Humanities In The Village: Irena Stein (With D. Watkins)
The Ivy Bookshop and the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University present the latest installment of Humanities in the Village, featuring Irena Stein of Baltimore’s Alma Cocina Latina in celebration of her cookbook, AREPA!
We are thrilled that D. Watkins will join Irena Stein in conversation. This event will take place at Bird in Hand on 10/30 at 6:30 pm. It is free and open to the public.
An immigrant from Venezuela who came to the US on a Fulbright Scholarship to Stanford University, Irena Stein fulfilled her dream of opening a restaurant when she founded Alma Cocina Latina in Baltimore in 2015 to great acclaim. Her cookbook Arepa: Classic & Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela’s Daily Bread fills the gap in the literature on the arepa, the enduring symbol of Venezuelan food and culture. A celebration of these versatile stuffed cornmeal patties, it presents over 50 recipes for traditional and globally inspired variations and offers unique insights into Venezuelan culture. As millions of Venezuelans have emigrated over the past 10-15 years, they have shared their daily bread within their new communities. Arepa encourages readers to create and share Venezuela’s delicious national treasure with friends and family in their own homes.
Irena Stein is a photographer, restaurateur, immigrant, sustainability advocate and humanitarian. Irena came to the United States from Venezuela on a Fulbright Scholarship to Stanford University where she graduated with a Master’s in Cultural Anthropology. Since then, she has merged her passion for art, food, community and environmentalism into a seamless blend in a city that craved it—Baltimore. Irena was the first to bring contemporary and highly imaginative Venezuelan cuisine to the United States at her restaurant Alma Cocina Latina. Alma continues to lead the Baltimore food scene with innovative and transformative ideas, not only with their cuisine, but in shaping how we view food in our society. Irena lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her husband and continues to build meaningful cultural connections in the Baltimore area and beyond. She is the author of cookbook Arepa: Classic & Contemporary Recipes for Venezuela’s Daily Bread.
D. Watkins is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Beast Side, The Cook Up, Where Tomorrows Aren’t Promised, and We Speak for Ourselves—which was Enoch Pratt Free Library’s 2020 One Book Baltimore selection. His newest book, Black Boy Smile, was released in May.
Watkins is Editor-at-Large for Salon. He is a writer on the HBO mini-series We Own This City and hosts the show’s companion podcast. Additionally, he was featured in the HBO documentary, The Slow Hustle. His work has been published in the New York Times, Esquire, New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Rolling Stone and other publications.
Watkins is a college lecturer at the University of Baltimore, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing. He also holds a Master of Education degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Some of Watkins’ awards include the Johns Hopkins Distinguished Alumnus Award, the BMe Genius Grant for Dynamic Black Leaders, the City Lit Dambach Award for Service to the Literary Arts, the Maryland Library Association’s William Wilson Maryland Author Award, and Ford’s Men of Courage Award for Black Male Storytellers. He was also a finalist for a 2016 Hurston Wright Legacy Award, and The Cook Up was a 2017 Books for a Better Life finalist.
He lives in Baltimore, MD with his wife and daughter.
