Intergenerational Writing - RECIPES FOR LIFE
evek@school-one.org
B Period - Tuesday (9-10:55 AM) & Thursday (9-10:40 AM) in the Mac Lab.
Title- Recipes For Life
In this class we will spend time talking about recipes as storytelling, food as narrative, dining as personal ritual, and revealing characters, settings, and stories from our lives through the foods, recipes, and olfactory cooking and dining experiences that etch them into our timelines. We will work individually and collaboratively to write and adapt our stories for the stage, incorporating the foods and processes that inspired them .
We will perform our short theatrical “food” pieces.
Objectives:
Participants will engage in storytelling, cooking, food preparation, performance, and creative writing.
Participants will absorb relevant media.
Participants will collaborate on material.
Each session will include:
warm-up activity
Some history, contextualization, and appreciation of performances and texts that incorporate recipes, cooking, and food.
Skill building Performance, Collaboration, Creative Writing, Adaptation)
Feedback and reflection
School One Contacts
Eve Kerrigan, Teaching Artist
radiofreeeve@gmail.com
Diana Champa, Program Director
401-331-2497/dianac@school-one.org
Lida Brooke, Main Office*
lidab@school-one.org
Please call 401-331-2497 if you will be late or absent from class.
When you arrive at School One please use the University side of the school to enter the building and check-in at the main office. Ring the doorbell if the door is locked.
Homework, deadlines, and links:
Tuesday 4/23 We heard some of the Odes to food you wrote.
We discussed what (if anything) people had read, watched, or listened to from the list I sent earlier (or from elsewhere).
We ate Donuts and discussed their significance as food and cultural marker.
Thursday 4/25 Kate Lohman joined us and led a mini workshop on performance and reading work out loud to a group. Thanks for being brave, kids!
Homework:
1. On Tuesday, I handed out this article for everyone to read:
https://daily.jstor.org/the-delicious-democratic-symbolism-of-doughnuts/
2. I also want you to read or listen to this short story from The New Yorker. TW for domestic violence: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/10/three-women-of-chucks-donuts and
3. please write your own short story that takes place in a Donut Shop. This is a fiction exercise and probably the only one we will do this trimester, so enjoy it. Minimum 3 pages. Due a week from Tuesday. You have a lot of time, so make it good!
The reading is due this coming Tuesday. The writing is due a week from Tuesday. This coming Tuesday, we will be holding class at our administrative offices directly across the street from the school on Slater Ave.
On Tuesday, 4/9, we reviewed the homework reading - the Octopus Essay and discussed it. We also reviewed the short podcast Tim's Sushi. We read two poems by Pablo Neruda: Ode to Tomatoes: https://allpoetry.com/Ode-to-Tomatoes, and Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/49322/ode-to-a-large-tuna-in-the-market
Homework: write your own Ode to a Food.
On Thursday we talked about Food As Art. We reviewed a number of articles and short videos detailing the use of food (mostly pie) as ART.
https://www.publicartfund.org/exhibitions/view/pies-for-a-passerby/
Next week is Spring Break so we will not meet.
Homework: over the break, please choose a book, movie, or other media from the list below, and read, watch, or otherwise absorb it. Please be prepared to talk about it when we return.
On Tuesday 4/2, we discussed the homework - the Mary Karr interview and the Bitter/Sweet podcast episode, as well as the article from the Guardian in which writers tried foods that were special to them in childhood and told us about their adult experiences of those foods.
On Thursday 4/4, we began with a writing warm up which was to write about the first "exotic" or "sophisticated" food you ever experienced.
After that, we had some technical difficulties, so we couldn't listen to or watch the media I had planned. Instead, we made two lists: 1. a list of people who we love or who are very important to us, and 2. a list of people we admire or would love to meet. Any of the people on these lists could be dead or alive, famous or infamous, or real or fictional. Then we broke into small groups and picked someone from one of our lists to prepare a meal for. We discussed, in our groups, the steps, recipes, ingredients, preparation, and presentation of this ideal meal.
We also watched a little bit of a Julia Child episode and a Cajun chef episode and talked about the evolution of cooking shows.
Homework:
Please choose a food that you loved in childhood (preferably something you haven't had in awhile) and prepare it and eat it and write about your experience of it now.
Please listen to this episode of Bitter/Sweet: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bitter-sweet/id1674678902
Please read: https://magazine.catapult.co/people/stories/how-an-octopus-helps-me-think-about-my-mothers-eating-disorder
Here is a list of resources and materials that relate to the theme of this class. I may assign one of these as homework at some point. I may add to this list.:
Books:
Fried Green Tomatoes, Fannie Flagg (film, also)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer, Barbara Kingsolver
Like Water For Chocolate, Laura Esquivel (film also)
Heartburn, Nora Ephron
Films:
Eat Drink Man Woman
Babette’s Feast
The Big Night
Chef
Chocolat
Julia &
Julia
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Pig
Ratatouille
TV:
Julia https://youtu.be/PZBacZqwbCA
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy | Season 1 (2021) | CNN | Trailer Legendado | Los Chulos Team
Anthony Bourdain, Parts Unknown, https://explorepartsunknown.com/
Podcast:
Schmaltzy podcast https://pod.link/1529032928
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Thank you all for a very interesting first session! I am excited to see what we create together in the coming trimester. ..
Just to re-cap...
On Tuesday, we welcomed our older adults for the first time.
We began class with an exercise:
Peruse the foods/items on the table
Select one that “represents” you in some way (a favorite food, a favorite color, a least favorite food, an ingredient you always cook with, something you attempted to grow in your garden last year or your grandma always made, etc)
Share out your name and the food you selected and why
Review Class explanation/description discussion, expectations
After the break, we broke into pairs or small groups and talked a bit more and shared things we learned with the larger group. We did a little list-making about stories relating to our objects and also relating to other objects we didn't choose. We talked just a little about Memoir.
Our homework is:
1. Write a short memoir based on what you did in class (two pages-ish)
2. Listen to:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/markuss-family-soup/id1674678902?i=1000609267439 (the kids already heard this one)
3. Read:
I will see you all on Tuesday!
Happy Easter...
Eve Kerrigan
Alumni Engagement
School One
220 University Avenue
Providence, RI 20906
(401)331-2497
Writer, Editor, Teaching Artist
On Tuesday 3/26 we welcomed our older adults for the first time.
We began class with an exercise:
Peruse the foods/items on the table
Select one that “represents” you in some way (a favorite food, a favorite color, a least favorite food, an ingredient you always cook with, something you attempted to grow in your garden last year or your grandma always made, etc)
Share out your name and the food you selected and why
Review Class explanation/description discussion, expectations
After the break, we broke into pairs or small groups and talked a bit more and shared things we learned with the larger group. We did a little list-making about stories relating to our objects and also relating to other objects we didn't choose. We talked just a little about Memoir.
Homework:
1. Write a short memoir based on what you did in class (two pages-ish)
2. Listen to:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/markuss-family-soup/id1674678902?i=1000609267439 (the kids already heard this one)
3. Read:
Older Adult Class list:
Susan - She/Her
Mary - She/Her
Claude - He/Him
Bobbi - She/Her
Lucy Ann - She/Her
Mary - She /Her
Dallas - She/Her
Linda - She/Her