Routes and Roux: The Stories We Serve

Routes and Roux: The Stories We Serve | Community Potluck and Storytelling Circle with Garden of Nicola

Date: Sunday, May 31, 2026

Time: 1-4PM

Location: Patterson Park, Corner of Eastern Ave and S Ellwood Ave

As a roux slowly turns and thickens, deepening in color and warmth, it becomes a foundation you can feel. Materialized and compounded by every shared meal, teaching, and setting, our routes move with that same intention, shaping stories that root us. Join us in reflecting on the wisdom, tastes, and memories stored in food, and how they serve as intimate tellings of our journeys thus far.

An activation of Hope & Faith’s exhibition You Can Always Come Back Home, Routes and Roux: The Stories We Serve explores stories of culinary roots, meals that feel like home, and the healing that’s possible through a shared meal in and with community. Led by Garden of Nicola, participants are invited to bring an optional dish of significance and can expect intentional conversation starters, a live food demo, and an exploration of Nicola’s unique Southern African diasporic culinary roots featuring meals and flavors that transcend time and distance.

1:00 – 1:45 PM: Introductions and live food demo by Garden of Nicola

1:45 – 3:15 PM: Meals and Conversations

3:15 – 3:30 PM: Closing reflections and recipe share

3:30 – 4:00 PM*: Tour of You Can Always Come Back Home in the Creative Alliance Main Gallery with Hope & Faith McCorkle

This event is in connection with the exhibition You Can Always Come Back Home by Hope and Faith McCorkle in Creative Alliance’s main gallery. The event will start promptly at 1 PM.

About the Facilitator:

Garden of Nicola is the integrated practice of Nicola Uatava (wuh-too-vah), a Baltimore-based experiential educator, mother, and student working across public health, culinary arts, and curation. Grounded in relationship, her work moves from community-based projects and youth programming to recent explorations in narrative filmmaking centered on portraiture and motherhood.

You Can Always Come Back Home exhibition and programming is supported by a 2025 Rubys Artist Grant, which is a program of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. https://www.rwdfoundation.org