Food · Culture · The African diaspora

Común
Root

Food remembers what borders divide.

It began in West Africa and crossed the water, surfacing in the food of the Americas. A peanut stew on one shore, a peanut sauce on another, the same hand generations apart. I follow that thread one cook at a time, and it starts on the coast of Mexico.

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An Afro-Mexican matriarch in traditional dress holding a bowl of mole
Food remembers what borders divideRecognition, not fusionThe African threadLa SobremesaLa familia no es solo sangreCosta ChicaThe CaribbeanColombiaBrazilEcuadorPeruWest Africa Food remembers what borders divideRecognition, not fusionThe African threadLa SobremesaLa familia no es solo sangreCosta ChicaThe CaribbeanColombiaBrazilEcuadorPeruWest Africa

The trailer

A first taste.

Part of something larger

One film, the first of many.

La Sobremesa is the opening chapter. Rooted is the series it belongs to, tracing the African thread through the food of the Americas, one community and one cook at a time. Común Root is the home for all of it, built on a single idea: recognition, not fusion.

Film seriesCulinary mediaThe diasporaThe AmericasWest Africa
Greg and Doña Tina together
The heart

I came as a stranger.
She made me family.

The series · a documentary

Rooted

One place. One kitchen. One elder who never wrote anything down. Each chapter follows the thread until it surfaces, then follows it to the next coast.

01 · The Lagoon In editing

Costa Chica

Oaxaca, Mexico · the mole, the water, the matriarch

View Season 1
Upcoming seasons
The CaribbeanIn development
ColombiaIn development
BrazilIn development
EcuadorIn development
PeruIn development
United StatesIn development
West Africa · the originIn development

The map

The thread begins in West Africa.

The thread runs from West Africa across the water and down the coasts of the Americas. We are going to follow all of it.

West AfricaThe originIn productionCosta ChicaNextPeruNew OrleansGullah GeecheeThe CaribbeanColombiaEcuadorBrazil
In productionNextOn the map, in development

The writing

The whole story lives on Substack.

One dispatch a week from the road, the kitchen, and the edit. The connections as I find them, before they are polished into anything.

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Free. No account needed to read.

Get involved

Come sit at the table.

The film is in post. The series is in development. If you are a brand that funds real storytelling, a festival, a chef, or a collaborator who belongs in this work, I would love to talk.