Happy New Year of the Dragon!
We are mid way through the first month of 2012 and have arrived in this New year of the Water Dragon…
The Dragon year is special as it represents prosperity and abundance. Typically in our society the idea of prosperity leads us to think about money. But ultimately Prosperity is about food. It is about being able to eat. You cannot survive any significant length of time without food and you cannot eat money.So prosperity is ultimately about being able to EAT.
Last year my life was changed by “Our Daily Bread”; the dance theater piece I made about food, food traditions and sustainability which premiered at CounterPULSE this past April. I hoped that it would have an impact on the audiences that came to see it and I also knew that I too would be impacted by the experience as well…but I could never have imagined how much I would be impacted. I won’t recap that experience here (you can check out previous blogs right here to get that story)…
But what I will say is that since the making of “Our Daily Bread” all of my work involves not just eating, but being fed…nourished….
The fall of 2011, my company Deep Waters Dance Theater embarked on a series of EAT actions, inspired by our commitment to the post “Our Daily Bread” experience and the blooming occupy movement. In addition to our commitment to having regular EAT-Ins where we gather people together to share a meal and talk about food- We have created a project called EAT which stands for- Everybody At the Table, Everyday At the Table.
Our manifesto (which is still a work in progress) states that,”… we believe everybody has a right to be completely nourished. Food is nourishment for the body and Art is nourishment for the soul….” This, we believe is the right of every human being. We also believe in the right of every human being “…to have sufficient time to eat a home cooked meal at the table with family and/or members of one’s community on a daily basis..”
So we began our EAT actions. These actions involved us collectively cooking a pot of some sort of stew that was vegan (not because we are vegan, but because we wanted to feed EVERYBODY) and then we took to the streets, showing up at occupy Oakland events (Our company is based in Oakland) and feeding people with food, songs and dance. We have also embarked on a project with CounterPULSE and Catholic Charities Organization where we are collecting food stories from residents at 10th and Mission Housing and Edith Witt Senior housing on 9th and Mission. This collaboration includes a focus on working with the youth who live and attend an after school program at 10th and Mission housing. The culmination of this work will be a short documentary film shot by Erica Jordan about these residents who have been living here for just under 2 years. In addition our work with youth will culminate into a youth version of “Our Daily Bread” where young people will tell their own stories about food. Look for the results of this effort to be performed at CounterPULSE this coming May. This is the first (albeit short) in many blogs to come that will document this new journey. I encourage you to make a commitment in this new year of the Dragon, to eat regular home cooked meals at a table with yourself, family and/or friends/community.
And take…..your…..time……
in this new year, make sure to
digest.in.peace.
