Intergenerational Cooking as a Pedagogical Praxis
by Wallis Caldoza and Cherie A. Daniel
Introduction by Jessie Kennedy
Introduction
by Jessie Kennedy
In this interactive audio/visual essay Wallis Caldoza and Cherie A. Daniel allow us entry to their planning and preparation of a shared meal. We are invited into their discussions about culture and food, intersectionality, displacement, intergenerational living, building connection through the ritual of preparing and eating together, and much more. The unique format of this submission provides the opportunity to consider possibilities surrounding how we document and share our stories, create new ways for audiences to interact with our art, and prompts reflection about how we use sound, word, and visual representation in our work.
Provocation
The market, kitchen, dinner table, and family recipes themselves are rich backdrops against which histories and imagined futures merge with the present and can serve as meaningful sources of exploration through drama and dance.
What sounds might form the preparation of a favourite meal or recipe of yours? How might you combine your sounds with those of others’ meals/recipes to build a collaborative soundscape?
Choreographer and Movement Director Aline David speaks about orchestrating the stage business of The Kitchen (National Theatre, 2011) and Antigone (National Theatre, 2012) as a dance. How might you break down the movements of preparing and/or sharing a meal into distinct gestures or movement phrases to create such a dance? (More information about Aline David’s work on the above productions and her workshop approaches are available at Creating Chorus: Building Choreography)
Wallis Caldoza studies quotidian dramaturgy as a third-year PhD student at OISE/UT. Her doctoral research project, supervised by Dr rosalind hampton, examines how Canadian universities address institutional recognition in the form of “listening” and “acknowledgement” practices that naturalize white hegemony and construct Black and Indigenous scholars and scholarship as devalued “Other” (Ahmed, 2012; Coulthard, 2014; hampton, 2020). Selected credits include: graduate assistant for Dr rosalind hampton's project “Coalition Building by and with Black Students at Canadian Universities from 1960-2000" (University of Toronto, 2020 - 2022); associate dramaturg for the Hot House Lift Off Unit (CAHOOTS Theatre, 2020 - 2021); co-producer with Madison Lymer for "The Afterword" (FOLDA, 2020); dramaturg and performance lead for "Talk to Me" (Cellar Door Project, FOLDA, CFRC 101.9FM, 2020); graduate assistant for Dr Kathleen Gallagher’s project "Audacious Citizenship" (University of Toronto, 2019-2020); playwright for Beyond the Bard (Driftwood Theatre, 2020); and collaborative writer and scenographer for "Armen Avanessian & Enemies #33 Corresponding with ghosts " (RCSSD and the Volksbühne Berlin, 2017 – 2018). Wallis holds an MA from the RCSSD and a BAH from Queen’s University.
Cherie A. Daniel has a BA in English and Legal Studies (Carleton). She was called to the Bar in 2005 and has practiced in the areas of Criminal law. She has appeared at all levels of Court in Ontario (Ontario Court of Justice, Superior Court of Justice, and the Ontario Court of Appeal). Cherie is currently in her third year at the University of Toronto in her Ph.D. in Social Justice Education with a collaborative focus in Women and Gender studies and preparing to conduct critical ethnographic research examining the experiences and pedagogical and legal practices of Black women law professors in Canada.
In 2019 she graduated from The University of Toronto (OISE) with a Master of Education in Adult Education and Community Development and a collaborative focus in Workplace Learning and Social change, as well as also graduating with a Master of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School. She is one of the founding members of the National Black Graduate Network (NBGN). The National Black Graduate Network (NBGN) is an initiative to promote communication and collaboration among Black graduate students and students of Black Studies in Canada. In 2020 Cherie was named 1 of 100 Accomplished Black Canadian women. In March of 2021, Ms. Daniel was the 1st recipient of the Inaugural Cultivating Community award from the University of Toronto (OISE). Most recently, Cherie was the 2021 recipient of the Dianne Martin Medal for Social Justice Through Law. The medial is awarded to a member of the Canadian legal community who has exemplified Dianne Martin's commitment to law as an instrument of achieving social justice and fairness.