[-empyre-] to end the month: The Rum Cake Brigade

[Renate Terese Ferro]

Renate wrote: 
<snip>
Ironically my art studio looks
out onto my garden Stefani and I have often wondered just why I do not spend
more time thinking about the relationship between food and art.
<snip>

Amanda wrote:
<snip> 
But I am also struck by how many of our discussants are incorporating their art practices into a daily-lived experience, or maybe it’s the other way around: their lived experiences become part of their life-as-art.
<snip>  

Thank you Amanda, Stefani, Marina, Hernani, Shu Lea, Amy, Mary, Nicole, Leila, Jodi, and Shilpa for sharing your work with –empyre- this past month.  As we close out our discussion I wanted to share with you and our list-serve a networked food project that I have been working on for a few months that attempts
to merge food, art and politics. Conceived in solidarity and support with anti-drone activist, peace activist, and culinary extraordinaire Mary Anne Grady Flores, I conceived the mission of The Rum Cake Brigade to be twofold.  The most immediate would be a vehicle to raise support for Mary Anne. For me Mary Anne has been merging food with social justice issues with a generous, community spirit since the 1990’s. For her it began with local fund-raisers that merged serving food with social fund-raising causes.
 

Mary Anne Grady Flores has been serving Caribbean, Central and South American style cuisine to members of the Ithaca community since that time via her catering company, La Cocina Latina. At the close of every meal she serves the most delectable rum cake imaginable. Simultaneously, Mary Anne is involved in
vibrant protest activity including anti-war and environmental causes, to fracking, and anti-drone protests.  She made national headlines this past year for her anti-drone activity centered at nearby Syracuse Hancock Airbase for her participation in protesting and taking photographs of protesters.  Mary Anne has faced serious unjust charges which have sent her to jail twice. This case is currently out on appeal. You can learn more about the charges against her here in this National Press Coverage.

Drones of Upstate New YorK
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/%23search/Mary+Anne+Grady+Flores/152f55f9256e4b63?projector=1

 
Bill Moyers:
 http://billmoyers.com/story/a-drone-protestor-heads-to-jail/

 Democracy Now exclusive web
 interview: http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/19/web_exclusive_drone_war_protester_mary

 
Democracy Now update
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/3/8/headlines/peace_activist_mary_anne_grady_flores_released_from_jail_after_49_days

 
These recent events have put a financial and emotional strain on Mary Anne and her family. As an artist and friend I wanted to not only help Mary Anne financially to help cover her lawyer’s fees and income she has lost while she has been fighting these charges but at the same time to join Mary Anne’s mission in educating the public about drone activity and its affect collaterally on innocent civilians.
 

In solidarity with Grady Flores’ dedication to peace and drone awareness The Rum Cake Brigade is a fun, social, community oriented project. This grassroots network locates itself locally and fans out.  Personally I have committed to making 52 rum cakes over the course of this year for anyone who will join The Rum Cake Brigade. The rum cake becomes an object that activates a cultural exchange network.   By joining,  each participant promises to serve the cake and
distribute information about the US drone reaper action in their state and the plight of many peace activists who are awaiting sentencing and jail. We have also set up a Go Fund Me site for anyone interested in helping Mary Anne financially. The Rum Cake Brigade will be a growing list of willing
partakers who enjoy food and the delectable associations it raises but who will also agree to activate an exchange of anti-drone information.  This exchange while locating itself within the social and political art realm is intended to fan out beyond the scope of that world.
 

I am sharing the rum cake recipe and anti-drone information with anyone who wants to join the Rum Cake Brigade. www.rumcakebrigade.com 
will be launched on April 5th. The Rum Cake Brigade will be hosting a major community fundraiser for Mary Anne Grady-Flores at the end of April. Soon  a You Tube video on how to make a rum cake will be launched for anyone who wants to learn how to make a rum cake. Additionally, I am looking for art venues across the US who might also want to host a Rum Cake Brigade event. While we hope that our local activities will be short term and plan to continue them only until Mary Anne’s case is resolved and she herself is able to make rum cakes and serve then once again in her kitchen at La Cocina Latina, we anticipate that the educational outreach we are able to do on her behalf is long-lasting.

 
So for me the connection between art, activism and food has been an energizing one. In my kitchen in upstate New York I have been imagining the spokes of the rum cake pan as a replacement for the radiating spokes of the flying drone. The dense butter, eggs and rum concoction replace the deadly explosives
that the drone carries.  My mixer replaces the joystick that activates the explosive.  Food, fun, laughter, and information exchange elevates the status of the Rum Cake to activate a network of information about the unmanned military drone program that has escalated locally and globally. While local drone activity occurs at nearby Hancock International Airport Military Base, it is growing exponentially across the globe. At these bases pilots remotely control drone surveillance and attacks with video game-like displays and joysticks.  Though intended for serious terrorist threats such as ISIS, there is evidence that misfires and poor surveillance has hit unintended, innocent civilians.
 

For more information about the Rum Cake Brigade email me for now
 rferro at cornell dot edu.
 

The website www.rumcakebrigade.com will up launched in a few days.  There you will be able to order cakes, access the recipe, learn more about Mary
Anne’s case, and become educated about military drone reapers. I will close for now in solidarity with Mary Anne.  With warmest thanks to all of you who shared
your projects this month, most especially Amanda who has been an incredible moderator and has orchestrated this month’s discussion so brilliantly.
 
Renate


Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor
College of Architecture, Art and Planning
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall 306