A new creative arts project wants your food stories!

    Foodstories has officially landed in Manchester, NH (And please share your stories!)

    The Manchester Arts Commission has recently voted to fund and support a new project, “Foodstories – We Are What We Eat: Intersections Between Food, Memory, Identity, and Our Stories.” In its mission to promote all forms of art and culture within the City of Manchester, the support of this new project in the Queen City. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen recently approved the Manchester Arts Commission’s vote to support the project.

    I am interested in collecting stories here, within New Hampshire and beyond. The concept of Foodstories has been brewing for a long time given my background in my work bringing together agriculture, business and arts within the Slow Living Summit in Vermont to my work in public health, arts administration, and other sectors in other states. The purpose of foodstories is to explore the idea that food can be a bridge to who we are as individuals and as a human collective. Food – whether we love sharing meals with others or a particular dish we like or dislike — food intersects with our sense of identity, culture, and so many other aspects of who we are as people. What is more human than our relationship to food?

    The stories that I am collecting range from the complicated to the warm and fuzzy with an opportunity for individuals to remain anonymous in their sharing. In addition to the support of the Manchester Arts Commission, the project includes formal partnerships with the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts (NHBCA), the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and Radically Rural. Foodstories events are taking place in collaboration with groups or institutions like Southern New Hampshire University, The Aplomb Project, and New Hampshire Humanities. However, this is not the end of connecting Foodstories within the community. I am interested in other groups or organizations who may be interested in helping me gather stories through the physical cards or re-sharing the information through their networks, websites, newsletters, etc.

    The information that I am collecting will culminate in a multi-artist, multidisciplinary exhibition in the later this year in a location yet to be determined in Manchester, NH. Here is how you can share your story or get involved:

    To share your story or if you are a group/organization interested in helping to collect stories, visit: Foodstories: Intersections of Food, Memory and Identity.

    If you have more questions, send a simple email or inquiry to S.Lee@shantalee.com

    For up-to-date information about Foodstories, the overall project, and upcoming events is shared on: Facebook.com/foodstories2025/.

    About Foodstories 
    "Foodstories -We Are What We Eat: Intersections Between Food, Memory, Identity and Our Stories" is connected to the idea that food can be a bridge into who we are as individuals and as cultures while also creating community. Our relationship with food intersects with our sense of identity, culture, class, religion, and other aspects of our human identity. Shanta Lee is collecting stories from individuals about their food memories from any part of their life as a part of her National Arts Strategies Creative Community Fellowship. Shanta Lee is an award-winning writer across genres, a visual artist and public intellectual actively participating in the cultural discourse with work that has been widely featured. Winner of the NEPC Individual Grant for Poetic Achievement and the Abel Meeropol Social Justice Writing Award, she was the creator and producer of Vermont Public’s “Seeing...the Unseen and In-Between within Vermont’s Landscape.” Shanta Lee is the author of several books and actively exhibits her photography. To learn more about Shanta Lee’s work, visit: Shantalee.com
    Local artist and author Shanta Lee.
    More about Shanta Lee
    Shanta Lee is an award-winning writer across genres, a visual artist and public intellectual actively participating in the cultural discourse with work that has been widely featured. Winner of the NEPC Individual Grant for Poetic Achievement and the Abel Meeropol Social Justice Writing Award, she was the creator and producer of Vermont Public’s “Seeing...the Unseen and In-Between within Vermont’s Landscape.” 

    Subscribe to receive your free daily eNews + a note from the Ink Link publisher.

    We don’t spam!