The community curators were invited to participate in Coconut, a series of workshops with theatre maker Ria Phatarphekar-Karmarkar. The workshops explore the experience of being ‘othered’ as a person of colour in the UK. In a safe setting, the group explored themes of othering, discrimination and racism, through the lens of community, food and culture. As well as a means of empowering each other through finding shared experiences, these conversations will inform Ria’s development of a participatory performance, which will take place around a dinner table.
Drawing upon her own experiences growing up in an Indian household, where mealtimes were for chatting, sharing, and bonding over a home cooked meal. Ria’s performance uses the framework of sharing a meal to unpick questions around feelings of belonging and home, and in particular, how this resonates in an adopted homeland where you often find yourself othered.
Read more about Coconut here