Working on Fish Stories at our LMCC Process Space
Working with Rachel Stevens on our Fish Stories at our LMCC studios space at 100 Wall Street, September, 2015
Paths to Pier 42 Interview about making Fish Stories Community Cookbook
Rachel and I were recently interviewed by Hester Street Collaborative for the Making of Paths to Pier 42 website. We discussed the process of creating our collaborative Fish Stories Community Cookbook as the culmination of our artist residency with Paths to Pier 42 in lower Manhattan. Interview link.
Fish Stories Workshops at 2Bridges Kids After School at Two Bridges Neighborhood Council
In mid June I led a three day workshop at the Two Bridges after-school in East Chinatown. I created a curriculum that invited the students to imagine and design their own seafood restaurant for their neighborhood. We looked at menus from a selection of the many existing seafood restaurants already in Chinatown and admired photos of their interior spaces. We learned about the kinds of seafood (and other ingredients) available wholesale, and studied costs in order to properly set prices on our menus. We also talked about the aquatic life living in the NY Harbor (upper and lower). I showed the students maps of the harbor and gave them information, provided from the New York State Health Department, about the kinds of fish (and quantities) that are safe for children to eat. I emphasized that fish for eating should only be caught in the lower harbor.
Fish Stories at LES Ecology Center Fishing Clinic June 2015
Rachel and I took part in the LES Ecology Center’s fishing clinic on Friday June 26. It was a lovely afternoon. We collected several terrific recipes for Fish Stories from the families and individuals that were there. All photos by Rachel.
April 18 iLand Symposium
Here are some images that Jennifer Wen Ma took during our April 18th workshop as part of the iLand 2015 Symposium at Two Bridges Community Room in the LES. Our workshop set out to engage the five senses in contemplating and recording boundary conditions in the Lower East Side. We walked a path of edges and collaborated in small groups through a participatory mapping exercise that sought to question our perception of edges through the lenses of media, memory, navigation and temporality. What are the qualities that signify a boundary? How do you know you are at an edge? How do we record a shift or change?
The Embodied Mapping iLAB Residency group includes Kate Cahill (Architect), Kathy Creutzburg (Sculptor/Public Artist), Meredith Drum (Intermedia artist), Meredith Ramirez Talusan (Writer/artist/dancer), Jennifer Wen Ma (Interdisciplinary artist) and Liza Zapol (Artist / Oral Historian).
Fish Stories Community Cookbook commissioned by Paths to Pier 42 NYC 2015
Fish Stories Community Cookbook is a seafood cookbook, in progress, created by artists Meredith Drum and Rachel Stevens in collaboration with residents of the Lower East Side: neighbors, non-profit organizers, commercial business people and others. The project is supported by a grant and studio space on Wall Street from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and will be a part of LMCC’s Paths to Pier 42 summer programming 2015. Visual information and documentation forthcoming.
Inspired by spiral bound cookbooks produced by local Grange chapters, the Provincetown Cookbook, and the Slingshot Organizer (collectively designed Anarchist calendar), Fish Stories will include not only recipes for cooking seafood solicited from residents, but also stories, historical recipes, drawings, maps and health and ecology information. The name Fish Stories is designed to encourage imaginative and playful contributions. It is also an homage to Allan Sekula, an artist and theorist whose work interrogates the the politics of labor and the flow of global capital in the maritime industry. We envision the cookbook as a catalyst for community engagement and an opportunity to capture the lives and cultures of people who live in the LES. The Fish Stories Community Cookbook seeks to tie everyday lives to the ecology of the rivers, harbor and estuaries of New York City.
Mar Sea Sol, an iLand Laboratory in June at Orchard Beach
I am working in collaboration with Grisha Coleman and Estrella Payton on a place-based public project supported by iLand (interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance). The project, Mar Sea Sol: a sensory mapping event, will occur on two Sundays in June, 2015, at Orchard Beach, Pelham Bay Park, The Bronx.
Enjoying a Residency at Wassaic Summer 2014
Mitch and I are pleased to be a part of the summer residency at the Wassaic Project, June-July 2014. It is a beautiful place with great people. Very happy to be here.