Deah Berry Mitchell
Explore the living history of Black America with Deah Berry Mitchell, historian, cultural preservationist, and food scholar. Deah brings the past into sharp focus through food history, augmented reality, and community storytelling. A Julia Child Foundation Fellow, former James Beard Awards judge, and PhD candidate at the University of North Texas.
Dallas, United States
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Deah Berry Mitchell is a historian, food scholar, and cultural preservationist whose work uses storytelling, scholarship, and technology to bring Black American history out of the archive and into lived experience.
A PhD candidate in history at the University of North Texas, Deah is the founder and CEO of Nostalgia Black Group, a multimedia company dedicated to preserving Black cultural history through writing, public speaking, tourism, research, and technology. She created Deep Ellum AR, the first augmented reality app in the United States developed by a woman to highlight Black history, and founded Soul of DFW Tours, producing sold-out bus tours combining food history and local Black cultural heritage. Funded by the City of Dallas, the app is now used in classrooms, walking tours, and cultural institutions across North Texas.
Deah's work connects academic research with public storytelling, helping organizations understand how food, place, and memory shape cultural identity and consumer experience. Her expertise in Black Texas history and digital heritage tools supports museums, tourism boards, educators, and corporate audiences seeking more authentic narratives and community engagement strategies for strategy and curriculum design applications.
Audiences leave Deah's sessions with a grounded understanding of Juneteenth history, Black Southern foodways and the role of storytelling in preserving cultural memory. Deah also demonstrates how technology can be used to surface hidden histories and how community-rooted entrepreneurship can build sustainable cultural and economic impact across education, tourism, and corporate sectors.
Book Deah to bring lived history, academic insight, and cultural storytelling to your next event.
Deah's academic credentials and deep Texas roots give her credibility with both community and corporate audiences. Her city-funded AR history app, sold-out food tours, and Julia Child Foundation Fellowship signal a communicator who backs substance with proven public impact.
Topics, Sessions And Talks
Texas barbecue is not just a culinary tradition; it is a record of survival, economic agency, and cultural resilience. Deah Berry Mitchell, a Julia Child Foundation Gastronomy and Culinary History Fellow, Kingsford Preserve the Pit Fellow, and former James Beard Awards judge, traces how enslaved Africans and their descendants shaped the food culture of an entire state. Audiences gain a deeper appreciation for what is at stake when food traditions go undocumented, and who has always been at the center of Texas cuisine.
Most people can name the date, but few understand the full weight of what Juneteenth represents, or the misconceptions that have grown around it. Drawing on her family's deep roots in Texas and her academic research as a PhD candidate in history, Deah Berry Mitchell traces the holiday from its origins in Galveston through decades of community-led preservation to its recognition as a federal holiday in 2021. Audiences leave with a grounded, accurate understanding of the food, music, and gathering traditions that have always defined the celebration.
A century of Black entrepreneurial history in Texas has been systematically overlooked, and Deah Berry Mitchell is doing the work to recover it. Drawing on her research into Black Texas culture and her work with the Dallas County Historical Commission and the Texas State Historical Association, Mitchell profiles the business owners, innovators, and community builders who created thriving enterprises against significant odds. Audiences come away with a richer understanding of Black economic agency in Texas and the legacy those entrepreneurs left behind.
When Deah Berry Mitchell created Deep Ellum AR, the first augmented reality app in the United States developed by a woman to highlight Black history, she proved that purpose-driven innovation and community equity are not competing values. Now used in classrooms and cultural institutions across North Texas, the app began as a question: whose stories does technology serve? Mitchell shares what it took to build a first-of-its-kind product, and what civic leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs can learn from a model that pairs historical recovery with emerging tech.
Food history comes alive when you make it yourself. In this interactive session, Deah Berry Mitchell, a former culinary instructor, Julia Child Foundation Gastronomy and Culinary History Fellow, and historian of Black Texas foodways, guides participants through the preparation of a selected dish rooted in African American culinary tradition. The cooking itself is the lesson: every technique, ingredient, and recipe carries a story of migration, adaptation, and cultural survival. Participants leave with both a practical skill and a deeper understanding of the history behind what they have made.
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