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• Gallery: Soul Food Feast at Marshall

HUNTINGTON -- When Marshall University senior Brittany Davis found out about Marshall's Soulful Sunday, she decided she was going, and she texted some friends to recruit them.

So about 2:30 p.m. Sunday, she and friends Dominique McCormick and Brandon Vanness sat in the Don Morris Room of the Memorial Student Center, enjoying their soul food and talking about Vanness' first encounter with chitterlings.

Davis talked him into trying them, Vanness said.

"She didn't tell me what they were at first, and I tried them once," he said of the famous African-American dish of carefully cleaned and prepared pig intestines. "I loaded them with hot sauce and barbecue sauce, so I didn't really get the flavor, but I got the texture."

The verdict: "I was not a big fan of the texture," said the senior history major.

But the rest of the soul food was good and a nice change of pace, he said. For McCormick, also a senior, it reminded her of home.

Those were among a variety of reasons that hundreds turned out Sunday afternoon for Soulful Sunday, a meal of soul food followed by the African American Arts & Heritage Academy Showcase. It featured demonstrations of dance, music, creative writing and visual arts.

The event was not a fundraiser nor was it held exclusively to recognize Black History Month, said Maurice Cooley, director of African American Student Programs at Marshall. It's just an annual tradition that celebrates diversity at the university, he said.

"There's no formality," Cooley said. "You just come and experience part of the culture in the fellowship."

There's also a history lesson in the food, he pointed out. Chitterlings, for example, were a common dish among slaves because they often had to make due with leftovers.

"What was left over was the guts," he said. "So we have 250 pounds of hog guts."

Other traditional foods on the menu Sunday were barbecue, candied yams, collard greens, corn bread, macaroni and cheese, fried chicken, cole slaw and a variety of others, including a table full of desserts.

"Even though a lot of families here cook these things at home, they don't cook them all at the same time," Cooley said.

And it's a good opportunity for community members and students to come together, talk and laugh, he said, gesturing to the boisterous dining room. Many come every year.

One of those repeat guests is JoAnn Nelson of Huntington.

"I consider it a time to have food from our heritage and see people I haven't seen since I was here last year," she said.

Mark Webb/The Herald-Dispatch

Sylvia Ridgeway, left, prepares a plate of food as the Marshall University Center for African American Students' Programs holds the traditional Soul Food Feast in the Memorial Student Center on Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010, in Huntington.

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