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PORTFOLIO

HARLEM MIXED PLATE

The Joseph Daniels Wilson Garden is a magical sanctuary stewarded by Cindy and Haja Worley with amazing long time volunteers on 122 st in Harlem. They are a testament to the tenacity to keep green space in the hands of citizens for our pleasure and refuge. As final art intervention and project for an art Fellowship with The Laundromat Project. Over the course of almost a year, as an interdisciplinary art team, we developed a relationship with the garden through a series of social engagement activities where we got to know people in the neighborhood while activating the space. 

 

The Harlem Mixed Plate is a celebration of the foods created by those who live in Harlem. Harlem is the Black Mecca known the world over for its Soul Food. Pan African in nature, your heritage food might hail from Africa itself, the Latinx Caribbean, the West Indies, or down south. With new arrivals and forgotten transplants, the Harlem mixed plate is nothing less than global and delicious reflecting the rich culinary history of uptown New York. Based on the Hawaiian plate lunch it is a quintessentially Hawaiian meal, roughly analogous to Southern U.S. meat-and-threes which I used as the foundation for creating the menu. Two entrees and 5 plant-based sides. We nibbled on Pernil, Harlem Chicken (West African Pepper Chicken), Curry Jamaican Carrot Salad, Southern Greens with Smoked Turkey, Dominican Eggplant, Senegalese Black Eye Pea Salad, Brazilian Collard Greens with Garlic, Coleslaw, and Ethiopian Style Lentils.

People sat for a portrait, commemorated a long-time uptown resident by decorating a bulb with their name for our a light installation, participated in our living room discussions while making community zines, or just came to visit the chickens. All partook in the wonder of food to bring a wide variety of people to the table to commune in fellowship and culinary contentment.

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