upside down,” Murrey said. “And I’m just really proud of young people in this region who step up to the plate time and time again.”

We Can’t Go Back

The STAY Project and KSEC continue to fundraise so as to keep offering grants of $100 to $200 to young people in crisis. But Murrey said the fund would never be enough.

“What we’re doing is providing a small Band-Aid,” Murrey said. “But what this whole thing has been is an unveiling of how much of a sham our whole system is.”

“Absolutely,” Gibson agreed. “We need to find ways to meet people’s immediate needs, but also change the system. A lot of times we say that we’re modelling the new world, and that we’re building the world that we want to live in.”

The young people point to corporate bailouts, health insurance tied to employment, and the number of their friends and relatives so strapped for resources as evidence that the system has failed them.

When summer comes, Davis hopes to send fresh vegetables from his garden to community members in need, and host bonfires in his yard where everyone stays 6 feet apart. “We belong to each other,” he said. “We can’t go back to the way we’ve been living our lives for so long. We have the opportunity to completely transform our community.”

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