MAKEDA THOMAS

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    “Eat Little and Live Long” is a new archive; a gathering that merges food, dance, and storytelling; an opportunity to engage with artists and supporters of my work; a way to share and to practice; to make good on the ancestral knowledge to transform stories of loss into tales of togetherness.

     

    Food is a continued part of my artistic practice. It has been at the center of the Institute’s development. There is a recipe for my late Aunty Girly’s Fish Pelau in my Master’s dissertation called “How to Take Night and Make Day” - a recipe for food that is delicious and - and, as per the title - tied to the wisdom of my ancestors. “Ingredients and structures of cooking are not carried in the genes, but come from historical experiences shared among peoples and across generations.” After “the fire”, these recipes are some of the few remaining tangible artefacts of my family history; a memory that combines experience, practice, and replicability.

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    - Makeda Thomas, 2019

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    In 2021 - from 5 June to 4 September -  "Eat Little and Live Long" was realized as a Backyard Performance Series for which 22 dance artists and their collaborators were invited to the home of dance artist, Makeda Thomas in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Performers included Fana Fraser, J. Bouey, Thomas DeFrantz, mx oops, Shamar Watt, Brotherhood Dance, Chris Walker, Andre Zachery, Michelle Gibson, Gabri Christa, Obika Dance, Jean Appolon, Pagwah Mas, and Jade Charon.

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    “Eat Little and Live Long” with J. Bouey | Chiron in Leo. Saturday, 5 June 2021

"Chiron in Leo", a short film, follows Chiron through Brooklyn after they get up from a depression nap to manage their anxiety. On this walk, Chiron dances through memories and stories they share with us that emerge from deep within their psyche.
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    "Eat Little and Live Long” with Brotherhood Dance | “Greens-N-Bread”. 
Saturday, 12 June 2021. 

In this dance theater experience, we laugh and love over the stories of our familial engagement with greens and bread. 
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    #EatLittleAndLiveLong with Chris Walker | Seaweed King + Futurpointe | Rent-A-Tile + Sofia Snow | “Poems for Leila”.

Ackee with Seaweed | Roasted Beets + Boiled Yam | Tostones with Pikliz | 
Grilled Roucou-Spiced King Fish | Spring Salad
    "Eat Little and Live Long" with André Zachery | Salt. Saturday, 3 July 2021.

“Salt’’ is an excerpt from a  work-in-development collaboration between interdisciplinary choreographer André M. Zachery and interdisciplinary sound/media artist Sadah Espii Proctor entitled “Against Gravity: Flying Afrikans and Other Urban Legends’’.
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    "Eat Little and Live Long" with André Zachery | Salt. 

Menu by Hector Caribbean: Pwason Gros Sel + Pwason Rouge Grille +Sôs Pw Blanc
Diri Blan +Banan Frit + Pikliz  + Spring Salad
    "Eat Little And Live Long" with Shamar Watt  | Dawning of the Suns. Saturday, 19 June 2021.

“Dawning of the Suns” explores the transmutation of the revivalist, through the lens of a black Berghain shrine.
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    "Eat Little and Live Long" with Fana Fraser | with love, V. Saturday, 26 June 2021. 

"Love, V" is a queer Caribbean femmehood coming of age story timed in a heavenly subterranean fantasy paradise where dreams become reality for an extended present moment.
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    "Eat Little and Live Long" with Thomas F. DeFrantz | indigeneities::knowing from before + mx oops |  Nonfatal Error. Saturday, 10 July 2021.
    Curator and Host of "Eat Little and Live Long", Makeda Thomas. Photo by Gerald Horton.
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    Out of gallery

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