We’re back in Little Bobby Hutton Park with breakfast! Breakfast 10am-12pm Festival until 6pm
We’re back in Little Bobby Hutton Park with breakfast & so much more! This year is dedicated to the Survival Programs of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Breakfast 10am-12pm Festival until 6pm
Join People’s Kitchen Collective (PKC) as we share our experiences at the intersection of art, food and social justice. With our practice of radical hospitality, we create deeply political community meals, hold space for the lived experience of people of color, and serve flavors passed down from our ancestors. In this workshop we ask, what is your recipe for change? We invite participants to envision creative possibilities for shifting to meet the only constant.
Each year at Life is Living, People’s Kitchen Collective hosts a space for our community to feel nourished. This year, to honor the 55th anniversary of the Black Panther Party (BPP), we asked 10 year old Mila Terry-Koon and BPP alum Ericka Huggins to be in conversation about intergenerational activism and the powerful legacy of the BPP survival programs.
Join us online for this moving conversation and more on Saturday, October 9th 11am-12pm PT. Register here to attend. When you register for Life is Living, you’ll receive the link for PKC’s program.
This event will have ASL interpretation and live automatic captioning.
See you there! In the meantime, check out the brilliant bios of our incredible guest speakers:
Mila Terry-Koon
Mila Terry-Koon is a 10-year-old Black and Chinese artist and activist from Oakland, California. She enjoys creative writing, reading dystopian fiction, cooking with family, and playing lacrosse. Mila has been studying cello since she was three years old, and for the past three years, she has been taking piano lessons and learning beat making/music production.
When Mila was five months old she attended her first protest (“Teach Banks to Share”) which was organized by the Colorful Mamas of the 99 Percent. At age four she attended her next big protest in response to police violence against Black people. At age six Mila concluded the San Francisco Trump inauguration protest by singing “This Little Light of Mine” in front of hundreds of people. Since then, Mila has participated in Asians 4 Black Lives and Reclaim MLK Day activities. She began her first business, Creative Commonalities, with her younger sibling in 2020, designing earrings made from up-cycled materials. Mila is committed to exploring how she can contribute to positively changing the world.
Ericka Huggins
Ericka Huggins is an educator, leading Black Panther Party member, former political prisoner, human rights advocate, and poet.
For 50 years, Ericka has used her life experiences in service to community. From 1973-1981, she was director of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School. From 1990-2004 Ericka managed HIV/AIDS Volunteer and Education programs. She also supported innovative mindfulness programs for women and youth in schools, jails and prisons.
Ericka was professor of Sociology and African American Studies from 2008 through 2015 in the Peralta Community College District. From 2003 to 2011 she was professor of Women and Gender Studies at California State Universities, East Bay and San Francisco.
Ericka is a Racial Equity Learning Lab facilitator for WORLD TRUST Educational Services. She curates conversations focused on the individual and collective work of becoming equitable in all areas of our daily lives. Additionally, she facilitates workshops on the benefit of spiritual practice in sustaining social change.
We’ll be baking sweet potato biscuits together on IG Live (you can find the recipe on Page 12 of our Cook-A-Long program from last year) and we’ll be joined by some beloved guests. Make sure to collect your own ingredients in advance so you can bake along with us, then join us when we go live on our Instagram at 9am on Saturday morning!
“If feeding is a form of love, eating is a kind of submission. Meals are conversations and what we don’t say is left over in the food.” — Avni Doshi
Featuring Jocelyn Jackson, People’s Kitchen Collective; Conrad Guevara, artist representing Real Time & Space and Town Fridge; Larissa Gilbert, artist representing The Oxbow School in collaboration with 2727 California; and Lexa Walsh, artist representing Oakland Stock.
During the protests of summer 2020, the amount of direct-action work, community-centered work, and mutual aid skyrocketed as a direct response to create lasting change in our society. The negative impacts of capitalism, western imperialism and borderlines that divide people are arbitrary, xenophobic, and racist; this town hall attempts to uplift community work in the aftermath of the election, and celebrate people regardless of their background or status.
Food is a powerful way to bring people together, and our hope is that sharing and centering will be the theme for this town hall, amidst troubling uncertainty about the future post-election. Food is a way to invest in our communities, and invest in ourselves. It is an act of nourishment, an act of resistance. Focusing on the knowledge that food holds, and by extension, the knowledge and wisdom the land and plants hold, the knowledge people tirelessly tending to the land hold, is key. Highlighting the people growing food we eat, rather than viewing food as simply a commodity is essential to collective awareness. Food has history, the people producing the food have history and their stories and are deeply integral to shared survival in our school community and beyond.
Growing, cooking, and eating as an act of ceremony, an act of making offerings, an act of comforting, a means to center and ground ourselves within our communities, is a way of returning. Simultaneously, thinking of food as a privilege that not everyone has access to, food in conversation with mutual aid, food in conversation with land ownership and sovereignty is critical.
This event is part of the Creative Citizens in Action initiative at CCA (CCA@CCA), and is funded by an endowment gift to support The Deborah and Kenneth Novack Creative Citizens Series, an annual series of public programs focused on creative activism.
Join People's Kitchen Collective for our annual tradition inspired by the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and their Survival Programs. This year, keeping in mind the health and safety of our community, we will be doing two distributions, a Beloved Community Bag to unhoused community members in West and East Oakland and a Cook-A-Long bag to people who RSVP for our online event 10am-12pm Saturday, October 10th.
To register for the online Cook-A-Long and be eligible to pick up your free bag of community gifts including select ingredients and a full list of recipes, RSVP here.
This Service to the People volunteer day has been postponed (exact date TBA). In the meantime, please check out East Oakland Collective’s website for a list of ways to support - including filling out a volunteer interest form (they can accommodate a few volunteers a week to assist with meal/supply distribution), donating a meal kit for a low income family, and purchasing supplies for the unhoused via their amazon wish list.
You can subscribe to our email newsletter or follow us on Instagram (@peopleskitchencollective) for updates on when this event will be rescheduled.
This event has been postponed (exact date TBA).
To support Red Bay Coffee in the meantime, we encourage you to order coffee delivered straight to your door from their website: https://www.redbaycoffee.com/
You can also subscribe to our email newsletter or follow us on Instagram (@peopleskitchencollective) for updates on when this event will be rescheduled.
This Service to the People volunteer day has been postponed (exact date TBA). Check back here soon for other ways to support Acta Non Verba in the meantime.
You can also subscribe to our email newsletter or follow us on Instagram (@peopleskitchencollective) for updates.
Queer Soup Night is a queer party with soup at its center. Come early for the soup, stay late for the love. The last Queer Soup Night of 2019 will be a benefit for People’s Kitchen Collective!
Join People's Kitchen Collective for our annual tradition inspired by the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and their Survival Programs. This year we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast Program with music, dance, and special guests. We'll be serving a hot, delicious, and nutritious breakfast of grits and greens, free to the community.
10am-12pm Breakfast at the 18 & Magnolia corner of the Little Bobby Hutton Park (aka deFremery Park)
12-4pm Exhibition of the Free Breakfast Program at the West Oakland Library (on the corner)
12-7pm Life is Living festival presented by Youth Speaks! The festival is free and open to the public.
Many thanks to Panther Legacy Historian Billy X. Jennings of It’s About Time and Camille Safiya.
See the video from the 2016 Life is Living.
As part of our Service to the People Series, People’s Kitchen Collective will be supporting Acta Non Verba by working on their farm in Tassafaronga Park for their monthly Community Farm Day on Saturday, October 5th (12-4pm). We may also be harvesting some produce to cook for the Life is Living Free Breakfast the following week!
Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project (ANV) elevates life in the inner city by challenging oppressive dynamics and environments through urban farming. ANV’s quarter acre farm located in the City of Oakland’s Tassafaronga Park is planned, planted, harvested and sold by youth in grades K-8. One hundred percent of the proceeds are placed into individual savings accounts for those who participate.
For more details, and to sign up, email eat@peopleskitchencollective.com stating your interest in volunteering for Acta Non Verba.
Photo Credit: Pete Rosos Photography | All Rights Reserved
As part of our Service to the People Series, People’s Kitchen Collective will be supporting Planting Justice by volunteering on their farm, nursery, or garden on Wednesday, September 18th (10am-2pm).
Planting Justice is a grassroots organization with a mission to empower people impacted by mass incarceration and other social inequities with the skills and resources to cultivate food sovereignty, economic justice, and community healing.
For more details, and to sign up, email eat@peopleskitchencollective.com stating your interest in volunteering for Planting Justice.
As part of our Service to the People Series, People’s Kitchen Collective will be supporting GLIDE’s Daily Free Meals program by serving breakfast and prepping the kitchen for lunch on Tuesday, July 30th (7am-11:30am you must be available for the whole shift, no exceptions). We have 15 volunteer slots to fill!
To sign up, email eat@peopleskitchencollective.com stating your interest in volunteering for GLIDE’s Daily Free Meals program.
Celebrate Mandela Grocery’s 10th Anniversary at their Pop-Up Village!
More information below:
First Fridays at Mandela Grocery
Mandela Grocery Cooperative
Center Street and 7th Street
Oakland, CA 94607
The Pop-Up Village brings Healing Massage, Acupuncture, Yoga, Herbal Medicine, Food, Cooking Demonstrations, Blender-Bike Smoothies, Youth Activities, Five Keys Mobile Classroom, Women’s Refuge Trailer, Free Books, Barber, Pop-Up Shops, Live Music, & more…
Mandela needs volunteers are needed to support vendors, greeting, set-up, and break down. To sign up directly with Pop-Up Village visit https://popupvillage.org/volunteer/
This is a Mandela Grocery Cooperative event! PKC is helping spread the word.
Join the People's Kitchen Collective for our annual tradition inspired by the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and their Survival Programs. We'll be serving a hot, delicious, and nutritious breakfast of grits and greens, free to the community. This meal is a part of the annual Life is Living festival presented by Youth Speaks!
Video from 2016 Life is Living
Celebrating community as a means of resistance, ALL TOGETHER NOW looks at art and activism from the perspective of those who seek to use their artistic practice to create networks, a sense of "being here now," mutual respect and understanding, belonging, and a deeper sense of history as seen from what can be the mainstream's "margins."
Opening reception will be held from 1–3pm on Saturday, September 22nd, and will include workshops with Shirin Towfiq and Angie Wilson, plus a 2pm performance by Future Chorus.
Please visit here for more information.
Comida es Medicina considers the topic of food justice from Latinx, Chicanx, Central American, indigenous, and immigrant perspectives. This group exhibition contests white supremacy by uplifting the knowledge, traditions, and practices of immigrant and indigenous members of our communities in relation to food, ancestral knowledge, and respect for Mother Earth.
PKC is honored to have its Kitchen Remedies project included among many amazing artists. Stop by and contribute to our growing collection of remedies.
PLEASE SUPPORT GALERIA DE LA RAZA AS THEY CURRENTLY FACE EVICTION FROM THEIR LOCATION OF 46 YEARS. Click here to learn more.
Galería de la Raza is an interdisciplinary Chicanx/Latinx space for art, thought, and activism in San Francisco, CA.
People's Kitchen Collective is taking it to the STREETS with a historic FREE community meal for 500 people through the streets of West Oakland.
Free community tickets here will be made available to the public here on a first-come basis. You currently need a code to RSVP. *Advance ticket is required to attend this free event.
Please sign up for our newsletter and stay tuned to our social media for announcements.
Read here for more background on STREETS!
In observance of Ramadan, tables will be available for those who are fasting. We will package a meal for you to take with you at the end of the event.
STREETS! is a meal for 500 people in celebration of resilience in West Oakland. People’s Kitchen Collective is collaborating with artists, musicians, performers, and social justice organizations to host tables and facilitate conversations about cultural preservation, movement building, and self-determination. This is a reclaiming of the commons, of the streets that are rapidly being disconnected from their history through gentrification. Here, we will eat at the intersection of food, art, and justice. Inspired by the legacy of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and their Free Breakfast Program and the family meals at Yuri Kochiyama's home that brought radical minds together, this is how we feed a revolution.
“TO THE TABLE” is a meal in remembrance of the signing of Executive Order 9066. We center the memories of Japanese Americans as it connects to our resistance today. This meal is also a celebration of continued solidarity between communities of color, specifically Asian American, AMEMSA, Black, Latinx, and undocumented peoples. TO THE TABLE is open to everyone invested in resisting borders and walls, xenophobic immigration policies, incarceration, racism, and the erasure of our cultures.
Community partners include J-Sei, The Nikkei Resisters, the Arab Resource Organizing Center (AROC), and activist Flora Ninomiya.
With collaborators Marvin K. White, La Pelanga, Misha Abbas, Jun Hamamoto and the San Quentin Prison Origami Class and many more.
This is the third in our four-part series from the FARM, to the KITCHEN, to the TABLE, to the STREETS!
TABLE will be held in West Oakland. Sliding scale tickets have sold out. Thank you for your overwhelming response! Join our mailing list and stay tuned to our social media for upcoming events. Please inquire to eat@peopleskitchencollective.com if you have questions about mobility/accessibility at the event.
Please note that if you have not already RSVP'd the event is at capacity! Please join us at a future event. Contact eat@peopleskitchencollective.com if you have any questions.
Hosted by J-Sei, a Nikkei community center, this potluck is inspired by Japanese American stories of adaptation, survival and a desire to commemorate Executive Order 9066 as it connects to our current administration's actions. The People’s Kitchen Collective will be presenting their work and also want to hear your food memories. These stories will be gathered and shared at our upcoming community meal February 4th, Come to the Table. This event centers the voices and experiences of the Bay Areas intergenerational Japanese American community and is open to all.
Feed the Resistance SF Book Launch Party
Panel Discussion, Reception, and Signing
Join MoAD’s Chef-in-Residence for an afternoon of stimulating conversation, calls to action, and delicious food in celebration of Feed the Resistance, the practical and inspiring handbook for political activism–with recipes. Julia Turshen, the author of the book, will lead a conversation with several local contributors discussing ways in which we all can spark the revolution in our kitchens and support progressive social justice movements as consumers, community members, and citizens. The conversation will be followed by a reception and book signing featuring food from several beloved Bay Area chefs and food entrepreneurs.
Join the People's Kitchen Collective for our annual tradition inspired by the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and their Survival Programs. We'll be serving a hot, delicious, and nutritious breakfast of grits and greens, free to the community. This year marks the 10th annual Life is Living festival presented by Youth Speaks! and the 51st Anniversary of the Black Panther Party.
Video from 2016 Life is Living
General information about the festival here. We'll be in the park on 18th St. closest to Adeline St. from 10am-12pm.
Fire safety, earthquake preparedness, self-defense training, food distribution, and people power! Join the Stop Urban Shield Coalition to say NO to policing, militarization and state violence!
At our People's Remedy stand, you will be able to read hundreds of home remedies and we invite you to add your own remedy to this community collection. This PKC event is about exploring ancestral kitchen wisdom while sharing tangible skills and remedies to heal, fortify and survive.
Inspired by the Kochiyama family’s tradition of radical hospitality, AAWAA reflects on Yuri’s legacy and how we can build on her leadership model fueled by compassion, openness to learning from others, deep commitment to building solidarity between communities and tireless dedication to doing the ordinary, often undervalued everyday work necessary to create social change. What world do we want to build together and how can we nurture, sustain and inspire each other in the process? Topics will also include: building Black and Asian solidarity, intersectional activism, and intergenerational knowledge sharing.
A whole lamb BBQ and day party with PKC, Red Bay Coffee, Proof, and Reem's!
Join the Oakland Food Policy Council for stories of food, culture, and ancestry. Featuring the voices of Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik, People's Kitchen Collective, Aileen Suzara, Sariwa, Nikki Shaw, Flavor Caterer, and Reem Assil, Reem's California.
More info:
Eventbrite
Facebook
Catch PKC at the Shifting Movements exhibit at SOMARTS Cultural Center celebrating the work and activism of Yuri Kochiyama. Visit and share your Kitchen Remedies with us! We'll be at the opening May 4th and Feminist Futures May 20th.
