Blog September 27, 2025

Anela Malik debuts American Soul book & new Black owned restaurant series

Last updated on December 4th, 2025 at 08:50 pm

Anela Malik is the author of American Soul: The Black History of Food in the United States, the creator of Our Block and the founder of Feed the Malik.

Anela Malik at her book signing for American Soul

This is a recap of Anela’s American Soul book tour stop in Charlotte, NC.

American Soul: Anela Malik’s debut book with recipe developer Renae Wilson

Anela describes American Soul as her love letter to Black people and our historical culinary achievements in the U.S.

Food writer, Anela Malik signs her cookbook

Many of the recipes are created by Renae Wilson who is a private chef, caterer and recipe developer based in Brooklyn, NY.

You can find Renae on Instagram @tikaboo4u.

American Soul by Anela Malik. This is a signed copy on the inside of the cover.

American Soul conversation at Black owned Lorem Ipsum Listening Bar

One of the words I use to describe Anela and her work is intentional.

The Charlotte, NC stop of her book tour was at Lorem Ipsum Listening Bar, owned by Justin Hazelton, who was featured in American Soul.

lorem ipsum charlotte. This is the outdoor space of the bar that has several tables and a sofa with a chaise lounge.

who owns the lorem ipsum bar? justin hazelton is the owner

Instead of the standard interview focused solely on Anela, this was a conversation with mixologist Justin Hazelton and KJ Kearney of Black Food Fridays with questions mostly from the audience.

American Soul is about honoring and sharing Black food history and Anela continues to do this throughout her book tour by hosting some of her tour stops at Black owned restaurants with other Black food entrepreneurs and creatives.

Anela (right), Justin (left) and KJ (middle) talked about the trends they are seeing in food & beverage, their relationships with social media and examples of how they are making space for other entrepreneurs to garner opportunities in this industry.

KJ Kearney of Black Food Fridays hosts this event.

No more ‘Divorce Girl’

Briefly, we get to hear about Anela being branded as ‘Divorce Girl’ after sharing her experience with divorcing her ex-husband.

But that’s only a small part of her journey as a content creator.

Anela started Feed the Malik as a platform for telling food stories, but she has since expanded to discuss travel and how to create more joyful moments in your life.

This expansion also includes new projects that center the stories of people in the food industry.

New Black owned restaurant show, Our Block

The conversation closes with Anela mentioning her second round of crowdfunding for her new original series, Our Block, which explores the intersection of Black owned businesses, culture and food.

Congratulations to Anela for raising more than $60K on Indiegogo to complete Season 1 of Our Block.

And yes, I donated to Anela’s first campaign for Our Block.