Clockshop and Active Cultures are pleased to present a critical conversation and tasting with Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino of mak-’amham/Cafe Ohlone, alongside culinary anthropologist Claudia Serrato. This gathering will create a space to reflect upon the pre-colonial palate, future forward land and agricultural practices, and cultivate a more cognizant, decolonial approach to consumption. Claudia will join Louis and Vincent in a discussion exploring taste-memory and the ways the palate is shaped by colonial infringements. Through this conversation and communal tasting, this program presents a multi-sensorial experience which highlights specific indigenous ingredients and cooking techniques, allowing taste, smell, and memory to invoke the speculative possibilities of survival and revitalization.

Doors open at 3:30 PM, program begins promptly at 4 PM.

The tasting and conversation will be hosted outdoors at Clockshop.

We are honored to host Vincent, Louis, and Claudia and look forward to a season of continued conversations and convenings that explore alternative visions for land stewardship, underscoring the critical work of farmers, cooks, and artists whose practices embody the past and exist in the present, to make way for a liberatory future.

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Vincent Medina is East Bay Ohlone and is the captain of ‘Itmay Cultural Association—an association of Verona Band culture bearers. Vincent was born and lives in his family’s indigenous tribal area of Halkin (Southern Oakland/San Leandro/San Lorenzo/Hayward). Vincent and Louis Trevino (Rumsen Ohlone) co-founded mak-‘amham, an organization and restaurant focused on reviving and strengthening traditional Ohlone foods and sharing them back with their communities.

Louis Trevino is a leader in the Rumsen Ohlone community. He is focused primarily on the revitalization of the Rumsen language and traditional Ohlone foods. He longs for a full and holistic renaissance of the lifeways of his ancestors, including language, story, song, art, food, and every other aspect of traditional Rumsen Ohlone culture, and he is grateful to contribute to the effort. With his partner, Vincent, Louis co-founded mak-‘amham, which works to promote traditional Ohlone foods within their families, as well as to educate the public about Ohlone cuisine and identity.

Claudia Serrato is an Indigenous culinary anthropologist, a public scholar, a doctoral candidate, and a professor of ethnic studies and will serve as the Project Advisor for the series. Since 2014 Claudia has been actively involved in the Native food justice and sovereignty movement and has been cooking alongside prominent Indigenous chefs at cultural food gatherings, summits, and pop-ups throughout Turtle Island (North America). Claudia was a featured chef at the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society Conference in 2018 and in 2015 was granted an honorary title of sous-chef de cuisine by the Native American Culinary Association.

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