Grandmother University
Kitchen Talks
Presenting a Collection of Stories on the Kitchen as a Space for Community, Politics, and Conviviality
8. November 2026
13.00-15.00
13.00-15.00
Save the Date
For free
All ages welcome
in German/in Spanish/in English
Since last summer, we’ve been organizing Kitchen Talks in Spore’s garden kitchen, with a wide range of contributions on the kitchen as a political space. Along the way, we’ve begun collecting the stories that have emerged from cooking together. They connect us to different territories, tastes, and ways of life; they tell of violence, destruction, and displacement, but also of care, remembrance, community, conviviality, and other ways of building worlds.
This image is part of the book Kitchen Talks, a project that brings together the experiences of collectives and individuals who reflect on the kitchen as a political space. It is part of a visual sequence that traces the food cycle, from planting and cultivation to food preparation. Through this sequence, the relationship between food and territory unfolds, highlighting how the origins, production, and transformation of food are deeply connected to the identity, memory, and cultural practices of communities.
The design collective Trama (Marcela Rodriguez Castañeda, Katherine R. García, and Angie Tatiana Bautista Forero), which grew out of this process, has turned these stories into a beautiful archive in the form of a leporello, an accordion-folded book. We’d like to offer a glimpse into how this collection was created and designed. Among other things, it includes contributions on the itacate tradition in Oaxaca, an aunt’s za’atar in Lebanon, the milpa farming techniques of the Kaqchikel Maya in Guatemala, acarajé and the self-empowerment of Afro-Brazilian women in Berlin, the struggle for food sovereignty in Palestine, the queering of traditional Kazakh dishes, the “sour taste” of a childhood in eastern Ukraine, bake sales for Kurdistan, and fermentation workshops in Maya communities in Yucatán.
There will also be food to share, and you’re welcome to bring something along if you’d like.
