Led by former resident Tahir Karmali, this three-part series of participatory roundtables uses recipe exchanges and the history of ingredients as a platform to discuss migration, immigration, and cultural exchange. Each session will focus on one specific ingredient to touch on themes around trade, exploitation, colonialism, and ownership. Participants are asked to submit a recipe (can be culturally specific, completely original, or fusion) that uses the specific ingredient behind the session, and come prepared to discuss the recipe’s origin and the inspiration for sharing.

During the second session of our roundtable, we will delve into chili pepper! Part of the Caribbean Exchange, this fruit was seen as a replacement for pepper. The hottest recorded chili pepper is called the “Carolina Reaper” and is a cultivar of the “Capsicum Chinese” plant. Submit your chili pepper recipe here.

Working across multiple mediums, materials, and photography, Brooklyn-based artist Tahir Karmali’s interests lie in manipulating materials that perpetuate colonialism. He draws from his own experiences as a Kenyan citizen to structure narratives around migratory identity. Karmali received his Masters of Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Selected exhibitions include “Jua Kali,” a part of “Making Africa,” High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2017), Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands (2016), and Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain (2015), among other venues; and “PAPER:Work,” Art Africa Fair, Cape Town, and Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, both 2017.

Bethany Tabor is a writer and curator who is persistently exploring themes of death and dying in the realm of performance art. She holds a Master’s degree in Performance Studies from New York University where she examined the politics of decomposition as it relates to re-enactment and re-performance.

Join us for recipe exchange roundtables on potatoes on August 15.