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.
SHARE:
Andi Murphy (Diné) is the creator, host and producer of the “Toasted Sister Podcast,” a show about Indigenous food. She’s the senior producer of the “Native America Calling” radio program, a one-hour national radio show about Indigenous issues and topics where she hosts a food focused show every month called “The Menu.” She is the 2021-2022 Civil Eats Indigenous Foodways fellow.
Dr. Josie Lopez has been the curator of art at the Albuquerque Museum since 2018. She was previously a guest curator at the museum where she curated The Carved Line: Block Printmaking in New Mexico. Currently, she is working on organizing upcoming traveling exhibitions for the museum and curating current and upcoming exhibitions featuring a broad range of art historical and contemporary themes. Josie oversees the museum’s collections and the permanent exhibition Common Ground: Art in New Mexico. Prior to her curatorial position at the Albuquerque Museum, Josie curated: Puerto Rico: Defying Darkness, Currency: What do you Value?, and Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande.
Dr. Eric Romero, Interim Chair: Department of Languages and Culture, at NM Highlands University; the Vice-Chair Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council; Senior Associate: Center for the Study and Education of Diverse Populations (CESDP); and the Interim Director: Center for the Study of Northern New Mexico and the Greater Southwest. His research interests include Chicano ethnic identity formation, southwestern sociolinguistics, heritage language revitalization, Hispanic land grant and acequia communities, immigration, U.S./Mexico Relations and Border, Becas Para Aztlán program history, place-making and rural land use behaviors, Native American and Mestizaje traditions.
THIS PROGRAM WAS CREATED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THREE SISTERS KITCHEN
Three Sisters Kitchen is all about nourishing each other from the ground up. This means creating a space where good food, diverse communities, and economic opportunity come together for a healthier and more vibrant city. Through the power and love of local food, Three Sisters Kitchen creates economic opportunity, improves community health, and brings diverse communities together around the table.