Interconnectedness of Food by Nia Kennedi Cunningham

        This meeting was spontaneous, and I loved that. It was also a treat having a more intimate setting, at our dining table where we were staying. Collectively coming together around a table to talk felt safe. Being able to be involved in an activity that was hands on and visual was also nice. I got excited when Charanya presented the first prompt, “what is your first memory of food?” talking about our first memory of food was nostalgic. It reminded me of conversations about recipe collection that we had in the Heritage garden and collecting oral histories in Altgeld gardens with community members. Sharing stories and memories felt comfortable and familiar. When we all spoke about our food memories it was nice listening and connecting with other peoples stories, seeing where our experiences intersected and cultures intermixed. When each person was sharing, their story was brought to life. I could smell the flavors, and hear the cooking they were talking about, I felt their memories and experiences. It was really nice.

During the session | Photo by Nia K Cunningham

        Quick side tangent: Something that I felt kept coming up on this trip was the feeling of comfort and belonging. Throughout justice and community work there is often this idea of a safe space that is created that allows experiences, stories, skills, mutual aid to be exchanged. Through the trip, I thought about this feeling a lot because I felt like I was experiencing it in so many different environments with the different organizations and people we met. While also collectively being a part of the space created within our own research group, I just think it deserves a moment. Because those times where I felt this, I was able to take away so much. Those spaces and moments I feel like are instrumental to real community building and collective healing that is a part of this work.

Then after sharing, Charanya put out two words, environment and development. which we had to use to frame a question, and note words that we connected to each of those ideas. It was a great way to visually represent the experiences and topics we had been discussing and experiencing throughout the trip. Everyone had different words and questions, but I thought it was interesting the ways all of our ideas connected and spoke to what we have been exposed to. Some specific words I remember that were under environment were alchemy and growth, under development, community first, and intentionality. Being able to visually get a grasp of the words made me think of the ways the words connect and could be placed in each other's positions. It made me realize that one of the biggest takeaways from this trip has been seeing where the intersections lie - within the different people and organizations we have met in India, but also how they connect to the orgs back home in Chicago. This activity really allowed me to think about all of what we experienced from a different perspective.

Photo by Anna Guevarra