Worlds of Spice: A Foodways Workshop
By Charlotte Ming and Tao Leigh Goffe
In what ways are spices a part of our cultural inheritance? The scent, flavor, and texture of the same spice might conjure different memories depending on the community. With healing and ceremony in mind, we turn to spices such as cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, cardamon, and cayenne to examine a story of globalization beyond colonial desire. Worlds of Spice: A Foodways Workshop is an opportunity for Dekoloniale participants to explore food histories across deep time and overlapping colonialisms. Beyond the Western standard of table salt and pepper, we deconstruct how centuries of European cravings for spices have shaped the modern world. From capitalist desire to extractive ecological practices, we trace the economies of spice from the Dutch East India Company to the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans. Engaging the range of the sensorium, what would it mean to decolonize the senses through spice? From plantation foodways to tinctures to apothecaries, the global intimacies of trade and seasoning will be discussed.
Workshop leaders Charlotte Ming and Tao Leigh Goffe will share how food histories play a role in their research methods and diasporic writing processes. In a collaborative and participatory process, we will learn about the origins of spices and how their uses have evolved as they have traveled the world. Family photographs will become a portal towards grappling with colonial histories. Participants will have the opportunity to work alongside others to learn about how entangled global foodways are. The workshop will culminate in participants creating their own spice blend to take home. Exploring the science of gastronomy, cultivation, and African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Indigenous knowledge, we will trace the healing potential activated in herbs and spices. Co-sponsored by Kitchen Marronage
Instructions: Participants should bring a digital or physical copy of the oldest family photograph in their family album to the workshop to share with the group.
@Berlin Open Lab, Universität der Künste, Einsteinufer 43, 10587 Berlin
Spoken Language: English
Please note: Priority will be given to BIPoC as well as people who consider themselves part of Afro- and Asian communities. Please indicate how you identify upon registration.
