“Artifacts of Resistance”

These imperfect and unrefined concrete “artifacts” remind us that the tools we need for resistance are already at our disposal, demonstrating how many revolutionary acts that begin at home have stood the test of time. Cooking at home or for yourself can feel insignificant, but it is an often overlooked act of meditation and care. While many believe ancestral practices like cooking have no value outside capitalism, Black people have supported our communities with food-based care and mutual aid for generations. The Montgomery Bus Boycott bake sales and the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program are critical examples of cooking as a means of self-determination. Culturally, it is a form of care that piques our right to food sovereignty, security, and personal power in its creation. The actions of stirring, rolling, and mixing have happened for centuries and go hand in hand with curiosity, innovation, imagination, and play to create modes of resistance that can nourish and emancipate.