Slow Cooking Live

“Food, culture, people and landscape are all absolutely inseparable.” -Anthony Bourdain

Two special ‘An Evening with…’ style live events, with home-made food sharing and conversations with artists Selina Thompson and Toni-Dee on Friday 14 June and Sonia Sandhu on Saturday 15 June at 3 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 8 p.m. BST (London, UTC +1).

Hosted by Xavier de Sousa and video work directed by Richard Warburton, Slow Cooking Live is a live podcast-video art experiment, inviting artists who have a history of migration and also work with food-making and food-sharing as creative tools. Together, they spent the day buying food from local markets and independent shops, cook together and then traveled to Theatre in the Mill to share it all with you. 

Cooking recipes that are relevant to the guests’ own cultural background (or their favorite foods), Selina, Toni-Dee and Sonia will discuss the origins of the food, the impact on their communities and how they have incorporated it into their creative practices.

Food-sharing is an act deeply connected to our ideas of home, nourishment, and community. Whether we are following a recipe in our kitchens, watching cooking shows on our mobile phones, or sharing recipes with loved ones on phone calls, cooking can bring us closer to ourselves and others. However, historically the relationship between Western countries and food sharing has been one of colonial rule, often used to deprive Global South communities of their own produce and local resources, to enrich the colonial trade practices of the Global North. The lasting effects of the transatlantic theft of food and natural resources is today one of the biggest impacts on climate change.

Slow Cooking is a multi-dimensional project created by Xavier de Sousa and Richard Warburton, with the participation of artists ESTABRAK, Selina Thompson, Toni-Dee Paul, Sonia Sandhu, Rebecca Moradalizadeh, Guya, and Untethered Magic. Sound work and editing is led by Olive Mondegreen.

Slow Cooking is produced by Lee Smith and Production Managed by Lydia Tissier, with technical and space design support by Ivan Mack. Digital broadcasting by HowlRound Theatre Commons.

Commissioned and platformed by Theatre in the Mill and performingborders, broadcasted by HowlRound Theatre Commons, and supported by METAL Peterborough, Untethered Magic, A Leste Studio, CITEMOR Festival, The Uncultured, Migrant Projects CIC, Bradford University. Additional funding by Arts Council England.

Captions will be provided in English by the National Captioning Institute. 

Friday 14 June with Selina Thompson and Toni-Dee

Saturday 15 June with Sonia Sandhu

Bios

Selina Thompson is an artist and writer whose work has been shown and praised internationally. Her practice is chiefly concerned with grief, love, and the world to come, and she seeks to make work that is visually striking and lyrical, even while grounded in politics. She has led the company since its inception in 2016, and is primarily concerned with it centering those historically excluded by the arts, without compromising on rigor or experimentation. She won the ISPA Distinguished Artist award in 2023, and her credits both with and outside of the company include BBC4, BBC Radio 3, The Royal Court Theatre, The Public Theater, and BAM as well as theatres across the UK, Europe, South and North America, and Australia.

Toni-Dee Paul is an independent artist working across form, a writer (In Other Words, Field Notes), workshop leader, facilitator, collaborator, and "thinker-in-the room". Her current body of work, made with ‘infectious warmth’ (Exeunt) is a series of performances & installations made for cemeteries, refugee centres, kitchens, churches, and theatres. Since 2015 she has been commissioned by Fuel Theatre for the New Theatre In Your Neighbourhood project, been a contributing story group writer for climate justice project Hello X, created performance as public intervention for Queerly Departed, and presented works in SICK Festival, Queer Migrant Takeover, and Works Ahead. Currently, she’s working on ‘Doze,’ a chronic-illness centered project exploring rest as resistance. Outside of her artistic practice, Toni facilitates new approaches to care and wellbeing for other artists, is associate director at Selina Thompson Ltd, and associate artist of award winning company One Tenth Human making intricate, intimate, and wildly entertaining live imaginative events for children and families. Toni also facilitates part-mutual-care-part-art-making-part-activism project Balmy Army and is a trustee of Leeds-based international performance festival Transform.

Sonia Sandhu is a Bradford born & based chef, artist & creative producer. She brings her experiences of working across the charity sector with marginalised communities to her creative practice. Trained to gourmet standard vegan cookery, and inspired by food from her Indian heritage and travels, storytelling & connection through food informs her creative practice. She has worked on projects with Common Wealth Theatre Co, Marlborough Productions, BEACON, The Brick Box, Displace Yourself Theatre, Theatre in the Mill & Bradford Producing Hub. 
 

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.