Collective Kitchens: Catalytic Urban Spaces for Socio-Political Change
David Isern, Associate Director for Academic Affairs at the School of Architecture, UIUC, will present as part of Planning at Illinois’s Spring Planning Colloquium.
In Lima, Peru, many disenfranchised, less affluent, and socially marginalized indigenous communities are in need of assistance. Their actions and initiatives have contributed to the development and growth of Lima over the last 80 years. This presentation will show how indigenous migrant women create and operate ollas and commedores populares, collective kitchens, in order to establish their presence and agency in the city, and how other political agencies have also used these collective kitchens as urban catalytic tools to affect Lima’s urban growth and change the political discourse. In the process, these ollas and comedores populares become spaces of insurgency that help refine, extend, and bring new perspectives to the idea of informality in Lima in relation to the socio-political configuration of the Peruvian capital.
This lecture will be held via Zoom. Contact Professor Sean Kennedy for details: seankenn@illinois.edu.