Focus Media Arts Centre’s Panasonic S5 Mark II camera, which Zane is really excited to use for taking photos of contributor’s and their dishes.
Our top goal for the past week was to find residents of different backgrounds willing to contribute recipes and stories to our project. Not only have we made considerable progress in finding contributors, we’ve also conducted our first interviews!
On Tuesday, Fatom and Zane met with Fazla in Daniels Spectrum. Fazla is a Muslim mother of three who moved to Regent Park from Sri Lanka when she was seven. She spent over an hour sharing stories about growing up in the neighbourhood, and agreed to contribute two recipes for our cookbook. The recipes are for two dishes she makes for the Regent Park Women’s Health Social Circle, a group she co-founded with two other moms.
Arden wasn’t able to make it to meet Fazla, but she went to the Daniels Spectrum on Wednesday. There, she visited Regent Park Café, which is run by Gail who owns ZERO cocktail bar. Both Gail and Amanda, owner of Edible Bliss, agreed to contribute to the cookbook!
One setback we experienced this week is someone pulled out of the project. While Arden was at Daniel’s on Wednesday, she met someone who was interested in being in our cookbook. She got their story and scheduled to meet them later in the week, but they have since asked not to be involved. We are learning how to handle these setbacks with patience, and are remaining resilient when things don’t go as we had expected.
Our group had unusual beginnings– we were gifted the cookbook idea by other students at the last minute, meaning we started with a format rather than a question. Through our various conversations with residents, we are starting to hone in on a (still developing) research question: how does cross-cultural food facilitate the creation and strengthening of social ties in the neighbourhood? This question will guide how we approach interviewing contributors to the cookbook going forwards. It also provides direction for the scholarly research we’ll be conducting as part of the project.
On Thursday, March 7, Zane got the chance to learn about the professional-level photography equipment owned by Focus, which he plans to use when photographing contributors and their dishes.
This was followed by our group meeting, where we discussed how to ensure appropriate representation of Regent Park’s many cultures given time and resource constraints. Our professor, Dr Aditi Mehta, had a brilliant suggestion; for cultural groups we are unable to source recipes from, we can dedicate a page to local restaurants and ethnic grocery stores.
We’ve confirmed that we’ll be able to have our cookbook printed, though we’ll be making a PDF version that’s accessible to everyone. We want to be able to thank all our contributors by giving them a copy, and we hope that making our project into an object will ensure it isn’t soon forgotten.
Finalising the format helped us create a production plan for the cookbook:
March 8 to March 14: identify a printer, submit a budget, collect stories and recipes from 3 or 4 residents
March 15 to March 21: collect stories and recipes from 3 or 4 residents, create drafts for cookbook entries
March 22 to March 28: collect stories and recipes from 2 or 3 residents, continue drafting cookbook entries, create draft of project
March 29 to April 4: Finalise our draft, send it to the printers, and prep for the final showcase.
Another topic of discussion was how to use our project to facilitate civic engagement. We decided to promote local ethnic grocery stores that contributors use to source ingredients by providing a map at the back of our book. Additionally, we’re considering creating a website to which any resident can contribute recipes (along with photos and stories). This will allow many more Regent Parkers to participate in our project, thereby fostering greater cross-cultural community connections.
What’s wonderful about this class is how many unexpected connections there are between our topic and the other projects. Fazla’s work in providing a supportive space for women in the neighbourhood through the Social Circle is closely linked with the Hey Lady You Matter team’s focus on women’s mental health issues. Meanwhile, we learned that the Off the Shelf team is focusing on small ethnic grocery stores, and we agreed to try and collaborate by linking our media projects. Lastly, after being interviewed by the SDP Champions group, longtime resident Deany Peters shared the name of someone who used to host impromptu BBQs that, pre-revitalization, were commonplace in Regent Park. We’re sure that over the coming weeks more surreptitious connections will emerge between all six projects that are underway.
The Seasoning Stories team members are Fatom, Zane, and Arden