I facilitated this virtual workshop through the University of Arizona Museum of Art in December 2021. While this post can in no way capture the thought-provoking and vulnerable conversations/sharing that happened in that space, I wanted to share the curriculum here for anyone who may be interested:
We opened with Audre Lorde’s poem “Sowing.”
We then read excerpts from the following pieces:
Roundtable: What is queer food?, Food & Wine
“Queer Food is Hiding in Plain Site,” Kyle Fitzpatrick
EMERGENCE & EXCESS: A CONVERSATION ON FASHION, AESTHETICS, AND ADORNMENT, Living & Fighting (not on food, but has some interesting thoughts on queerness & cultural production!)
Then we took some time to write, and share on, the following questions:
What is queer food? What is queer food writing?
We followed this with some of my favorite examples of queer food writing:
“Caramel” by Krys Malcolm Belc
“Mulberries” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (not online)
“At the Parkway Deli,” by Stephanie Burt
“Bake Your Fear,” Rakesh Satyal
We finished with the following writing exercise:
Write about an ingredient or dish. It could be a dish that: Conjures up a queer food memory, helped you realize you were queer, calls to mind the communities and families (chosen and otherwise) you are part of, or that you grapple with as a queer person.
Write in any form you’d like: poetry, prose, a self-interview, notes, a play, a comic strip, a head note to a recipe, etcetera.
(I wasn’t able to add in anything from Nico Wisler’s incredible podcast Queer the Table, but I highly recommend you give it a listen!)
Wren Awry 