Abstract

In Performance Research

An Archipelago of Aid: Embodied hungers and networks of civic support in the pandemic-stricken Philippines
Oscar T. Serquiña, Jr

“We’ve Never Done This Before”: Creative methodologies to food justice in crisis and beyond
Jen Rae

Hunger Action Now: The Art Relief Mobile Kitchen
Jazmin Llana with Alex Baluyut and Precious Leano

In Global Performance Studies

Politics as performance: A performative reading of the Chilean ‘ollas populares’ and the fight against hunger in Chile
Paulina Bronfman and Pamela Soto García

Ampersand Aesthetics: Spatula&Barcode’s Foodways Philippines
Laurie Beth Clark and Michael Peterson

“It’s nourishment we need, not just food”: Contrasting experiences in South and North America to alleviate systemic and emergent hunger during COVID-19 pandemic
Alvaro Adib Barreiro, Nithya Attipetty, Geraldine Garcia-Matas, Belén Banegas, Silvana Juri, and Mariana Meerhoff

The second section of each journal takes up hunger action, a term that refers to efforts on many scales to intervene in the material impact of insufficient or inadequate food supply. As mentioned, the conference foregrounded hunger action over metaphoric deployments of the term and so did the call for proposals. We were happy to receive seven essays and a short story that take up this challenge, with four focusing on responses during the pandemic and three attending to ongoing feeding programmes.

Hunger action: Pandemic

Oscar Serquiña describes the community pantries that proliferated in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic in a critical reconsideration of how this scattered and spontaneous form of civic engagement mirrors the archipelagic formation of the Philippines and deviates from the patronizing logics of philanthropy.

Also considering grassroots actions, Paulina Bronfman and Pamela Soto Garcia look at a traditional communitarian activity in Chile—community meals made entirely by volunteers with food donated or collected by members of the community—for its potential to contribute new conceptual grammars and vocabularies to the disciplines of politics and performance.

Jen Rae demonstrates how it is possible to build a community around a systemic problem such as food justice. By narrating her work with Sally Beattie at Fawkner Food Commons during the pandemic, she shares lessons learned about creative crisis response that can help foster a more adaptive and responsive food system.

Finally, in their collaboratively authored study, a team of social scientists, artists and activists (Adib Barreiro et al.) compare pandemic responses in food insecure communities in the United States and Uruguay with the goal of developing a stronger and more resilient food system. Particularly interesting is how certain responses depended on government structures while others depended on social solidarity.

Hunger action: Ongoing

In this section, Jazmin Llana interviews the artists Precious Leano and Alex Baluyot about their work with Art Relief Mobile Kitchen, which, since 2013, has mobilized artists to respond to crises that include typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruption and state terrorism by serving meals.

Laurie Beth Clark and Michael Peterson detail the work of their art collaborative Spatula&Barcode who, in collaboration with Jazmin Llana, joined forces with ongoing hunger mitigation efforts in the Philippines to bring “a little something extra” to the table.