Odyssey Community School Commencement June 2, 2018
I was honored to be asked to give the commencement speech today at the Odyssey Community School’s graduation ceremonies. Below …
Jodi Rhoden is a writer, baker, activist, and entrepreneur in West Asheville, North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, Duncan, and their son, Jasper. Jodi is the founder and former owner of Short Street Cakes in West Asheville, and she uses her 10 years of small-scale business experience to mentor entrepreneurs through Vision + Vocation, Birds Eye Business Planning and Adventures, and Mountain Bizworks. Jodi loves to travel, aspires to keep chickens and bees, and is currently writing a memoir about her life in cake.
Beautiful!
The Life-Affirming Blackness of Southern Cakes and Pies
tastecooking.com
Dolester Miles winning the Beard for Outstanding Pastry Chef is the culmination of a long road traveled for African-American pastry chefs.
Adrian Miller if you are not familiar with Jodi Rhoden and her work, she's amazing! Thought you would like this article she shared. :-D Cake Ladies by Jodi Rhoden
“Reputation has a lot to do with success in anything. Thats why you should always keep it honest!” -words to live by from Charity Ray of the Mount Olive Community, Mars Hill, NC.
It was an honor to document Charity Ray’s oral history of Black Walnut Pound Cake for Edible Asheville! Of course, a cake is always so much more than a cake: it is a story of celebration and community. I learned so much about Appalachian natural and human history working on this story, from Rosenwald Schools to the local wildcrafting economy. I hope you’ll pick up a copy and check out the recipe, and take a moment to honor our foremothers in baking.
Photos by Erin Adams Photography, and special thanks to Jen Nathan Orris, Shawn Swartz of Warren Wilson College Forestry, and of course, Miss Ray. 🙏🏻
Also very gratified to see Short Street Cakes referred to in a different article in the same issue as "the legendary Asheville bakery Short Street Cakes." Beamin 🌞
A delightful story that demonstrates the many ways that food can touch our hearts!
✨💖Three spring cakes and one recipe, today on the blog! Celebrating love and creativity in the Merry Month of May. 💖✨
Cakes of Spring! – Jodi Rhoden
jodirhoden.com
Happy New Year!
I want to share with you this note I received from a friend who has relocated from Asheville to Pittsburgh, and works in a needle exchange program there (Prevention Point Pittsburgh), and bought a copy of Cake Ladies for a beloved volunteer there. I have saved and re-read this email so many times, because it reminds me of who I am and what I care about and why I bake and why I started Short Street Cakes and why I wrote the book and what my highest hopes for any of my work could be. Thank you, Sarah Danforth, for reminding me of my purpose and joy. May we each find and be reminded of these in our creative expressions, and may the New Year bring many more opportunities for each of us to use the gifts of creativity that we ALL possess in ways that are, as Sarah says, sacred and essential.
"Hi Jodi,
Just wanted to let you know that I gave my friend Rachel her copy of Cake Ladies yesterday, and she burst into tears at the inscription and totally loved the book. It’s real, you know (I mean, of course YOU know), the ways that baking sweets for people in our community is both a sacred and essential act of showing love and commitment. Yesterday at the exchange we had a holiday cookie table (cookie tables are a thing up here in Pittsburgh) for the needle exchange, and the ways that people were so excited and sharing stories about cookie tables from their family’s past…just that baking is so much more than just baking, and I’m so glad that I got to give your book to my friend and volunteer who really epitomizes that.
Thanks for all the great work that you do in the world. It’s a light that shines, and is needed.
love,
sarah d.
p.s. remember when you were getting started with short street and you used to bring cupcakes to the Ahope shelter? That meant so much to the people there, that they got to have beautiful baked goods. I just remembered that and wanted to remind you of it, too."
Another shipment of Cake Ladies on its way! 🍰Thanks to everyone who has taken advantage of the holiday sale ❤️ 4 more days to get in on that free shipping y’all! 🍰
Holiday sale! Free Shipping on inscribed copies of Cake Ladies: Celebrating a Southern Tradition!
The weather is cooling and the holidays are upon us. In honor of the High Holy Days of Baking, I am offering free shipping on inscribed copies of my cookbook Cake Ladies: Celebrating a Southern Tradition! The first 50 purchases placed by December 15th will receive free shipping, and all orders will be shipped within the United States in time for Christmas. After you order, you will receive a confirmation email, at which point you can give me information about the inscription you would like.
Much love and happy baking!
xo
jodirhoden.com
![🙌🏻✨💯
#Repost from @sister.is ・・・ “IN THIS TURBULENT POLITICAL MOMENT, ARE YOU (YES YOU, CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR) CLINGING TO CAPITALISM?
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I have been immersed in Robin DiAngelo’s work on white fragility and @wildmysticwoman's evincing of white solidarity. This includes an examination of the way white people comfort and emotionally caretake one another around the feelings of fear, shame, or discomfort that arise when they are confronted with their own racism. This emotional solidarity lulls white people back into feeling good about themselves and gives them permission not to do the work of taking accountability for their own participation in racist systems, actions, and beliefs.
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This week, I have begun to notice what I call “Capitalist solidarity”—entrepreneurs rushing in to comfort and assuage each others’ anxieties about participating in Capitalism in the current political climate. Small business owners are starting to question the premise of their business, their offerings, their modalities, the relevance of their work.
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The task of the present moment is to SIT WITH THAT DISCOMFORT.
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If you are an entrepreneur who has claimed to be feminist, Capitalist-critical, or committed to social justice, and you are suddenly wondering if your work aligns with your values, it is important to sit with that wondering until you know the answer. You might discover that your business, your approach, your practices are no longer relevant. I realize this is frightening. But, it’s very necessary if we are to move forward and create the better world we know is possible.
•
What if… you sat with your discomfort and you learned that your purpose, your personal calling has changed, and your business *isn’t* making your highest contribution to society? Your ego will tell you this is an utter disaster. That you have failed. Your ego will tell you to cling to what you’ve spent years creating, to buckle down, and craft an elegant justification of why it really is still relevant (when you know it isn’t). But, what if the truth is, your business *doesn’t* make sense right now?
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This is not a failure. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY.”
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[Continued on @sister.is feed/comments]](http://scontent-ort2-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/263e4ad2dc6c6110ad438457d8f50432/5BDEBB6C/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/36653907_255876145190546_102888943757819904_n.jpg "🙌🏻✨💯
#Repost from @sister.is ・・・ “IN THIS TURBULENT POLITICAL MOMENT, ARE YOU (YES YOU, CREATIVE ENTREPRENEUR) CLINGING TO CAPITALISM?
•
I have been immersed in Robin DiAngelo’s work on white fragility and @wildmysticwoman's evincing of white solidarity. This includes an examination of the way white people comfort and emotionally caretake one another around the feelings of fear, shame, or discomfort that arise when they are confronted with their own racism. This emotional solidarity lulls white people back into feeling good about themselves and gives them permission not to do the work of taking accountability for their own participation in racist systems, actions, and beliefs.
•
This week, I have begun to notice what I call “Capitalist solidarity”—entrepreneurs rushing in to comfort and assuage each others’ anxieties about participating in Capitalism in the current political climate. Small business owners are starting to question the premise of their business, their offerings, their modalities, the relevance of their work.
•
The task of the present moment is to SIT WITH THAT DISCOMFORT.
•
If you are an entrepreneur who has claimed to be feminist, Capitalist-critical, or committed to social justice, and you are suddenly wondering if your work aligns with your values, it is important to sit with that wondering until you know the answer. You might discover that your business, your approach, your practices are no longer relevant. I realize this is frightening. But, it’s very necessary if we are to move forward and create the better world we know is possible.
•
What if… you sat with your discomfort and you learned that your purpose, your personal calling has changed, and your business *isn’t* making your highest contribution to society? Your ego will tell you this is an utter disaster. That you have failed. Your ego will tell you to cling to what you’ve spent years creating, to buckle down, and craft an elegant justification of why it really is still relevant (when you know it isn’t). But, what if the truth is, your business *doesn’t* make sense right now?
•
This is not a failure. THIS IS AN OPPORTUNITY.”
•
[Continued on @sister.is feed/comments]")
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