“Uprooted” is a conversational dinner event exploring a group of people’s views on the only true American holiday. Each participant has been asked to send me his or her favorite Thanksgiving holiday recipe. The recipes will act as an entry point for people in conversation, finding differences and similarities not only in the ingredients but where they came from and how they are used. This will be the personal history and memory that people will bring with them, manifested through a recipe, articulated through conversations with the other guests.

There will be surprises throughout the dinner, food infused with language literally ‘talking’ to the guests. I am excited to see how the guests respond and articulate their own relationships to the experience as it happens and how their personal history emerge.

The goal of “Uprooted” is explore two intertwining histories: the personal and the foods’. The story of what’s on the plate juxtaposed with the guests individual memories and perspectives will create a layered experience. Taste will be linked to a story, the story to a place, the place to a community, the community to a collective and individual memory.

The points I started with while thinking about/creating this event:
1. To think about the tradition of Thanksgiving as we have known it.
2. To look at how those traditions differ/are the same.
3. To talk about the origins of the only tradition we as Americans celebrate as a nation—and its basis around food.
4. To examine how we foresee this tradition shifting with the future based on current economic and social issues.
5. Locavorism—what is it and how it is shaping how we eat.
6. Connecting with people through the common denominator of food.