Tortilla Social in the city!

Last fall, artist Salvador Jiménez-Flores led his Creative City project Tortilla Social, a mobile, interactive community participatory visual art and culinary project throughout Boston. The goal was to gather neighbors and bilingual communities together at a series of print-making workshops, at Hyde Square Task Force in Jamaica Plain (September), at City Hall Square downtown (October), and at Urbano Project in Jamaica Plain (where Jiménez-Flores is also an artist in residence).

Participants young and old joined the artist for freshly-made tortillas and print-making on  custom-made, multi-functional tortilla presses, one dedicated to tortillas and the other for the visual art! During the workshops folks gathered, and through enjoying food and making collaborative art, neighbors shared conversations about what’s going on in the neighborhoods, including stories of immigration, gentrification, and inclusive access to all.

In December, Urbano opened Jiménez-Flores’ visual art exhibition—a collection of prints made throughout the workshopping process. At the opening reception, folks again shared food, enjoyed talking about the process, goings-on in the community, and more. In February, Tortilla Social hosted a community culinary experience and writing workshop at the Free School for Writing, combining the dialogue and artmaking of Tortilla Social with the discussion and narrative aspects of a bilingual writing workshop. Also in February, Tortilla Social traveled to the Mattapan branch of the Boston Public Library. With help of Grub Street, folks used creative writing to explore themes of food, home, and neighborhood.

Earlier this month Salvador presented the Tortilla Social documentary at Urbano Project. Tortilla Social was shot by Darren A. Cole and Faizal Westcott and edited by Darren A. Cole:

Tortilla Social continues April 12, 2018, at 6pm with the next workshop at Tufts University’s Aidekman Arts Center, located at 40 Talbott Avenue in Medford, MA.

Stay connected with Tortilla Social on Salvador Jiménez-Flores' website.

Tortilla Social was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts' Creative City Program, with funding from The Barr Foundation and with additional support from the Boston Foundation. Tortilla Social collaborated with community non-profit partners Urbano Project and Hyde Square Task Force in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood.