2022-23 Folklife Apprenticeship Feature: Soul Food Cooking with Xavier Oglesby & Brooklynn Oglesby

Written by Emma Goldenthal

This article features one of seven pairs supported by the statewide West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship program in 2022-2023.

NOW through August 26, 2024, apply for the 2024-2025 program!

A Black man wearing a baseball cap and a gray t-shirt watches as his niece sprinkles seasoning on a tray of sweet potatoes. — *Xavier Oglesby (left) and his apprentice Brooklynn Oglesby, 2023. Photo by Jennie Williams.*

Brooklynn Oglesby apprenticed her uncle, Xavier, to learn their family’s tradition of soul food cooking, a creative practice shaped and passed down by over four generations before her. “It has always stunned me that my hands are capable of making something only out of a handful of ingredients,” Brooklynn reflects humbly, but with pride. “It tastes better because I made it.”

Xavier Oglesby is an accomplished home and professional cook who, like his elders before him, delights in crafting delicious meals for his loved ones and community. “I just love to cook, I just love it,” Xavier explains. “My passing on this information allows me to pour into the next generation the way my elders so lovingly poured into me.”

A young Black woman prepares greens. — *Brooklynn Oglesby cooks soul food, 2023. Photo by Mike Keller.*

Born in 1970, Xavier grew up on a coal camp in Tams near Beckley in Raleigh County, West Virginia. He was raised alongside three brothers and a sister, all of whom were taught to cook.

“Soul food is about taking the things that you have,” Xavier explains. “Oftentimes you don’t have a lot. But what you do have, you take it and make the best of it.”

A Black man sets vanilla wafers one by one on a tray of banana pudding. — *Xavier Oglesby prepares banana pudding, 2023. Photo by Mike Keller.*

Soul food cooking traditions in the Oglesby family go back at least four generations of women, on both sides. Many of these women worked as cooks for white families in the area. Xavier can easily recall the rich flavors produced from their kitchens.

Xavier’s maternal grandmother who everyone called, “Bunny” was known for her chicken and dumplings and “Bunny Lou rolls.” Her employers would freeze extras of her rolls so they could eat some even when she wasn’t working. Xavier’s great great grandmother Lula had a sister, Aunt Hattie, who prepared stunning West Virginia-style country breakfasts with homemade fried apples, eggs, bacon, and plenty of preserves. Xavier remembers his great-grandma Irene on his dad’s side who could “fix a Blackberry cobbler that was just unbelievable.” Many of the men in Xavier’s family are also cooks, and he still makes his dad’s version of brown gravy today.

Black eyed peas, corned beef cabbage, fried fish, and cornbread. — Black eyed peas, corned beef cabbage, fried fish, and cornbread for the new year. Photo courtesy of Xavier Oglesby.

Deviled eggs, yellow mustard potato salad, and pasta. — Black eyed peas, corned beef cabbage, fried fish, and cornbread for the new year. Photo courtesy of Xavier Oglesby.

Xavier and Brooklynn hosted a few community-wide card parties in 2023 where they cooked for their guests. Card parties just like this were common in the community where Xavier grew up, and they instilled in him an appreciation for social gathering and conversation: “The communication that comes with those card parties and things, it’s very important.” Food is a key fixture of these gatherings; it draws people in, encourages them to participate, chat, and connect with one another.

“On the coal camp, we used to have card parties, and people would go to each other’s houses. But there my grandmother, Granny Oglesby–she had the largest house on the coal camp… And so the ladies would meet on Tuesday nights. They would meet down there and set up their [wooden] horses and things, and they would do quilting together. Ladies all over the coal camp. … On the nights that they would have their card parties, the ladies would bring covered dishes, and they would have all kinds of stuff. They would bring pig feet, and somebody may bring some chitlins, and somebody may bring some potato salad, and whatever like that. Somebody may be bringing a pound cake or two, that kind of thing.” —Xavier Oglesby

Several people seated at tables playing cards. — *Guests at the card party hosted by Xavier and Brooklynn Oglesby at the Woman’s Club in Beckley on February 3, 2023. Photo by Jennie Williams.*

Soul food is often associated with Black southern culinary culture, especially with the Black church. This connection rings true for Xavier as he reflects fondly and enthusiastically on childhood memories of church members bringing their best soul food dishes for functions and homecomings.

“When I was a child we would go to church … And they would have what they call Homecoming. Or, they would have a church anniversary or something like that. Well, the ladies would cook the best cakes… Because their recipe of their pound cake is gonna be compared to Sister Somebody’s, you know. And so everybody pull out the best recipes, they put their best foot forward.” — Xavier Oglesby

A Black man and a younger woman sit together, both holding microphones. — Xavier Oglesby (left) and his apprentice Brooklynn Oglesby, 2023. Photo by Mike Keller.

A white woman with short hair and an orange top watches a Black man with a dark polo shirt speak into a microphone. — Xavier Oglesby (left) and his apprentice Brooklynn Oglesby, 2023. Photo by Mike Keller.

An accountant by trade and a busy mother of two, Brooklynn has aspired to learn from her uncle so she can feed her growing family good home cooked meals. She wants to continue to pass these traditional skills and dishes along to the next generation. “I’m hoping I can raise two sons that know how to cook,” Brooklynn shares, “And hopefully they’ll be better cooks than me one day.”

Through this apprenticeship, Brooklynn herself has learned to confidently cook dishes like turnip greens, fish, turkey legs, and mac n’ cheese, even though she claims her uncle’s version of the latter is still better than hers.

“I’ve learned a lot about my family’s history, because a lot of them have passed away or I didn’t really get to meet them. And it’s interesting to hear they had a big impact in the community!” — Brooklynn Oglesby

A Black woman with long hair and wearing a black long sleeved shirt smiles and scoops green beans onto her plate. — *Brooklynn fixes a plate of home-cooked food that she and her uncle Xavier prepared for the card party on February 3, 2023. Photo by Jennie Williams.*

Brooklynn can rely on friendly tips from her uncle. For instance, Xavier might start prepping ingredients for chili a few days in advance: “You learn how to do shortcuts,” he says. “While you’re watching TV, and you got a little extra time, and – I know you don’t got a lot of it – but when you have extra time, you take and you start cutting up your vegetables. Your bell peppers, you cut your onions up.”

With these ingredients prepped, Xavier next recommends a trick he learned from his mama: “She showed me how if you in a hurry, and you don’t have time [to soak dry beans], you take so many cans of Luck’s beans” instead. Combined with the peppers and onions that are already prepped, all you have to do is throw in some browned hamburger meat, “and put your spices in, and like that, within thirty minutes you got chili.”

An oven with a tray of sweet potatoes and someone spooning a whiteish liquid into the tray. — *Xavier prepares sweet potatoes for the card party at The Woman’s Club in Beckley on February 3, 2023. Photo by Jennie Williams.*

It’s the little tricks, shortcuts, secret ingredients, and adaptations that allow this tradition to be passed along and evolve with each new generation of Oglesby cooks who learn to make it their own. “Now is the time to make mistakes,” Xavier adds. And “this is the time now to learn and to try different things with your kids, these recipes and stuff, and see what they like.”

Brooklynn has learned a handful of recipes from her grandma, Ann (Xavier’s mother), who passes them along like family secrets, but Xavier often cooks intuitively and from practice, using his senses to tell when a dish is right rather than just timing or measurements. Whether it’s looking for the right kind of peaks in meringue for a lemon meringue pie or banana pudding, or knowing when chicken is done by touch, these sensibilities take time to develop.

Inseparable from these dishes are family stories, community values, and deep generations-long connections to Raleigh County, West Virginia. Xavier makes it clear: “Soul food is to me— now, I can’t speak for all Black folk, you know. Soul food was around before I got here, but, to me, soul food is just that. Soul. Food for the soul.”

*Brooklynn Oglesby and her uncle Xavier Oglesby in Beckley, WV on June 10, 2023. Photo by Jennie Williams.*

Watch Xavier Oglesby and Brooklynn Oglesby talk about their experiences participating in the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship program during a showcase at the Phil Gainer Community Center in Elkins on September 9, 2023.

About the Author

Emma Goldenthal is an educator, gardener-farmer, and aspiring community storyteller, passionate about work that showcases and fosters people’s reciprocal connections to place. Though she currently lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, a large portion of her heart resides in Wheeling, West Virginia, where she all-too-briefly served as an AmeriCorps volunteer in 2023. While living there, Emma led the creation of a self-published community cookbook featuring treasured recipes and stories from over two dozen city residents, a project funded in part by the West Virginia Humanities Council! (Thanks y’all!). Read more about the project here or here or here, and check out a free pdf of the cookbook here.

Featured interview quotes, recordings, photography, and videos are produced by the West Virginia Folklife Program.

The West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Read the 2022-2023 West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program featured blog posts linked below:

Fiddle Repair with Chris Haddox & Mary Linscheid, written by Mary Linscheid
Old-Time Fiddle with Gerry Milnes & Annick Odom, written by Mary Linscheid
Clawhammer Banjo with Joe Herrmann & Dakota Karper, written by Mary Linscheid
Appalachian Storytelling with Bil Lepp & James Froemel, written by Adam Booth
Mushroom Foraging with Sharon Briggs & Anthony Murray, written by Emma Goldenthal
Soul Food Cooking with Xavier Oglesby & Brooklynn Oglesby, written by Emma Goldenthal
Fiber Arts with Enrica McMillon & Barbara Weaner (Featured in Fall 2023 Goldenseal), written by Jennie Williams