join us for public kitchen & dance court activations all summer long!

When: Every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 3-7pm from July 19 through October 12, 2024!

Where: the Strand Theater (map) and 545 Columbia Rd (map) right next door to the Strand

What: We invite you to come cook, eat, dance, relax, share a playlist or a recipe, be the DJ for an afternoon, kick a leg up, enjoy fresh food and aguas frescas, and more. Come experience and co-design these infrastructures with us!

Why: Communities of color have long been asked to live in other people’s spatial imaginaries. At ds4si, we want to re-imagine public life together. As an invitation into public imagination work, we invite you to experience and build with us two imagined community infrastructures: a summer-long public kitchen and dance court in Uphams Corner.

To re-imagine public life, we are asking questions like:

• What if kitchens were public like libraries?

• What if dance courts were part of the permanent landscape like basketball and tennis courts? How would they be used?

• How could your life change if you could access these types of places in your neighborhood every week?

Imagine… you could drop by a public kitchen like you can visit a library or park. Would you check out new recipes or cook with a neighbor? Would you bring a friend or go every week? If you knew you could always cook or eat at your local public kitchen, how would that change your everyday life?

The first Public Kitchen took place in 2012. It is a project designed by ds4si that invites community members to experience a not-yet-existing public infrastructure that could make their daily lives more vibrant, affordable and healthy. It is our experiment in addressing the stigma of “public,” while also capturing the imagination as to what strong public infrastructure could offer.

Imagine… you had a regular place to dance like you can play basketball or jog in the park. Would you go every Friday or dance with a neighbor? Would you learn new moves or people watch? If you knew you could always blast music and let loose at your local dance court, how would that change your everyday life?

Dance Court, an urban research and development project of the studio, aims to make dancing a part of everyday public life. Terry Marshall writes, “I figured ‘Outdoor party? Great!’ but after having visited it, I realized that it was much more. As someone of Caribbean background I know something about public life. It’s called Carnival. But that is a once-a-year big event. What if the mobile euphoric living experience that is carnival was to be had everyday? What if it was a part of everyday life in the same way that one can choose to play basketball or soccer with friends? How would life be different? This is the question that Dance Court poses.”