Upcoming

Michelle Nazzal: Food Mythologies

Event Details

DATE: Saturday, August 1 TIME: 4:30 PM – 8:00 PM

LOCATION: Arlington Garden in Pasadena

Registration

TICKET PRICE: Free donation to The Sameer Project

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Active Cultures invites you to Food Mythologies, an evening of conversation, reflection, and a meal organized by Oakland-based chef and designer Michelle Nazzal.

Food Mythologies explores the transmission of food traditions, and how they create temporal and physical connections across generations. Through the lens of immigrant and diasporic cooks, land stewards, and cultural workers from the Los Angeles community, the program examines how genocide and displacement inform and shape these practices. Together, these stories weave tapestries of time, place, and familial history into personal mythologies.

The evening begins in the olive allée of Arlington Garden with a conversation with Liana Aghajanian, Chris Jadallah, and Soha Yassine, facilitated by Nazzal, to speak to the pervasive effects of colonialism on food, land access, and tradition, both on their ancestral lands and in exile. Following a self-guided garden walk, we return to the allée for a shared meal.

Food Mythologies is hosted in partnership with Arlington Garden in Pasadena and will include a program and resource designed by Nazzal.

In lieu of purchasing a ticket for this program, we are asking all attendees to make a donation to The Sameer Project. The Palestinian-led initiative is dedicated to providing tents, medical aid, and clean water to displaced families in Gaza, while operating community kitchens to feed those in need. 

Please note: A donation receipt is required for entry, though because capacity is limited, RSVPs are required as well.

To learn more about The Sameer Project and to donate, click here.

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About the Artists

Michelle Nazzal
Michelle Nazzal is a chef and designer based in Oakland, California. Through her ongoing and ever-changing project, Mishmish, she works to preserve Palestinian food and cultural traditions in the diaspora. Mishmish is inspired by remembrance, liminality, and how we move through the world when we’re severed from our ancestral lands....
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Soha Yassine
Soha Yassine is the founder and director of Diaspora People’s Place, a non-profit public corporation based in Los Angeles that strengthens diaspora communities by supporting creatives and entrepreneurs through volunteer-run initiatives such as The People’s Marketplace and Nochella. She also amplifies Lebanese voices as the host of Safe House Travel...
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Liana Aghajanian
Liana Aghajanian is a Los Angeles–based Armenian American journalist and storyteller whose work has taken her across the United States and around the world. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Bon Appétit, and the Financial Times, among other publications. Her recent work explores...
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Chris Jadallah
Chris Jadallah is a researcher and educator whose work examines land-based and community-based learning. He is an assistant professor at the UCLA School of Education & Information Studies. He is additionally a seed saver, growing and sharing Palestinian heirloom seeds with other farmers and land workers.
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About Arlington Garden

Arlington Garden is a free garden and 2.5 acre host to climate-appropriate plants, trees, fungi, root systems, animals, birds, bees, bugs, and people that welcomes all.

Credits

Active Cultures is sustained through the generous support of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; the Vera R. Campbell Foundation; the Getty Foundation; the Jerry and Terri Kohl Family Foundation; the Maurice Marciano Family Foundation; the Offield Family Foundation; Teiger Foundation; James Cohan Gallery; C O U S I N S; Who Wants To Be A Millionaire/ABC; William Grant and Sons; Active Cultures’ Board of Directors; the Members Circle Annual Fund; Green Art Lab Alliance (GALA); and the Los Angeles Visual Arts (LAVA) Coalition.