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Boise Soul Food Festival showcases African-American culture

Posted at 3:40 PM, Aug 12, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-12 17:52:49-04

The Boise Soul Food Festival happens this Saturday at Julia Davis Park from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

This free festival gives people a chance to learn about African-American culture through music, dancing and of course food.

"We categorize soul food as food for your soul, it’s history dates back all the way to pre-slavery," said Shari Baber, the president of the Soul Food Festival. "We plan to have collared greens, catfish, gumbo, barbecue ribs, sweet potato pie, pound cake and sock it to me cake, all of those generate from our history and we would like to share that with our community."

The festival kicks off with yoga, it features fun for the kids, art and it also showcasing both retail businesses and 18 food vendors.

"This is such an important even for our black businesses as well as the community as a whole," said Trish Walker who founded Idaho Black Community Alliance. "It’s a chance and an opportunity for our businesses to showcase what they have and allow the community to engage, support and help them grow their businesses."

Both ladies called the festival a bridge that allows people in the Treasure Valley to connect with the African-American community.

"As a culture and in this community we are a very small population so the festival gives us one meeting place where all the cultures in our community can come and learn about our culture," said Baber.

We met one of the food vendors during the Super Bowl, Brandon Timberlake smoked some delicious, I know because I bought a rack, Timberlake's Cuisine will be making smoked maple bourbon ribs and hot links as well as their famous smoked mac and cheese.

"Black culture is soul food," said Walker. "Soul food is black culture and the community needs to know what we have."