Series

Book Club

A bi-monthly series on food, culture and land

The Active Cultures Book Club invites our community to engage with texts that delve into the interconnectedness of art, food, and ecologies through collective reading and conversation.

The series explores the aesthetics of food, culinary resilience and kinship, alternative foodways, land rights and stewardship, and the intersection of agriculture and technology. We will also delve into multispecies coexistence, intercultural exchange, food capitalism and commodification, and examine the impact of migration and colonization on contemporary cooking, eating, and growing practices.

Guided by Curator Nanette Orly, the bi-monthly book club provides an open and welcoming platform for critical thinking and discussion around these themes. Our meetings will be held on the first Saturday of the month, starting September 2025, in various parks, gardens, and public spaces throughout Los Angeles.

Bring your own books! We encourage you to purchase from your local bookstore or borrow from the library.

Registration is free and open to all. Sign up here to learn more and receive our Book Club communications.

Sessions

September 6, 2025, 11am-12pm

A World of Its Own: Race, Labor and Citrus in the Making of Greater Los Angeles 1900-1970 (2002) by Matt Garcia

November 1, 2025, 11am-12pm

Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China’s Countryside (2020) by Xiaowei Wang

February 7, 2026, 11am-12pm

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015) by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing

April 4, 2026, 11am – 12pm

Intimate Eating: Racialized Spaces and Radical Futures (2022) by Anita Mannur

June 6, 2026, 11am – 12pm

The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-making Machine (2007) by Hassan Daoud

Credits

Active Cultures’ programs this year are made possible through the generous support of its Board of Directors; the Members Circle Annual Fund; the Los Angeles Visual Arts (LAVA) Coalition; the Maurice Marciano Family Foundation; William Grant & Sons; the Jerry & Terri Kohl Family Foundation; the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.