Instagram story viewer> @activeculturesla> Tagged

Active Cultures

@activeculturesla

6.8K

followers

1709

following

LA-based arts org that explores the intersection of art, food, and ecologies.
🥑 11/7 & 11/8: Eva Aguila: Bajo la Huerta at @2220arts

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

150

2

Fuimos a cocinar y a compartir la mesa al gabacho con @cocina_colaboratorio @ehm90

Gracias infinitas por la invitación, gestión y cuidados @lauramfried @activeculturesla por juntar prácticas que retejen y reimaginan las relaciones comida-territorio en un lugar tan asfaltado que pa llegar al suelo toca cavarle mucho.

All the love to @edenbatki @greenartlaballiance @feministcenterforcreativework @metabolicstudio @semchale @odilia_yego @ambosproject
🌱🤎

205

16

Anakbayan Houston and HTX Made Presents are proud to take part in @falloffreedom, a nationwide call for artists to unite against authoritarianism, defend free expression, and refuse the criminalization of dissent. Artists, cultural spaces, and organizers across the country are activating from Oct 2-4 with film screenings and community discussions centered on combating fascism and modes of societal repression.

Our Houston event starts with LANGIT LUPA (2022), a documentary by Ami Lien and Enzo Camacho. The film is entered on survivor testimonies of the 1985 Escalante Massacre, when state-backed paramilitary forces opened fire on a peaceful rally of sugar workers, farmers, fisherfolk, students, urban poor, professionals, and church people on Negros Island in the Philippines, killing at least 20 and wounding many more. During the program, we will discuss the roots of fascist repression in the Philippines and the implications for working peoples in the U.S., the conditions driving resistance of peasant farmers in Negros in the past and to the present, and the important role of cultural work in supporting the struggle for liberation.

Huge thanks to @friendsgalleryhtx for generously hosting this event!

📍Friends Gallery | 7040 Harrisburg Blvd 77011
📆 Saturday, October 3
⏰ Doors 5:30 PM, dinner to follow screening
🔗 FREE w/ RSVP: Link in Bio / tinyurl.com/103langitlupa

October marks the start of Peasant Month. Our event reiterates the Land Is Life campaign call for genuine land reform as the solution to the suffering of the Philippines’ peasant farmers.

Check out the other Fall of Freedom events in Houston and nationwide! So many incredible gatherings are happening, all focused on discussing the rise of fascist repression and censorship, but within joyful communities of solidarity-building through conversation and creativity. We are proud to be one of many events this year!

#falloffreedom #phpeasantsmonth #justicefornegros19 #EnzoCamacho #AmiLien

3

3

this saturday 🌿 meet us at the @feministcenterforcreativework for the closing party of food: a convening, the very first festival from our dear friends and heroes of @activeculturesla !! we also hiiighly encourage your attendance at the actual delicious convening, taking place both friday & saturday, with incredible performances, presentations, workshops, and shared meals shaped by four themes: food as medium, system, archive, and territory.

we’re so moved by the work that active cultures does, and to close it all out we’ve asked our dear friends @maldonico_ & @susanapinedac to join us outdoors in the courtyard beside the FCCW for an evening of music, food, and camaraderie. nicolas and susana are two brilliant and beautiful artists in this potent and expansive community and we love to listen and collaborate with one another whenever a resonant moment arises.

enormously looking forward to this. @earth__poems will probably be dj’ing. the evening is free with rsvp via active cultures (link on our website) and we hope to see you!

📸 by @earth__poems

3

8

We’re heading to Los Angeles for FOOD: A Convening!

Our friends at Active Cultures @activeculturesla are bringing together artists, cooks, farmers, writers, and organizers working at the intersection of food, art, and ecologies. Across two days, the convening moves through performances, presentations, workshops, and shared meals, shaped around four themes: food as medium, system, archive, and territory.

Together, the convening looks at food as an artistic medium and site of critical research, as an ecological system and economic infrastructure, as an archive of embodied memory and cultural preservation, and as territory—the ground on which land return and the transmission of plant knowledge are being actively reclaimed and restored.

✨It’s open to the public, so come hang with us! RSVP in bio✨

September 25, 2026 at the Philosophical Research Society @philosophical_research_society The first day includes panel discussions, presentations, a workshop, and breakout session, with beverages by Senses Coffee Project @sensescoffeeproject and lunch prepared by Chef Gerardo Gonzalez.

We’re excited to be performing as part of FOOD AS MEDIUM:
What happens when food is not the subject of art, but the material of it? What kinds of political and cultural encounters become possible that other materials cannot stage?

It begins with a panel moderated by Nanette Orly @nanettekorly, with Eva Aguila @evaguila, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik @sitabhaumik (People’s Kitchen Collective), and Heidi Ross @halloumi_heidi, followed by a performance by us, Adobo-Fish-Sauce.

Plus many more programming and great folks!

See you in LA :)

92

6

Silverlake Star Party • Thur, Sept 24th : Members of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society will set up their telescopes for a closer look at the Moon and planets, with Slow Jams soundtracking the night alongside special musical guest Maeta’s World and beverages from local favorite Jason Wilson

FOOD: A Convening • Fri, Sept 25 : Active Cultures is bringing together artists, cooks, farmers, writers and organizers for a day of panels, performances, a workshop and shared meals.

Jazz at LACMA with Judy Wexler • Fri, Sept 25 : It’s the last Friday of LACMA’s summer jazz series. Judy Wexler is a Billboard- and JazzWeek-charting vocalist with 20 years of headlining festivals and clubs, and her latest album No Wonder spent 11 weeks on the national jazz radio chart. P.S. We’re camping out there hours before to secure a spot. Come picnic with the verci community.

check out the full list on vercilosangeles.substack.com !

photos by Gina Clyne, Mike Pham & Esther Woo

165

4

This week, we celebrate the Autumn Equinox through sound, symbol, and ritual starting with a special, immersive gathering, and continuing throughout the week with new art shows, more folk & fairy tale events, workshops, and obscure film screenings!

👉 Swipe to see the full lineup of special events, monthly happenings, and our weekly offerings!

For details and tickets, visit prs.org/events ✨

3

4

If, like @lauramfried, you’re someone who engages with food as a medium for education just as much as convening, chances are your camera roll is also filled with wholesome adventures and community outreach.

Catch Laura live with @activeculturesla - alongside other brilliant minds at their first ever FOOD: A Convening, a new pillar of their artistic program. A multi-day gathering, celebration and platform for art and food.

76

9

FOOD: A Convening arrives Friday, September 25, in Los Angeles at the Philosophical Research Society with panel discussions, presentations, a
workshop, and a breakout session, with beverages by senses coffee project and lunch by chef
Gerardo Gonzalez!

FOOD AS MEDIUM
What happens when food is not the subject of art, but the material of it? What kinds of political and cultural encounters become possible that other materials cannot stage?

A panel moderated by Nanette Orly, with Eva Aguila, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik (People's Kitchen Collective), and Heidi Ross. Performance by Adobo-Fish-Sauce

FOOD AS SYSTEM
How does food connect us to the living systems we depend on, and what does it mean when those systems fail? How might fungal networks and rural communities reshape those conditions from within?

Workshop led by Aaron Tupac (Exploring the Mycoverse). Presentation by Jack Forinash (Blue Sky Center)

FOOD AS ARCHIVE
What does food remember, and what does it allow us to remember? What happens to this knowledge when communities are displaced and cultural traditions are interrupted?

A panel moderated by Jean Trinh, with Nadia Barhoum (Thurayya), Martin Draluck (Black Pot Supper Club), and Ginny Hwang (SSI YA GI)

FOOD AS TERRITORY
Who has the right to land, to food, to knowledge, and what does the work of reclaiming those rights look like in practice, not as a concept but as ongoing, daily work?

Presentation by Vincent Medina & Louis Trevino (mak-warép Ohlone Land Conservancy)

Tickets and full schedule available via @activeculturesla

Active Cultures is a public arts nonprofit in Los Angeles that explores the intersection of art,
food, and ecologies through artist-led projects and programs

3

5

“The song itself is not as important as the communal knowledge process that produces it.” - Tyson Yunkaporta, Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
 An ecotone is a zone of transition where two different ecological communities, habitats, or ecosystems meet and blend together. It’s a unique environment that fosters biodiversity, and whether we’re hiking between the coastal sage scrub & oak woodlands of our surrounding mountains, tide pooling in the intertidal zones of land and sea, or gathering upon the urban-wildland interface of a nuanced situation like the LA River, we’re conversing in the ecological negotiation that is life in Los Angeles.

While being a grounding frame to view the interdependent ecosystems of this city, it’s also a poetic narrative in how we approach our gatherings. From a historic Japanese Garden to a State Historic Park, community gardens to habitat restoration sites, and partnerships that span from food to puppetry, we understand ‘tone’ as an invitation to explore both the social and natural ecologies of Los Angeles through music and art. Some of life’s most meaningful moments occur in the overlap.

All power to the imagination ❤️‍🔥

3

3

In early Spring, I spent two months in rural Sicily, an experience that has changed me in ways I’m still discovering.

During my final week there, Food Mythologies shined its first light during a writing workshop with the ever-inspiring @rachelaliceroddy and @cook.the.farm

When I returned home and began (still!!!) unpacking the things I learned, tasted, and felt, these ideas took shape in the form if a short story and essay.

At the start of this month, I had the good fortune and opportunity to breathe life into these pieces in collaboration with many people I admire (@liana.aghajanian @diaspora.peoplesplace @cjadallah to name a few!)… another experience I won’t soon forget, and what feels just like the beginning of something not yet in focus, but slowly revealing itself.

🌀🌀🌀

Still sitting with immeasurable gratitude for the skilled hands, thoughtful voices, and intentional care that went into making the evening so special:

@activeculturesla
@arlingtonpasadena
@albaraka.413
@livingearth.la
@hrdwrker
@lauramfried
Neko Natalia

And last (but certainly not least!) the wonderful @nanettekorly @soniaalizghoul @leilamackenzie12 for being my guiding light, support system, and incredible friends/humans these last few months 💌

Photos by Tito Molina @hrdwrker

225

20

FOOD MYTHOLOGIES —— @activeculturesla august program was led by oakland-based chef + designer michelle nazzal. the evening unfolded in three parts: a panel discussion, self-guided garden walk + dinner by anaheim’s beloved al baraka, set within in the olive grove at arlington garden.
•
liana aghajanian, chris jadallah & soha yassine joined michelle to talk about food traditions passed down through generations, those still practiced, and those that have faded, starting with the food memories that anchor them and the people (everyone’s grandma) who first taught them to cook. the conversation moved into what it means to be severed, from land, elders, language, and what it means to rebuild across diaspora, not just for nostalgia sake, but to remember in new ways the world they want to see now and in future. reflections on how land cannot be separated from food followed, as both are currently being weaponised through genocide, occupation and displacement across ancestral homelands. the panel closed with resonating words: never stop talking about palestine, support small family-owned businesses in the diaspora, and to always remember the hands that made the food, for generations.
•
after a walk through the gardens, guided by a resource designed by michelle, we all returned to the olive grove for a meal by al baraka ft. mlokhya, musakhan, roz bil shareya, falafel, yalanji, fattoush & more!
•
thank you to everyone who joined us on this hot summer eve! thank you to @arlingtonpasadena for hosting, @albaraka.413 for catering, @livingearth.la for sound + @hrdwrker for documentation. thank you to emory + jonathan for the extra hands, and to @leilamackenzie12 active cultures’ getty marrow curatorial intern, we really loved working with you this summer!
•
thank you @liana.aghajanian @cjadallah @sohfresh for your reflections. and ofc michelle… a massive thank you for your thoughtfulness, criticality and generosity these past few months, it has been a dream come true to work with you and i can’t wait to see what’s next for @mishmishsouq ~ 🌀

3

8