04.30.2024 @ The Center for Art as Lived Experience (CALE), University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
In Conflict Kitchen and Enemy Kitchen: Socially Engaged Food Pedagogy, the authors write that “socially engaged food pedagogy de-territorializes traditional art, artmaking, and teaching... the two kitchens created a sense of openness to the possibilities and exploration of socially engaged learning through experiences and experiments of nomadic art practice.” Both kitchens initiate conversations around how the US, an imperial power, continues to oppress people abroad while hiding the truth of their atrocities at home. Through the literal consumption of the cultures the US is actively erasing, I see the impacts of how food can be a site of resistance and healing.
Inspired by Conflict Kitchen & Enemy Kitchen, Food Dialogues is a collective art + food project that challenges our perceptions of how we view countries and cultures with which the US is in conflict to envision more just and equitable futures. This first event featured Palestinian food to bring continued awareness of Israeli restrictions placed on Palestinian food sovereignty. Collaborating with local Palestinian American pastry chef Amanda Arafat and artist collaborators Janice Agustin, Shannon Smith, and Dillon Bryant, we brought food and art together to celebrate Palestinian food and culture. Examples of artwork included risograph flyers, a link to a free download of From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, and a risograph of a Palestinian food sovereignty infographic created by Visualizing Palestine. With food as a facilitator, we can coexist and make change.
