Reframing Food
Youth Presentations
Friday, October 21, 7-9 p.m.
The Carrack Modern Art
947 East Main Street, Durham
With chef-driven narratives dominating food dialogue, it is refreshing to hear another perspective, especially one coming from the next generation of foodies. At the Carrack tonight, the Reframing Food photography exhibit closes with a reception featuring a talk from young artists and activists.
But as we highlighted in our Fall Guide, the members of North Carolina Food Youth Initiative are not your average foodies. The photos hanging on the Carrack’s freshly painted white walls show personal, difficult, and celebratory moments in our hidden food worlds from the perspective of youth. The group of young North Carolinians working in food justice are members of FYI, from the youth groups GrowingChange, Conetoe Family Life Center, Transplanting Traditions Community Farm, and Poder Juvenil Campesino.
Their photos reveal the moments that they live everyday, highlighting the struggle for recognition by migrant farmworkers, for example, the power of transformation through food in rural communities plagued with crime activity, economic disparity, and health issues, to celebratory moments through the lens of first-generation refugee high schoolers from the Karen community of Burma. Among the artists who will be at tonight’s reception are youth from Eastern North Carolina who couldn’t make it to the opening reception due the Hurricane Matthew aftermath.
The photographs are also the colorful representations we often see in food media, many of them macro-focused on gorgeous farm landscapes and shared, sprawling meals. But the intimacy found in these pieces is deep, and may not be as apparent as the symbolism you’ll find in seasoned artists’ work. Thankfully, tonight’s presentation features talks from the youth about their work, who are eager to share with the Durham community.
