Traditions, history on display at upcoming gathering

Jan. 31—In an effort to recognize the start of Black History Month and highlight the history and traditions of Black Appalachian communities, one Beckley resident is hosting what he calls an "Old Fashion Card Party."

The party will also include an array of soul food, prepared by Beckley resident Xavier Oglesby and his niece Brooklynn as part of a statewide apprentice program which helps facilitate the transmission of cultural knowledge, artistic techniques, stories and traditional practices.

The Old Fashion Card Party will take place at 6 p.m. Friday at the Beckley Woman's Club, 202 Park Ave.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term, Oglesby, the event's organizer, said a card party is a gathering that would typically take place in someone's home and involved food, card games, possibly homemade alcohol and conversations with friends and family.

"When I was a kid, they would have card parties and people would come from all over the coal camp or wherever and meet in somebody's house," Oglesby said. "The ladies would fix a covered dish and you would sit actually across from each other at a card table and, you know, play cards, share the time of day, catch up with the things that's going on with each other in the community and things like that."

Plates of food will cost $10 and will include a fish dinner complete with fried fish, coleslaw, candied sweet potatoes, mac and cheese, string beans and more.

Oglesby said tables will be set up for people to play spades, dominoes, and bid whist, a card game which has its roots in the Black community.

The entry fee for teams of two to play any of these three games is $25 or $15 for a single player looking to be matched up with a partner.

Cash prizes will be awarded to winning teams.

Oglesby said the card party is open to anyone and everyone.

"It is for people who like card games and board games and that kind of thing to come and participate, but it's not just for people who play dominoes or cards," he said. "It's for people who just want to come and have an old-fashioned good time."

Oglesby said he remembers going to card parties as a child and adult at his grandfather's house on Tams Mountain in Stotesbury.

He said he's looking forward to carrying on the tradition as well as passing down the recipes that he learned from his family which have been passed down for generations.

"It means everything to me to be able to pass on something that, I guess, sometimes we take for granted that when we go and cook that it's just a recipe," Oglesby said. "But when you are able to prepare wholesome food, when you're able to prepare soul foods for your family — I'll tell you like this. When I was coming along, we were poor, we were dirt poor. We didn't have money to have these big soirees, big parties and give these big gifts and things like that; we didn't have that.

"So when somebody, their way of showing you that they loved you, they fixed you a dish of some sort. They took time to make you a cake. They took time to prepare some chicken and dumplings for you. That was their way of saying, 'I love you.' That's soul food."

Oglesby said he is taking his niece on as an apprentice to teach her a number of family recipes as part of the West Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, which is administered by the West Virginia Folklife Program at the West Virginia Humanities Council in Charleston and is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

As part of the program, seven apprenticeship pairs from across the Mountain State were announced in late mid-December who will study and practice traditions including soul food cooking, fiddle repair, and mushroom foraging.

Brooklynn said she's honored to serve as apprentice to her uncle to learn traditional soul food recipes passed down through her family.

"My dad has always been the best cook I know, but growing up I never wanted to be in the kitchen to learn," said Brooklynn, who works as an accountant in Raleigh County.

"Since being an adult and having to cook for myself and family, I wished I would've paid more attention to my dad when he taught me recipes. With this internship becoming available, it was the perfect opportunity for someone in the family to teach me what I have been missing.

"It means a lot to me to have my uncle take the time to teach me recipes that have been passed on through our family. With me having a son and another on the way, it is important to me to be able to teach them our family traditions when they get older."

Oglesby said he hopes to host other gatherings which feature soul foods cooked by himself and his niece later in the year.

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com