Conversations in the Neighborhood is a public humanities series developed by the UF Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere in collaboration with the City of Gainesville Office of Equity and Inclusion. The program, led by Alexandra Cenatus, examines current social issues through nuanced approaches to knowledge production. It also fosters dialogues by bringing community members, government officials, humanities scholars, and artists together and selecting a theme embedded in people’s everyday lives, such as food or music.
The series allowed participants to delve into food-related stories. And since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the series to convert its in-person activities into virtual ones, it employed active engagement through Zoom breakout rooms, cooking tutorials, and recipe cards to build an online community.
The 10 events in the series followed a timeline of past, present, and future. The installment about the past placed dominant narratives and counter-narratives at the forefront.
For example, “Food Memories of Latin America” featured panelists from various Latin American countries who shared their memories of their homeland. Marisella Veiga, one of the invited speakers, mentions that “traditional foods and foodways nourish people in various ways; for the newly arrived and even for those with over 60 years in a new land, traditional foods are a source of joy and comfort.” Marisella further adds, “As a former college professor turned independent writer, I was happy to be in a space, even virtual, with people interested in learning more about my experience.”
The segment on the present reflected on how the past continues to impact our current lives. In the United States, grocery stores shape people’s food habits. The discussion “Gainesville Food Producers” shed light on farmers who support food production. In this rich exchange with farmers from Gainesville and surrounding areas, the series showed their challenging work, particularly focusing on their adaptive strategies during COVID.
The series’ installment about the future explored Asian and Pacific communities’ food culture in “Food Memories of Asia” with Vianna Quach (Vietnam), Min Ji Kang (South Korea), Aditta Riha (Bangladesh) and Prof. Sandy F. Chang as moderator (Taiwan). The participants discussed the different layers of their Asian identities. Aditta Riha, for example, mentioned her love for Caribbean and Bangladeshi food. Min Ji Kang created a blog entitled “Community Food Waves” with information about Asian restaurants in Gainesville. Vianna Quach reflected on the ways in which she adjusted Vietnamese recipes because some Asian ingredients were not readily available in Gainesville.
Conversations in the Neighborhood: Let’s Talk about Food connected with more than 500 audience members. More importantly, it enabled its audience to think carefully about their relationships with food and reflect on how colonization, immigration, and climate change shape their eating habits.