Foodways Philippines

For the second half of 2022, Spatula&Barcode are in Manila to collaborate with Jazmin Llana on the creation of Foodways Philippines. This iteration’s thematic focus is hunger and hunger action. This project includes scholarship, organizing, and action research alongside artmaking. We are honored to be Distinguished Visiting Professors at De La Salle University in Manila, where Jazmin is Professor of English. Our residency is in collaboration with elements of DLSU’s Hunger Action Network.

The first month or so of our residency was consumed with the 27th annual conference of Performance Studies international (PSi). The theme of this year’s conference--Hunger--brought together many longstanding PSi members and new voices from the Philippines and around the world: https://www.psi-web.org/about-hunger-2022/

Together with Jazmin, Michael and Laurie Beth are co-editing issues connected to the conference for two journals, Global Performance Studies and Performance Research.

Much of what we’re engaged with in Manila is what some might call “action research”--we’re joining folks who are part of ongoing hunger actions and working alongside them while we think about what art can contribute to these contexts. We are helping to  prepare and serve meals for hundreds of homeless folks in central Manila, joining disability community organizers who are feeding disabled children, visiting with rural fisher-folk and politicians to learn about their organizing and the challenges they face as food providers, and interacting with social entrepreneurs who are capturing food that might otherwise be wasted.

Through all this, we are thinking about what the arts and the humanities can contribute to hunger actions and looking for opportunities for commensality, conversation, and celebration.

For updates and detailed descriptions of specific actions, visit our blog at: https://spatulaandbarcode.wordpress.com/