The First Table
a narrative dinner with Johnny Chanthavong
For AG's first food experience, culinary storyteller, writer, and artist Johnny Chanthavong prepared a speculative story and accompanying dinner on what might have happened if Indonesian mariners, who had advanced shipbuilding and navigational skills in the 1600s, made their way to North America, and what foods might have resulted from a meeting of Southeast Asian and Indigenous American cultures. The menu also paid homage to the enduring impact of Indigenous American ways of life and use of local ingredients.
A handmade booklet in an edition of 36 was created in conjunction with event to share his story, recipe, and to commemorate this memorable evening.
Johnny's work lives at the crossroads of cooking, storytelling, performance, and socially engaged art. We're so glad we were able to bring this unique practice to our space and to share this special meal with so many generations.
Johnny Chanthavong is a culinary storyteller who works with what food has always been: a carrier of memory, a space for ritual, a way we make home together. Examining the origins of spices, herbs, techniques, and flavors, he opens portals to different times and places in human history, tracing how meals connect us to our ancestors and to one another. Growing up Lao-Thai American near the Merrimack River instilled a deep respect for the meals his family holds dear, and shapes how he contextualizes displacement, migration, and what it means to build belonging in places that weren't designed for us.
He approaches food with the eye of a storyteller: What histories live in this dish? Whose hands shaped this technique? How do we honor the traditions we've inherited while creating new rituals of our own? Drawing on over a decade in live event production and a practice rooted in culinary anthropology, Johnny creates experiences that slow down, honor presence, and make space for the stories we carry. Whether through writing, performance, or gathering around a table, his work is an invitation to remember that every meal is already sacred—we just need to pay attention.
still/
motion
a queer forward garden party and portrait session
Airtight Garage returned for its second pop up with still/ motion, a gathering of photography, music, and performance celebrating the kinetic and mutable journey of queer identity, co-organized with Lisa Gorelik. Photographers Rhea and Rachel were in the studio taking individual beauty shots and chosen family portraits. In the garden, DJs Rayvino and kutta.royalty played dynamic live sets complimented by a performance from local movement and sound collective, dolphin vanity project.
Rayven, or DJ RAYVINO, was born and based in Dorchester with Honduran and African-American roots. They have dedicated themself to building a name on joy that feels radical, crafting sets that move from all types of genres that center Blackness, from disco to footwork, from house to brazilian phonk. DJ RAYVINO is committed to making safe spaces for Black trans femmes with creating events safe for all types of backgrounds and by bringing people together through the power of connection, community, and love using music! DJ RAYVINO’s intention behind curating and deejaying is to create a harm and judgment-free safe space for Black non-binary & femmes to have fun.
dolphin vanity project is a movement and sound noise based collective rooted in communication with the unsound/undead. DVP de-centers colonial history, thought, and intent and recenters the communal whole and our relationship to the land. DVP incorporates synthesizer, sampling and movement based practices influenced by mimodrama, butoh, kabuki theatre, opera, dance, and the idea of the body as antennae. as an act of transgressive social theater we create a space for marginalized audiences/artists to claim agency and catharsis. we believe in a collaborative and non-hierarchical artistic process developed by and for every artist's individual body/experience.
Kutta.royalty is part organizer, dj and urbanist, they do it all for their queer and trans siblings in the Boston area. Their DJing style is focused on global beats, hip hop and blending genre
Lisa Gorelik is a Boston-based organizer, bioethicist, and artist exploring dynamic ideas of community & queerness.
Rhea is an organizer, researcher, and photographer based in the Boston area with roots in the South. Their work is grounded in making photography and archiving accessible, collaborative, fun, and for the people by the people. Their visual practice revolves around portrait photography and documenting joy/resistance with a focus on film photography and analog printing. Rhea teaches photography at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in Boston, and has photographed for the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard galleries, and local grassroots community organizations.
Botanical Storytelling
a bookmaking workshop with Oreades Press
A project crossover with Oreades Press, Rachel's long time collaboration with Irene Lee and their first ever workshop in Massachusetts.
Botanical Storytelling is a workshop that was originally held at the Center for Book Arts in New York last summer. Inspired by sketchbooks and travel guides by artists like Margaret Mee and Dame Barbara Hepworth, Rachel and Irene helped participants create personal field guides of important plants in their lives and memories in the form of illustrated saddle stitched booklets.
Despite years of talking about plants and running these types of workshops, the plant stories shared in this workshop, including death by jumping cholla cactus and fig tree coffins, were some of the wildest so far.
Oreades Press is an collaborative publishing project by Rachel TonThat and Irene Lee named after the mythical nymphs of the mountains who protected travelers. The press supports and publishes environmental storytelling to foster relationships between individuals, local communities, and the natural world.
Their artist books have been collected by MoMA, Franklin Furnace, Tufts University SMFA Library, and Volumes Archive in Zurich. Through their digital archive, Impermanent Earth, they have published artists and writers from five continents and strive to represent diverse voices around the world.
Irene Lyla Lee is a writer, educator, and book artist dedicated to storytelling and the places where land and imagination meet. Irene’s environmental and art writing have appeared in Visitant, YES! Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, and more. She is founder of the small press, ilylali, and co-founder of Oreades Press. She teaches through her education platform, Bending Tree Education, and she organizes with the Brooklyn Women’s Writing Group. Irene is teaching herself the Martha Graham technique on unceded Lenapehoking, Brooklyn, NY.