CURRENT:LA Food Los Angeles Arts Triennial The Town Oven: A series of workshops celebrating old-world bread ovens and international bread expressions. The public built an adobe oven in a city park and then women from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Ethiopia, Costa Rica and El Salvador taught workshops in producing breads from their countries of origin.

The Silk Road Supper Collective: Tracing Rice (virtual): Women in food share recipes inspired by their heritage and you prepare them at home! his Silk Road Supper Collective menu makes pitstops in kitchens around the globe and reminds us that while we are confined to our separate domiciles, we are still woven together by mutual reliance on variations of the same themes. Option to purchase a Narrative Food ingredient box. Illustrations by Ashley Leon. Design by Kiana Toosi.

Design and curation, Spice Experience curriculum including Loomis Library Spice Club. Customized spice curriculum for library and cultural institution patrons including botanical and cultural history of spices, fresh, high-quality spice samples as well as recipes and live video demonstrations with chefs from around the world.

Program curation, Pansa del Publico wood-fired oven public programs. Partners: Clockshop, OxyArts, Eddie Rodolfo Arapacio and Michelle Lainez.

Vision Zero Roscoe public art activation in collaboration with Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Pacoima Beautiful, Kaiser Permanente and Cottonwood Farm

A week-long, “intervention” in a neighborhood plagued by traffic death. I designed programs to give the neighborhood a chance for expression and healing. Commissioned by Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

Mini-residency at Pacoima City Hall, April, Local Food: Then and Now. Partners: Big City Forum, Mia Wasilevich

This series of free workshops in Pacoima invited neighbors to back up in time and explore the foods that grew in the area hundreds of years ago. The city is home to an underserved population and is considered a food desert and these conversations and sensorial experiences gave us the opportunity to explore the genesis of food injustice in our lives.

Program curator: Nibble on your Neighborhood Partners: Craft and Folk Art Museum, Josey Baker, Mia Wasilevich and Craftsman Brewing.

This one-night program united local expert food foragers, renowned paper-makers, a wild yeast brewer and a wild yeast baker for a awesome night of activating wild food in multiple ways. Press coverage from Vice Muchies here.

Silk Road Supper Collective Dinner, May 2019. Photo credit Leah Choi

Cultural program curation and community advocacy, organizing and public dialogue around issues of gentrification in Little Ethiopia, Los Angeles. Ongoing programs https://www.lecrc-la.com

International program curation of the Los Angeles Portal. In partnership with Shared Studios, Community Services Unlimited and the artists Maryam Hosseinzadeh and Aparna Bahkle. Programs included facilitated dialogue between women touched by gang violence in Los Angeles and Minneapolis as well as chefs working with heritage corn in both Los Angeles and Mexico City.

Instructor, Otis School of Art and Design Creative Action Department www.otis.edu/creative-action-integrated-learning

COAST Santa Monica Festival 2018: The 100-Foot Table

In partnership with Community Arts Resources (CARS), The City of Santa Monica, Los Angeles Food Policy Council Executive Director Clare Fox and artist Marianne Sadowski

Arts intensive curriculum design with the Los Angeles Gang Reduction and Youth Development Program

This month-long intensive arts program designed by Leyna Lightman immersed a group of ten teenagers in the Los Angeles contemporary arts landscape. Working artists, ceramicists, photographers, painters and designers guided the teens in a series of workshops at the South Central Gang Reduction and Youth Development community center. The experience culminated with a 40-foot mural on a wall of a local elementary school.

Heirloom Corn Workshop at Blue Sky Center for Sustainable Living

An Evening at the Craft and Folk Art Museum From Earth, to Farm, to Grain, to Table

Led by artist Leyna Lightman,  an eclectic group of makers gathers to lead participants in activating every part of a single local farm. We will learn about harvesting grain, foraging clay, baking bread, beer brewing, and creating their ceramic pieces. We're even using the clay the grain grew in to make vessels for baking bread. This event is a one-time evening thing, but the relationships between the players are deeply inspiring and compelling.

Dinner for sixty at Blue Roof Studios celebrating Big City Forum

Dinner designed and curated by Leyna Lightman. Food by Root Down LA, Kandarian Organic Farms-grown Emmer Wheat three ways (beer, bread and grain salads) by Craftsman Brewing and Ceor Baking.

Bike and Brew Partner: The Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University

The public brewed a communal pot of beer in the museum galleries. We powered the burner with homemade electricity by biking. Local hop farmers brought long hop bines to the event and we touched and smelled them and talked to the growers. We also popped fresh hops right into the brew.

Curriculum Design, Micheltorena Elementary School and Community Garden

 

ONGOING AFFILIATIONS:

Founding Member, California Grain Campaign www.californiagrains.com

Board member, Barnsdall Arts http://www.fojac.org