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CULTURE SPRINGS FROM FOOD: FOOD AND POWER

Our second session in our latest Starting Conversations series explores the intersections between workers from all parts of the food chain. We talk with Anita Adalja, founder of Not Our Farm, Trish Gallegos, Catering Coordinator at Three Sisters Kitchen, and Andrea Serrano, Executive Director of OLÉ to discuss the issues food workers face, how they are rooted in the exploitative history of our food system, and the inequalities that result. This conversation centers the organizers’ and workers’ agency in forming creative solutions to these problems.

This Starting Conversations series is in partnership with Three Sisters Kitchen in Albuquerque, NM, a nonprofit organization focused on nourishing each other from the ground up. The discussion series is based on the idea that “culture springs from food” and each session will explore the unique relationship between food and culture in New Mexico, bringing together voices including farmers, chefs, local experts, artists, historians, and academics, among others

CULTURE SPRINGS FROM FOOD: COOKING AS ARCHIVING

Our newest Starting Conversations series is in partnership with Three Sisters Kitchen in Albuquerque, NM, a nonprofit organization focused on nourishing each other from the ground up. The discussion series is based on the idea that “culture springs from food” and each session will explore the unique relationship between food and culture in New Mexico, bringing together voices including farmers, chefs, local experts, artists, historians, and academics, among others.

For our first episode “Cooking as Archiving” we invited Josie Lopez, Curator at Albuquerque Museum, Andi Murphy, food journalist and host of the Toasted Sister Podcast, and Eric Romero, Professor at NM Highlands University to discuss how culture is preserved and passed down through food and cooking. He is also the organizer of the Digital Matanza with Manitos Community Memory Project. In this discussion, our guests pondered the current definition of “archive” and ways that definition is limiting and could be expanded to incorporate foodways from history and the present.

COMMUNITY ARCHIVING: ARCHIVING THE DIASPORA

Our newest Starting Conversations series takes up the subject of Community Archiving. This series explores the methods and effects of public and communal archiving practices, especially in the context of the Manitos Community Memory Project, which is a community-built digital archive. Shane Flores…

COMMUNITY ARCHIVING: THE LIVING ARCHIVE

“The Living Archive” is the third installment of our Starting Conversations series on Community Archiving. In this session, facilitator Shane Flores is diving into questions about community archiving and community engagement. His guests Katy Gross and Isabel Trujillo draw conclusions around what…

THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

This session was the final part in our Starting Conversations series “History, Memory and Public Space,” which investigated how historical narratives are shaped within communities of diverse perspectives. Facilitator Raffi Andonian specifically examined how public sites and community memory play a…

ACEQUIA AQUI: TECHNOLOGY AND CRAFT

Rio Grande in the South Valley of Albuquerque. Photo by Abby Boling.

Technology and Craft is the third part of our Starting Conversations: Acequia Aqui series. As part of our partnership with The Paseo Project (Taos, NM), this program is celebrating Paseo Project’s recent publication: “Acequia Aqui: Water, Community and Creativity.” This booklet highlights selections from the Acequia Aqui project that took place between 2018 and 2020. It’s an artistic and community driven project that aims to give voice to the historic acequias of Taos to illuminate the importance of this vital resource and cultural wellspring. You can view a digital version of this booklet on ISSU.

ACEQUIA AQUI: WATER, COMMUNITY AND CREATIVITY

Two men working together to clean out an acequia also known as an irrigation canal used to water crops.

In partnership with The Paseo Project, the New Mexico Humanities Council is pleased to host a live Starting Conversations discussion in celebration of the publication of Acequia Aqui: Water, Community, and Creativity. For this conversation we will be joined by two contributing writers, Miguel Santistevan and Sylvia Rodriguez, who will address the urgent topics of acequias in New Mexico, their histories, and their futures.

ACEQUIA AQUI: STORYTELLING AND POETRY

Storytelling and Poetry is the second installment of our Starting Conversations: Acequia Aqui series. As part of our partnership with The Paseo Project (Taos, NM), this discussion series is celebrating Paseo Project’s recent publication: “Acequia Aqui: Water, Community and Creativity.” This booklet highlights selections from the Acequia Aqui project that took place between 2018 and 2020. It’s an artistic and community driven project that aims to give voice to the historic acequias of Taos to illuminate the importance of this vital resource and cultural wellspring. You can view a digital version of this booklet on ISSU.

HISTORY, MEMORY, AND PUBLIC SPACE

History, Memory, and Public Space explores the perspectives around how we utilize public space to engage with fraught histories. In the first discussion, we integrate local and professional voices to help define the study of history – its purpose, significance, circulation, and regionalism. The creation of the atomic bomb in Los Alamos that continues to affect the entire world provides us a rich case study for helping understand the timeliness, relevance, and perspectives that shape the study of history.

ACEQUIA AQUI: PLACEMAKING AND PLACEKEEPING

The history of acequias in New Mexico weaves a rich tapestry of multicultural practices that illustrate human migration, resilience, and connection to the land and water. The wisdom inherent in the historic acequias continue to tell these stories in the communities of New Mexico, but they have been at risk of disappearance in recent years as a result of climate change, increased real estate development, natural resource extraction and more. Acequia Aqui is an artistic and community driven project that aims to give voice to the historic acequias of Taos to illuminate the importance of this vital resource and cultural wellspring.