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Community Corner

Food-Themed Events Revive Century-Old Cultural Movement

Chautauqua, a new series of events at 61 Local, aims to create community through food.

When a fellow environmentalist mentioned “chautauqua” to Derek Denckla last June, the word and the idea behind it, stuck with him.

Chautauqua was a series of assemblies started by two New Yorkers in the late 19th century that brought the social and political news of the day to people who lived in rural farming communities.

“It was like a high-brow circus,” says Denckla, a developer of real estate and social enterprises that focus on environmental sustainability. And after researching the movement, Denckla was hooked.

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“I liked the American tradition behind it," he says,  "It was a movement that combined culture and entertainment.”

And so, as part of his newest project FarmCity.US, an education and research project targeting urban agriculture, Denckla is reinterpreting the tradition into a series of urban gatherings where the dialogues and events taking place focus on one topic: food.

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The series, Chautauqua: Creating Community Through Food, kicks off at  in Cobble Hill on February 22.

There are 22 events scheduled for Chautauqua between late February and late July, and each is structured to forge community and culture through food.

“We’re setting out to alter people’s relationship with food,” Denckla says. "We want to collapse the distinction between consumer and producer."

A passive consumer of food, for instance, might be someone who buys junk food at a chain supermarket, Denckla says.

“That consumer can turn into a producer by recycling, or buying food at a farmer’s market, or hosting a dinner party. These are easy steps to take,” he says.

Artists who use food as their medium will present those sorts of ideas at Chautauqua.

One such artist, Brooklyn-based Tracy Candido is leading a series of four events called Community Cooking Club. Each session will provide participants with eight seasonal, locally-sourced recipes. Everyone in attendance will split into small groups and assist each other in the cooking process. Inexperienced cooks can learn from those who are more seasoned, says Candido, and more advanced cooks will benefit from passing along techniques to beginners.

“The program’s goal is not only to show people that they already know how to put a meal together,” says Candido, “But to empower them to trust in the cooperation of the group.”

Another artist, Clarinda Mac Low of Culture Push, Inc., will co-direct Tracing Trash, a two-part dialogue and installation aimed at sparking discussion about urban land use and food justice by examining food’s end: garbage. A team of urban designers, cooks, and artists will assist her in leading the program.

“We want to build a rapport with trash,” says Mac Low. “It’s a subject that’s often neglected.”

The program will feature several videos; one documents the artists’ attempts to convince people in public parks and on the street to give the artists their waste, another focuses on what Mac Low calls “gorilla composting.”

“The best places for waste are not always accessible to the public,” she says.

The goal of Tracing Trash, says Mac Low, is to get people “to think about waste with a sense of creativity and humor, instead of fear and shame.”

Other Chautauqua events include:

-- The Farm City Book Club put on by FarmCity.US, People’s Garden NYC founder Daniel Bowman Simon and the Brooklyn Food Coalition. The club will read and discuss books related to the sustainable food movement with a focus on urban agriculture.

-- Communal Table, a six-part series, explores how community can be built through food. The first event, Stone Soup, held on February 27, will begin with the reading of different versions of the well-known folk tale. Participants are invited to bring an ingredient and family recipe to add to the stone soup broth.

“We want to show that we don’t operate as individuals in a cocoon but as part of this tradition of food that affects everything we do,” says Deena Lebow, co-host of Communal Table’s suppers.

-- Process Dinner, a performance and meal put on by Brooklyn-based artist and community organizer Chloë Bass, consists of one recipe, deconstructed into its intermediate steps. Guests are encouraged to taste the individual flavors of each ingredient as they make the dish. 

-- Green Edge NYC, a social network focused on sustainability, will sponsor the Sustainability Speakers Series, which features individuals who are devoted to making sustainability part of their lives and communities.

-- The Culinary Historians of New York, the country’s second-oldest culinary history group, will present “Starving the South” by New School food studies professor Andrew F. Smith. The lecture, based on Smith’s book of the same name, will examine how food and food production “played a crucial role in the outcome of the Civil War,” says Smith.

While the original Chautauqua movement took place in tents on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in upstate New York, this urban rendition will be held at the new 61 Local, an old townhouse-turned-warehouse-turned-public house at 61 Bergen St. in Cobble Hill, which is dedicated to serving locally-produced beverages and food. The bar and eatery held its grand opening on February 12. 

A long bar made out of a substance called richlite, or compressed fiber, welcomes patrons walking in off the street. The names of artisan crafted beers and wines from nearby High Point Brewing Company, Red Hook Winery and Sixpoint Craft Ales are scribbled on the Brooklyn-shaped chalkboard behind 61 Local’s row of taps. The large, rustic venue with high ceilings, a collection of communal picnic tables, and light fixtures made from old glass carboys — containers used in the fermentation of beverages — seems custom-made for Chautauqua.

“This place should be a platform for artists," says owner Dave Liatti, who met Denckla at a FarmCity.US event last fall. "Derek’s concept is right in line with what we want to do.” 

The feeling is mutual.

“We wanted to be in a space that honors food, in a place that’s creating community,” says Denckla.

Chautauqua is a good fit for 61 Local and for the surrounding community, which is becoming increasingly food-centric, says Smith of The New School, who has lived in Brooklyn for 30 years.

“That’s why I wanted to get involved,” he says. “Chautauqua celebrates Brooklyn’s emergence into the food world.”

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All Chautauqua events are open to the public. Entrance fees ($5 - $40) will be charged at some events.

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