"The Unvoiced Community: Barbecue Men and Women of Goulds" is a photo exhibit that explores barbecue culture in the streets of South Miami-Dade County. The exhibit celebrates local entrepreneurs who set up in parking lots and street corners selling smoked meats late into the evening hours.
Photographer Symone Titania Major grew up in South Dade. She saw beauty and commerce collide beneath the veil of hazy smoke and she talked to WLRN about documenting her community.
WLRN: What prompted you to want to photograph the barbecue scene?
MAJOR: As an artist living in a neighborhood that is quite filled with violence and crime, I was seeking a way of finding positivity and trying to find a route of expression.
I used to drive down the street on my way home and I would see these barbecue vendors religiously set setting up shop .
Not many cars on the road, maybe a few street lights, and then all of a sudden you see this cloud of smoke just arise from the darkness and behind the cloud of smoke there's usually one spotlight. It's intriguing. It makes you want to walk over and see exactly what it is and walking over it's actually barbecue vendors selling their barbecue.
They're entrepreneurs just getting along and sharing their goods with our neighborhood.
Barbecue is typically a male-dominated world, but the women are representing in Goulds. Tell me more about the women behind the grills.
Yes. The women are also representing. [One] of the women that I'm actually documenting is Mama Dukes. Mama Dukes started her entrepreneurship as a means to raise funds for her daughter's wedding and from there, her love grew into barbecuing. She then brought her first truck, her first grill and it just became this practice that everyone in the community loved. She’s out there even at night. A woman.
Mama Dukes and her daughter. One o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the morning, they're unbothered cooking. It's really inspiring as a woman, as a photographer, as an entrepreneur as well, to see that. To see that they have the tenacity to get out there just like men, you know, firing up a grill.
People aren't just barbecuing for fun. This in some cases is their livelihood or second income to make ends meet. What did they tell you about the business side of things?
Yeah. So it's not easy. It's not easy. I can definitely say that one of the vendors has another job. He works at Walmart til about 11 o'clock at night and right after that he has to drive home pick up his grill and bring it right back out to his spot and start his second job just like that.
And it's not always easy. Some nights you have a bunch of people out there buying food. But if the community is hurting, so are the barbecue vendors and so oftentimes they might not have anybody show up. And so then what do they do for income? They have to almost - I don't want to say migrate, but they have to kind of travel. They can't stay in one position for too long if there is nobody coming to that location. A lot of them actually have to drive to different locations and find business.
So I'm from Miami and I love a good street barbecue. I normally frequent the ones either in North Dade or Liberty City. So if we had to pit the two North Dade barbecues versus South Dade—make the case for South Dade.
South Dade all day. Nobody does it like Goulds. You know, it's Southern. It's authentic Southern barbecue food. There's nothing that can compare.
The ribs are tender, chicken is juicy, the collard greens are amazing and we have love in it
IF YOU GO:
The Unvoiced Community: BBQ Men & Women of Goulds (photo exhibit, live music, and barbecue vendors)
When: Saturday March 31, 3 p.m.-6 p.m.
Where: South Miami Dade Cultural Arts Center, 10950 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay
Cost: Free entry, $16 food voucher
More info: www.smdcac.org or call 786-573-5300
