Join us for a free, online Gallier Gathering this month with Dr. Howard Conyers, rocket scientist, pit master, and founder of Conyers Family BBQ, From The Low Country to the Bayou, and GUMBO JUBILEE.

How deep do the roots of BBQ run in America? Dr. Conyers will examine the history of BBQ and the connection to enslaved people in the American south. Explore the evolution of barbecue from slavery and Gullah and Creole cultures to the way we grill today.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Howard Conyers speaks on topics that reflect a commitment to educating the community about STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), American BBQ, Black Farmers, African American Culture in the Rural South, and Southern Foodways.

Dr. Conyers, Rocket Scientist Pitmaster from Paxville, SC, is the founder of Conyers Family BBQ, From The Low Country to the Bayou, and GUMBO JUBILEE. After over 20 years of learning history of the south and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, he has worked for NASA for over 10 years. He officially launched his Conyers Family BBQ LLC in 2016 to be a pitmaster, cultural food educator, and STEM expert to the New Orleans Area. Doc’s emphasis quickly became cultural educational dinners, media productions, and demonstrations. In 2018, Dr. Conyers hosted and co-produced PBS Digital Studios show Nourish and it was awarded the Telly Award and a Webby Nominee in its pilot season. Professionally, he earned the NASA Space Technology Innovation Award and the Black Engineer of the Year Award Modern Day Technology Leader. For his combined interest, Dr. Conyers was 1 of 25 people recognized as a Southerner of the South by Southern Living in 2018. In 2018, he was also presented with a key to the city of Manning, the town in South Carolina where he is from.

Dr. Conyers did a lot of research in validating the oral history in barbecue and southern food culture, and he uncovered he knew a lot foundations of southern foodways that were shaped by black hands whom worked on farms similarly to his parents, and multiple generations before them since and during enslavement. Dr. Conyers has become renowned nationally and internationally particularly for his knowledge of American Barbecue and Southern Foods. He is showcasing that African Americans has heavily shaped American BBQ while also exhibiting the ingenuity that they possessed. As a product of the deep rural south, he is taking important lessons of the past and applying them to the present, and ultimately to the future.