The Places We’re At: A Shared Meal Among Survivors

The Places We’re At: A Shared Meal Among Survivors

Initial research: Conversation with friends and colleagues whose histories and stories I am personally acquainted with led two main questions and two goals to roughly model the project: 

Community meal : “How to stop cycles of abuse”

FB event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2083884605192460/

Documentation: 

⁃ Pieces of paper/pens to create Zine pages

⁃ Anonymous submission box

⁃ Optional photo submission to FB event page

-       Tailor presentation based on outcome of the dinner

Inspiration: 

#metoo social media platform and responses (gained awareness after accusations against Harvey Weinstein) - critique and need for personal connection among survivors to build interpersonal relationship and tangible support networks

Zine culture - For the method of documentation; I love making zines because they encourage community collaboration and are easily distributed and easily accessible to multiple communities. - Self-selection or reader-ship - exists outside of capital institutions/ not a commodity as it is easily replicated and are in low demand due to the sheer volume of circulating zines. Related to history of free/independent publishing 

Previous ethnographic research on “Safe Spaces” on college campuses 

WRC workshop on popular education and implemented some of these concepts in my framework for facilitation as a co-chair of RJAT 

⁃ http://www.practicingfreedom.org/offerings/popular-education/

CREATE: The community Meal (Public Art Saint Paul by Seitu Jones) -“CREATE: The Community Meal, from Public Art Saint Paul by Seitu Jones, aimed to lower barriers to making healthy food choices. On September 14, 2014, 2,000 people gathered at 1/2 mile long table in the middle of Saint Paul's Victoria Street for a civic dinner table conversation about Food Access, Food Justice, and Healthy Eating. This socially engaged public artwork was led by artist and Frogtown resident Seitu Jones, in collaboration with a cohort of artists that included paper maker Mary Hark, Ananya Dance Theatre, visual artists Cliff Garten, Emily Stover and Asa Hoyt, poets G. E. Patterson and Soyini Guyton, and spoken word artists led by Tou Seiko Lee and Deeq Abdi. As Seitu noted, all 2000 diners were artistic collaborators as they engaged in an artistic ritual of a meal, spoke words of grace and closing, and shared food stories of the world cultures that comprise our community” 

⁃ https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/networks-and-councils/public-art-network/public-art-year-in-review-database/create-the-community-meal

Mealsharing: https://www.mealsharing.com/about 

https://www.mealsharing.com/browse

“Meal Sharing brings people together over home cooked meals. Our mission is to build communities through shared resources, facilitate deeper cultural exchange, and encourage people to cook at home to enable a healthier lifestyle.”

Rirkrit Tiravanija: 

"In this deceptively simple conceptual piece, the artist invites the visitor to interact with contemporary art in a more sociable way, and blurs the distance between artist and viewer. You aren’t looking at the art, but are part of it—and are, in fact, making the art as you eat curry and talk with friends or new acquaintances.

 

⁃ https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/02/03/rirkrit-tiravanija-cooking-up-an-art-experience/