Global Table
When we create a meal together, we open up a sacred space to connect with others who on the surface might seem very different from ourselves. Through breaking bread together we share our stories, our knowledge, our strengths, our struggles, and our talents. Gathering around the table we lay the foundation for a resilient community.
Food has always been a great convenor in my life– a way to bring together people from lots of different background and hold space for conversation that uncover and share our collective knowledge and ideas for making our lives and communities better.
Thanks to grant from Precipice Fund, a childhood friend and I were able to design The Global Table–a series of four facilitated dinners in East Portland that seek to create an opportunity for creative practice, dialogue, and community building between groups who may not typically have the opportunity to engage with each other. The project employs principles of PAR to explores familial food narratives as a way to view our own migration stories, celebrate our community’s knowledge, and begin to address larger systems of access in Portland.
The project grows from friendship and the recognition of the power of food and community. Our communities are stronger when we can all work together toward a shared goal, but we often lack spaces to meaningfully come together and connect with people who are different from ourselves. These dinners invite participants to share our (food) story, find commonalities, and learn across differences. It is a collaborative process and one we hope will continue beyond this series.
The project is a collaboration between Krysta Williams and Amanda Leigh Evans and was presented throughout East Portland, OR in 2016. It was produced with community chefs Farida Hadid, Blanca Hernandez, and Paula Hernandez. Photos by Anke Schüttler.