HTBAF: In Community/In Communion

HTBAF: In Community/In Communion

HTBAF: In Communion/In Community

When: December 19 @7pm
Where: Open Source Gallery, 306 17th St., Brooklyn

“Without community, there is no liberation.” – Audre Lorde

We’re breaking bread this month at HTBAF. Come join us for an Open Kitchen edition, share a meal prepared by your hosts and storytellers. Our theme is “In Community/In Communion,” which fits with our moods as we process the coming of a new paradigm, a new social order … as we move into Kwanzaa season and think about the principle of Imani/Faith.

Chef Sia, Sheryll, and Stacie are all focused on community, on collective action, on each one teach one, and tides lifting every boat. Chef Sia feeds and teaches, fostering connection through sharing lovingly-prepared food. Sheryll grows community, seeding and teaching through her garden and farm work. Stacie … might just be along for the ride, basking in the vicarious glow of these most excellent partners. Or, maybe she hopes her writing will spin threads that loop us together. Time will tell.

We need to wrap our arms and hearts around our communities right now, need to strengthen what and where we can, build new relationships with communities outside of our own. We will survive, and we will rise. Together.

Come share an S³ dinner, a meal that Sia, Sheryll, and Stacie (mostly Chef Sia) will prepare. Come hear stories from all three. Come break bread and build community. Come nourish your heart and mind as we look back, look forward, look into our hearts and each others’.



STORYTELLERS:

Sia Pickett, affectionately known in her community as Chef Sia, started with Just Food as a Community Chef in 2011, eventually moving into the current role of board treasurer through her commitment and dedication to the organization’s mission. Chef Sia also owns Malata Cuisine, a personal Natural Foods chef service in Brooklyn, NY. Sia is a certified health coach, a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and a student at Escoffier Culinary School. Her resume also includes Harvard’s ‘Cooking is Science’ course. With over twenty years of experience as a holistic chef and instructor, Ms. Pickett is passionate about educating her community about lifestyle options that combine cooking healthy food and overall health. 

Additionally, Sia has honed her culinary skills through various workshops with Just Food, Natural Gourmet Institute (currently ICE), Sur La Table, and various herbal education workshops. Sia grew up with her two traditional southern grandmothers, both of whom cooked healthy food with ingredients fresh from the garden (the original “Farm to Table”). One taught her the Gullah Islands Geechee low country cooking tradition; the other was from NOLA (New Orleans) and specialized in Afro Creole cooking. The two, combined, inspired Sia’s unique culinary fusion. Chef Sia says, “My grandmother were my first mentors. I became an apprentice under their tutelage at the age of 6, and the knowledge and training they provided was priceless. In addition to my early training, which continued throughout my college years and beyond, my next mentor was Dr. Alvenia Fulton, who taught me that food is medicine.” Dr. Fulton was from Chicago, Illinois, and that wise woman lived into her 90’s. Co-author of the book “Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat: with Mother Nature” with the renowned Dick Gregory, she was one of the first African American women with an N.D. degree from Lincoln College of Naturopathy and a PhD from the Natural Medicines University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Ms. Pickett’s passion just keeps growing, stoking her enthusiasm for educating the community about lifestyle options for cooking healthy foods and overall nutritional health, and for helping an eager audience to understand that food is medicine. As the old saying goes “We Are What We Eat” so our health and nutritious food are synonymous. Chef Sia

 

Stacie Evans is a writer. And that is why — instead of moving through the streets like Beyonce and her baseball bat — she uses pen and paper, each word a chisel, a chainsaw, a bludgeon. There’s a lot that needs dismantling, a lot that will have to be razed to the ground before her words can focus solely on construction. Stacie hopes she’ll be remembered for the white-heat of her rage, and for how she strives to take the molten core of that rage and crush it into a magnificent diamond. She was born only eight short years after the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. She met James Baldwin in Paris … which will forever be the most excellent thing about her. She loves fruit. A lot. That’s probably all you need to know.

 

Sheryll Durrant is an urban farmer, educator, and food justice advocate. She has been the Resident Garden Manager at Kelly Street Garden since 2016, and is also the Food and Agriculture Coordinator for New York New Roots, an urban farm and garden program of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Her work has included developing community-based urban agriculture projects, providing expertise and technical assistance for gardens within supportive housing developments, and she currently serves as Board President for Just Food. a non-profit that works to improve access to healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food for New York City residents