Community Recipe Book exhibit opening reception: FREE!

Outside the restored Peralta house in Peralta Hacienda Historical Park in East Oakland, Mien women from the mountains of Laos tend a small vegetable garden. Close by, many African American kids hang out with their friends. The two groups use the park more frequently than anybody else in the neighborhood. They seldom exchanged greetings, and did not know each other’s names, until a program focusing on sharing food, recipes and their life stories brought them together.

The Community Recipe Book, a museum exhibit at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, uses photos, recipes and life stories to document the process in which the elders and youth began to communicate with each other, as they participated in the park’s Landscape of Stories programs.

The exhibit will premiere Saturday, November 10, from 2-4 pm in the Peralta House, 2465 34th Ave, near the corner of Coolidge and Hyde in the vibrant Fruitvale District. The event will be a Community Banquet, with Mien and African American food for all. The event also includes performances, traditional Mien arts and crafts, and storytelling.