This past June the Common Roots Project helped with an event held at the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) in downtown Raleigh called the Farm and Food Storytelling Project. The purpose was to showcase North Carolina’s diverse farming and food traditions with a celebratory pot luck.
This was indeed a #flavorfinder endeavor. Please read exerpts of the press release from the event below..
In celebration of North Carolina’s hidden foodways narratives our purpose was to showcase stories from African American landowners in the Sandhills, a Burmese community farm in Orange County, and the gardens of a Bhutanese refuge family in North Raleigh. Images and oral histories detail the rich intersections of food and culture in these farming families, and will invite event attendees to investigate questions of belonging and identity, roots and immigration.
“Inspired by culinary champion James Beard’s quotation “food is our common ground, a universal experience,” the celebration will also invite attendees to share their own stories over a potluck dinner together. Main dishes that explore the tastes and flavors of the farms profiled will be provided, with potluck sides and desserts brought by attendees, who should come hungry!
The project is aligned with CAM Raleigh’s current Ease of Fiction exhibit, and the museum will be open as the event explores our unique cultures and our shared experiences using food and farm as lens. With food continuing to trend as an entry point into culture, politics, and health, and with the call for attention to “the seemingly forgotten agricultural story of people of color” (The Color of Food, Bowens 2015), the event is timely in inviting attendees to celebrate and complicate who and what comes to mind when they think North Carolina foodways.
The Farm and Food Storytelling Project is led by Melanie Allen and Laura Fieselman. Allen is an oral historian and Diversity Program Director for the Conservation Trust of North Carolina. Fieselman is a foodways scholar and manages UNC-Chapel Hill’s Social Innovation Initiative. Both were Toyota TogetherGreen Fellows, a collaboration between Toyota and the Audubon Society that supported the fieldwork for this project. Event partners and sponsors include CAM Raleigh, the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, Bit and Grain, The Chef’s Academy, On the Edge NC, and Transplanting Traditions Community Farm.”
When: June 1, 2016 at 6:00pm
Where: CAM Raleigh, 409 W. Martin Street, Raleigh
Additional information: http://www.bitandgrain.com/events/farm-food-storytelling-event
Here are some pics from the event provided by On the Edge NC photographer www.cesarcarrasco.com
Common Roots Project 