Recipes and revolutions: consciousness-raising and feminist picnics

The intimate connection between food and feminism was well documented in the consciousness­raising groups of the second wave. This article discusses this connection in relation to the collaborative creative work by the LEVEL collective, 'We need to talk', an ongoing series of public workshops and feminist picnics. The project celebrates the melding of the political and personal through the sharing of food and ideas. As part of this, 'Recipe for a Revolution' was a public event held at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane in 2014, where participants devised a collective social ‘recipe’ by conversing and sharing food at a mass picnic. By bringing significant recipes and plates of food to the picnic rug, the participants connected through personal narratives. The project discussed the role food plays in women’s lives, whether the kitchen is a playground or the battleground that Miriam Schapiro described forty years ago, and how we can use the idea of the recipe – a shared set of ingredients and methods – to open up possibilities for activism and advocate for change.