The fourth session in the series A Garden of Reflection, is a performance piece by Sri Vamsi Matta, a Bangalore-based theatre artist.
Come Eat With Me explores the relationship between caste and food while sharing a meal together. Focusing on Dalit Cuisine, the piece begins with personal stories and oral histories around food in Vamsi's household and community and is peppered with existing literature and academic writing around the multilayered, many-flavoured relationships between caste and food. The piece unpacks questions of oppression and solidarity, grief and joy, and the everyday victories of the human spirit in the face of structural injustices. Audiences are invited to eat together and share their stories about caste and food. In doing so the form subverts an activity laden with caste hierarchies and hopes to create a space for community building.
Instructions:
a. This is a food-sharing space. Please make sure to carry a food item with you - a food item that you are fond of. It can be something you made or someone else made or even picked up from a restaurant or anywhere.
However, if you are not able to bring along anything, that is alright.
b. Meat will be part of the food, so be prepared for that. You don't need to consume it if you don't want to.
c. This will be a safe space, so if you have a disagreement with anyone's sharing, we shall figure out the process of clearing it at the start of the session.
Sri Vamsi Matta (@srivamsimatta), or simply Vamsi has been involved with the theatre fraternity for over a decade. Vamsi’s practice is influenced by his Dalit identity, experience and location, which inform the questions, topics and mediums with which he engages.
A Garden of Reflection is a space to gather, to come together to read, listen and share. Every week a guest will be invited to bring in some material as a provocation to start a conversation through personal stories and sharing. Over the weeks themes of love, friendships, gender, caste, religion will be discussed through the lens of identity and citizenship.
