Farm To Freedom

On October 23rd, join CPH for a talk by Dallas College North Lake Professor, Roy Vu. A UH history alum, Dr. Vu will discuss his new book, Farm-to-Freedom: Vietnamese Americans and Their Food Gardens, an exploration on how home gardens have shaped immigrant identity in Texas. Date: Thursday, October 23rdTime: 6:00 PMLocation: Architecture, ARC Room 150 Farm-to-Freedom: Vietnamese Americans and Their Food Gardens brings to light how the Vietnamese diasporic population in Texas uses gardens literally and figuratively to set down roots in a new country. These gardens, often hidden in plain sight, establish the seat of Vietnamese immigrant culture, and can also offer Vietnamese Americans an empowering pathway to forging a new homeland duality by retaining ties to the foods and environs they drew comfort from in Vietnam. The book covers topics including but not limited to culinary citizenship, food democracy, culinary justice, and food sovereignty. Farm-to-Freedom reveals how these gardens not only provide those who tend them a greater sense of security and agency in an unfamiliar land but also give them the means to preserve and expand Vietnamese cuisine for themselves while simultaneously enriching food culture in the United States. Roy Vũ earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Houston in 2006. He is now a history professor at Dallas College – North Lake Campus. He is also an advisory board member for Foodways Texas and Keep Irving Beautiful, where he is the 2018 recipient of the Sadie Ray Graff Education Award. His new book, Farm-to-Freedom: Vietnamese Americans and Their Food Gardens, was released in September 2024 by Texas A&M University Press. More Info below.