Join us for the third panel of Revival: Lost Southern Voices (RLSV) 2026!

Historical Recipes: Preserving Georgia's Foodways and Stories

Valerie Frey in conversation with Gina Flowers

RLSV is free and open to the public, but we do request registration. This event takes place in the Decatur Library Auditorium, during normal library hours. Due to our security protocols, this means you will need to enter the library through the upper level, rear doors, and take the elevators to G. Elevators will be unlocked 30 minutes before the event.

We hope you'll view the full conference schedule and register for the other panels as well!

About the Speaker:

Valerie J. Frey is a writer and archivist from Athens, Georgia, with projects focusing on genealogy, social history, and foodways. Her archives career began with a Junior Fellowship in the Manuscripts Division at the Library of Congress, and she went on to serve as manuscripts archivist at the Georgia Historical Society. She later became the education coordinator of the Georgia Archives, where she developed public service programs as well as created resources for educators and their students. She now writes and conducts research full time. She is the author of Georgia’s Historical Recipes: Seeking Our State's Oldest Written Foodways and the Stories behind Them. Her previous foodways book, Preserving Family Recipes: How to Save and Celebrate Your Food Traditions, was published by the University of Georgia Press in 2015.

About the Conversation Partner:

Gina Flowers serves as an innovative educator and leader in post-secondary education. Her research interests include 19th-century foodways and how they reflect and challenge ideas of race, class, and gender roles in early America. She currently serves as an Associate Department Chair of English at GSU Perimeter College and as Director of Revival: Lost Southern Voices.

About the Festival

Revival: Lost South­ern Voic­es, a fes­ti­val for read­ers, cel­e­brates his­tor­i­cal­ly exclud­ed, erased, or mar­gin­al­ized South­ern voic­es. Dur­ing this annu­al con­fer­ence, invit­ed pre­sen­ters dis­cuss South­ern authors or artists whose works are out-of-print or oth­er­wise do not receive the atten­tion they deserve. We invite the pub­lic, schol­ars, stu­dents, writ­ers, and inquis­i­tive read­ers to join the con­ver­sa­tion as we con­tin­ue to dis­cov­er and revive these Lost South­ern Voices.