CONSUMING STORIES

Participants are asked to bring a homemade or store-bought dish inspired by a woman - from mother, mentor to friend - who reminds them of home or gives them the feeling of home. At Comida Casera events participants each take a turn sharing their story about a woman who has inspired their dish and who have had a meaningful impact on their lives and their relationship to the shared dish. After each story, the dish is passed to each guest to taste, and the women around the table consume both the food and the story as the dish circulates from hand to hand in an act of generosity and trust among both friends and strangers.

PROJECT BACKGROUND

The title of the project Comida Casera translates literally from Spanish to mean homemade food or food from home, it is also used as a way to describe comfort food. As a first generation American with parents born in Cuba and Colombia, in my experience food has been at the root of connection to both people and places of the past who link us with those of the present. The Comida Casera project was largely inspired by my mother and the homemade food she shared as an act of hospitality, generosity, celebration, mourning and tradition.

Although many women have not grown up cooking or with mothers who cooked, I believe we all share a relationship to food and its connection to the concept of home whether it be through a location, a feeling, or a person. The women who have participated in past events have brought dishes based on flavors of sweetness, bitterness, spiciness, sourness, and more as a way to describe a woman’s character.  Some women have brought dishes representing a particular place or culture, while others have brought dishes specifically made by or shared with the woman they were describing in their story.

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WHO

CREATed by evelyn rydz

Since 2016, Evelyn Rydz has hosted over 250 women to partake in communal meals made of diverse stories through her multigenerational community project, Comida Casera. Started in her backyard, Comida Casera is an ongoing nomadic project that has taken place at a variety of spaces in Miami and Boston - from universities, libraries, galleries, to backyards - and continues to travel.

For more information on previous projects please visit www.evelynrydz.com

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEL TAING

Mel Taing creates photos, video, and coordinates all project media for Comida Casera events since 2018. She is a Cambodian-American artist based in Boston. Mel received her BFA in Film/Video at Massachusetts College of Art & Design and is currently a Digital Imaging Specialist at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA.

For more on Mel’s work please visit www.meltaing.com