Poetics of the Kitchen

Following a previous workshop on Zaatar as an entry point into the cosmologies and political histories of the South of Lebanon, we now turn toward loss, rupture, and disappearance. In contexts of destruction, continuity is something that has to be fought for. How can we encounter the erasure that occupation produces, and where can communities forge continuity from sustained ruptures and erasures? How can ancestral technologies of cooking, gathering, and storytelling meet new and emerging technologies of memory-making?

This kitchen format will explore war and occupation-induced ecocide in the south of Lebanon, using cooking to examine loss, rupture and disappearance. Kitchens are a nexus that connects individuals and communities, sensual experiences and social practices, local environments and histories of taste.

Cooking and remembering are both acts of gathering. Memories are not fixed archives, but continuous conversations, which grow and are carried across generations. Meals, too, assemble ingredients, histories, memories, people, and environments. Both take place together, collectively, and both transfer across times. In gathering recipes, songs, poems as well as news, updates and plans, the kitchen becomes a space for savoring memories and feeding futures, for finding and creating continuity amid loss and rupture.

Through cooking, reading, and conversation, participants will prepare typical Lebanese summer dishes using herbs and cheeses from South Lebanon. In the rhythm of chopping, reading, tasting, and sharing, the kitchen becomes more than a place of nourishment.

If you'd like to attend this workshop, please fill out this form: Poetics of the Kitchen - Registration Form

This workshop is facilitated by Epona Hamdan and Lachlan Summers.