Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread

Artwork: Robert Trujillo

The mission of Our Daily Bread is to celebrate food, illuminate difference in cultural identity, and advocate for well being in our food traditions and eating practices. This collaboration between CounterPULSE, Amara Tabor-Smith’s Deep Waters Dance Theater (DWDT), director Ellen Sebastian Chang and filmmaker Erica Jordan will delve into the folklore and stories surrounding our food traditions and examine how these traditions are impacted by industrialized agriculture, fast food culture and our global food crisis.

Amara Tabor-Smith was an Artist in Residence at CounterPULSE in 2008. The piece she developed in residency grew into the Our Daily Bread Project. The project has included the production of an evening length performance in 2011, the Fresh From the Oven food-art partnership, advocacy and community oriented Eat-Ins, and food workshops & youth classes in partnership with Catholic Charities CYO (CCCYO).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Our Daily Bread Performances — NOV 15-18, THU-SUN 8PM      

Sisters at the Table: Food Symposium — NOV 18, SUN 3-5PM

RECENT EVENTS:

Eat-In Potluck — JAN 14, SAT at NOON

Let’s EAT Potluck — MAR 10, SAT at NOON

Seeds to Sprouts: Youth Performance — MAY 6, SUN at 5PM

“From the Field to the Table” UC Berkeley residency final performance — OCT 13-15, FRI-SUN 8PM

Food Day @ Tassafaronga Park & Recreation Center — OCT 21, SUN 12-4PM (DWDT will perform excerpts from ODB)

Our Daily Bread played to sold-out houses and received standing ovations every night in April 2011, because it was so much more than a dance piece. As one audience member said, “It made me want to plant some food in my garden and dance in my kitchen.”

Amara Tabor-Smith and CounterPULSE are presenting another series of performances of Our Daily Bread this fall so that more people can share this powerful experience. Once again, the dance performances will be a platform for community education and organizing around sustainable food issues. Amara’s Deep Waters Dance Theater and CounterPULSE has been doing special outreach to a range of community groups in addition to their usual publicity, and there are many opportunities for gatherings and discussions before and after the shows. By making a donation, you can share Our Daily Bread with people who haven’t had a chance to see.

CounterPULSE and Our Daily Bread are proud partners in the WomenArts Harmony Project, which has been generously funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Our Daily Bread is also funded in part by the Akonadi Foundation President’s Fund, the Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grant, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.


Amara Pic

Amara Tabor-Smith San Francisco born, Oakland based, Tabor-Smith has performed in the work of choreographers such as, Ed Mock, Anne Bluethenthal, Priscilla Regalado, Pearl Ubungen, Ronald K. Brown and Joanna Haigood. Amara is the former Associate Artistic Director and dancer with The Urban Bush Women Dance Company of New York City. She has a background in theater which includes work with Anna Deveare Smith, Herbert Siquenza, Aya de Leon, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, The SF Mime Troupe and Make-A-Circus. She choreographed and appeared as a dancer in Shakti Butler’s documentary film, “Making Whiteness Visible”. She has studied dance with Ed Mock, Cecilia Marta, Ronald K. Brown, Katiti King, Jose Barroso, Anne Bluethenthal, Alonzo King, Aaron Osborne, Rosangela Silvestre and Malonga Casquelord to name a few. She has taught dance, Capoeira and entering community workshops at Naropa University in Boulder, CO., University of Omaha, NE., Columbia College in Chicago, The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM and is currently on faculty at UC Berkeley teaching modern dance. In 2006 she formed her company Deep Waters Dance Theater (DWDT) and is co founder of Headmistress, an ongoing collaboration with movement artist Sherwood Chen. Amara is a 2010 awardee of the Headlands Center for the Arts Artist in Residence grant and has received grants from Theater Bay Area CA$H, Zellerbach Family Fund, CounterPULSE winter Artist in Residency (2008) and CHIME mentorship Exchange (2007).

Engagement Partner: 

La Pena     Mercy Housing                 

 

Sponsors:

SFBG logo            

 

Outreach Partners: 

Farms to Grow18 ReasonsLocaphonic, Starchild Entertainment, Women’s Earth Alliance, CUESA, Banteay Srei, City Slicker Farms