Potlucks were a big part of my rural Canadian childhood. My memories are hazy and I’m certain I idealise them. This history gives me a strong nostalgic pull to the smell of bonfires, the fiddle, full moons, and cold pasta salad. The covid lockdowns gave this nostalgia a special power. Like many of us, I had an almost physical longing for the conviviality and informality of tables lined with plates of food shared with a room full of friends and strangers. Whilst in residence at Artsadmin in 2021-2023 I began designing and testing the potluck methodology, allowing this longing and nostalgia to explore how we create spaces which are collectively owned? Space which are, just a little bit, hosted by everyone? Could potlucks be their own tiny real utopias – which create tasty moments of collectivity amongst strangers?
I have been experimenting with different facilitation and performative offerings within these events. For all of them, participants suggest an ingredient ahead of the potluck – harking back to older traditions of ‘adding to the pot’. These are then combined by myself (and sometimes another chef collaborator) into a shared meal on the night. Toasts are also very important to the format – often offered by guests to respond to the themes of the potluck. We’ve had tiny collective play readings, poems, bite-size economics lectures, two honey tastings!
Below are a few examples of recent potlucks I have hosted.
And here is a blog I wrote for Artsadmin reflecting on potlucks and utopias.
The lost lands potluck – earth rising, IRISH MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, DUBLIN, september 2024
Curated by Jennie Moran. Photos by Liadh Connolly.
The lands around us are changing. A storm changes the shape of the beach in a night, some rivers disappear, whilst others become lakes, and forests thin. What is the moment we look around and realise we live somewhere entirely new? Can we feel homesick for a land we still live in? At this potluck, the delegates and speakers of the Earth Rising festival gathered to make food together, to eat, to talk, to linger awhile, and to toast lands we love and lands we’ve lost.
PARITY IN PRACTICE POTLUCK – BELFIELD COMMUNITY CENTRE, EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART, JUNE 2024
Co-hosted by Parity in Practice at the University of Edinburgh. Film by Regina Mosch.
The potluck was an opportunity to come together to explore what ‘community’ means to us as academics, artists, activists, students, and professionals working in art-related fields in Edinburgh and across Scotland. The meal brought together 25-30 guests over a shared, informal meal, creating a vibrant and playful space to swap ideas, experiences, and reflections on the theme of community. With toasts from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Maryam Ohadi-Hamadani, Cole Collins and Elysia Lechelt.
Some snippets and reflections on the event…
For many gathered, once you’d asked them to help a bit (to make bread, to clear a plate), felt the need to help with everything. They wanted to be involved, be given a sense of purpose, and maybe that’s the work. When people ask to help, if there is something they can do, say ‘yes’.
The sense of not quite knowing who is a host and who is a guest is a key aim of these events and that (I think) was mostly achieved last night.
The kitchen hosted (as ever) a parallel event, with people wandering in and out to help or to simply get out of the main space for a moment. For many, this reminds them of their days working in ‘service’. I see a vague competition going on of how many plates you can carry with much laughter and (thankfully) no broken plates.
- an academic from St Andrews wanted to be in the kitchen from the start – she came in to ferry plates back and forth, and ended up doing dishes whilst I made bread and had to be taken away to sit down for the start of the event.
- for a adminstrator from the university, getting involved in ‘the hosting’ brought up memories of his father’s sandwich shop when he was a kid. Whenever a new dish was served he would turn up at the kitchen door, ready to take some plates.
- a student keen to be helpful, maybe keen to learn more about what was going on behind the scenes, regularly coming it to help with washing and fire questions at me.
A short film talks a bit about the workd of Parity in Practice, with interviews & footage gathered at the potluck.
THE REST AND SLOWNESS POTLUCK, ARTSADMIN, TOYNBEE STUDIOS NOVEMBER 2022
Co-hosted with Jennie Moran. Photos by Christa Holka.
As we headed into darker days and longer nights we invited the public to a potluck at Toynbee Studios. Over food, conversation and toasts we explored the politics and importance of rest & slowness. At the start, I offered a toast:
This is the parable of the ‘useless tree’ by Zhuang Zhou. There was once an enormous and very old oak tree. Its trunk was made up of many pieces. And its twisted branches spread wide around it. One day a carpenter passed by the giant tree. He was impressed by its size, but almost immediately declared it a “worthless tree”. Exclaiming “A boat made from its branches would sink, a coffin would soon rot. The tree was too gnarled to be used for timber.” He then walked off into the woods. Soon afterwards the old oak appears to the carpenter in his dream and asks “What are you comparing me to? A cinnamon tree would be cut down for its bark. A spruce for its straight trunk. The cherry and pear are stripped of their fruits every year. Their lives are bitter because of their usefulness. I have tried very hard to be useless – how else could I have grown so large? You are a worthless man about to die – how do you know I am a worthless tree?”
Our understanding of what is useful has perhaps never been so narrow, so instrumental. Our time equals money. Nature has become resources. Productivity is a deeply ingrained value.
Rest and slowness are easy, early causalities in our drive for more, better, faster. So this winter it feels important to resist this – to embrace rest and slowness with wide open arms, as an act of care and of resistance.
I want to close with some questions for us to take with us tonight:
What does it look like to meaningfully de-couple time and money?
What would it mean for rest to be equally accessible?
How could rest change your life, your relationships, your values, your time?
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