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Oral history interview with Addie Green

Anacostia Community Museum

Object Details

General
Associated documentation for this interview is available in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives.
Title created by ACMA staff using text written on sound cassette, contents of audio recording, textual transcript, and/or associated archival documentation.
Names
Green, Adeletha "Addie"
Collection Creator
Smithsonian Institution. Anacostia Community Museum
Place
Trinidad
West Indies
England
Adams Morgan (Washington, D.C.)
Washington (D.C.)
United States
Topic
Women
Women cooks
Businesswomen
Caribbeans
Women-owned business enterprises
Restaurants
Cooking, Caribbean
Cooking, Trinidadian
Festivals
Communities
Associations, institutions, etc.
Emigration and immigration
Race discrimination
Interviews
Culture
Trinidadians
West Indians
See more items in
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records / Series 3: Oral History Interviews
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Extent
3 Digital files
3 Sound cassettes
Date
circa 1992-1993
Archival Repository
Anacostia Community Museum Archives
Type
Archival materials
Digital files
Sound cassettes
Citation
Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Note
The total playing time of interview recording is approximately 1 hour and 55 minutes.
Scope and Contents
Addie Green – owner, manager, and chef of The Islander, a restaurant located on Columbia Road in northwest Washington, DC – explained the boundaries of the Adams Morgan neighborhood. She talked in detail about her restaurant The Islander, her migration from Trinidad to England to the United States, her love for her country and childhood memories in Trinidad, her leadership in building the Caribbean community in the Washington, DC area, her mother's migration to and work in the United States, and the importance of cultural authenticity when organizing and running events, particularly carnivals and festivals. Note, Addie Green is also known as Adeletha "Addie" Green. Green explained The Islander specializes in Trinidadian cuisine but also cooks and serves foods from other Caribbean islands; the founding of the restaurant in 1978 and how the menu evolved; and she visits the islands to learn about the food and how to cook the food before she prepares it in her restaurant. She talked about the reviews she and The Islander have received from the press, including The Washington Post; and catering for government agencies, events, and festivals, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and Caribbean Festival Day. Green talked about her experience traveling on a Norwegian ship to England, attending school in England, and marrying her American husband and birthing her first child in England. She explained why did not want to migrate to the United States; that racial differences, discrimination, and bias did not register for her until she arrived in the United States; her experience working in the United States; how and why she got involved in the food and restaurant industry; and her husband's reaction to her working outside of the house. Green also talked about cultural organizations, including the Trinidad-Tobago Association, Jamaican National, and West Indian American Cultural Organization; how and why the Caribbean community has changed in Washington, DC; carnival culture in Trinidad and how it differs from carnivals and festivals in the United States; and Trinidadian athletic societies represented in Washington DC area. Interview is in English. Digital audio files include loud music and talking in background. Interviewee's voice is intelligible for the most part; interviewer's voice is soft and difficult to hear at times.
Collection Restrictions
Use of the materials requires an appointment. Please contact the archivist to make an appointment: ACMarchives@si.edu.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1712088000981-1712088003341-1
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/qa74853a1ae-ffff-412a-a1d1-8d29472d83fc

Related Content

  • Black Mosaic: Community, Race, and Ethnicity among Black Immigrants in Washington, D. C. Exhibition Records

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