A view of a table with a brightly patterned tablecloth set with bowls of food.

People's Kitchen Collective; photo by Sana Javeri Kadri.

People’s Kitchen Collective

California
Social Practice
Bay Area Fellowship, 2022 - 2023
peopleskitchencollective.com

People’s Kitchen Collective (PKC) believes that hospitality can be radical and that food is a vital force for social change.

PKC are chefs, artists, educators, and cultural activists who feed the world they want to see.

Rooted in Octavia Butler’s Theory of Change, the legacy of the survival programs of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, and the survival of BIPOC peoples in diaspora, PKC now activates Earth Seed, a project that unfolds across California, meeting at the Headlands Center for the Arts. With Earth Seed, PKC enacts hospitality as a survival practice, cultivating mutual aid, and bolstering collective resistance in this time of transformation.

PKC works at the intersection of art and activism as a food-centered political education project. Based in Oakland, California, on occupied Ohlone land, their creative practices reflect the diverse histories and backgrounds of their crew and collaborators. They write: “Written in our families’ recipes are the maps of our migrations and the stories of our resilience. It is from this foundation that we create immersive experiences that honor the shared struggles of our people. We believe in radical hospitality as a strategy to address the urgent social issues of our time.”