Free Brunch Program. Social Practice
The Free Brunch Program started in 2017, as a portion of a commission for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Asked to explore themes of Land Sovereignty, I designed a day-long People’s Assembly, including workshops, performances, and a no-cost brunch.
For the next year I produced free brunches in 4 U.S. cities, and concluded the following: hunger can often be an invisible suffering. And there is more than enough food for everyone to eat.
“I have never seen anyone create such beauty and dignity in the containers made to receive. A level of aesthetic attention and rigor illuminates how Charlyn's practice merges art-making and cultural sharing practices.”
— Angel Edwards, artist
Food could be free.
And I do as my ancestors tell me.
While the language of “mutual aid” came into great popular circulation during the height of the COVID-19 lockdowns, my compulsion towards feeding people has been a longstanding practice.
Called a “Thanksgiving”, a table is set with fruits and foods of all types. Candies for the playful, oranges cut in half and drizzled with honey for the sensuous, candles of all colours, flickering flames setting warm glows upon slices of cakes with white icing, and large skirts twirling around as large brass bells sound. The society that values giving praise for granted supplications raised a person who believes that food abundance heals many ailments of the spirit. And in that society, I have felt safe. My art-making begs me to make a world like this, full of beauty and overflowing tables, so that others might eat.