Kristin Hunt

This book examines historical and contemporary activist alimentary performance with an eye toward, or perhaps a taste for, what these performance modes can reveal about changing relationships between the senses, truth, justice, and ethical action amid the post-truth era’s destabilization of shared notions of truth. This inquiry emerges in response to an urgent need to understand how multisensory models of knowledge, truth, and justice can be ethically employed to nurture a more just society. Alongside this goal is a drive to understand the ways in which these modes of performance are being co-opted by authoritarians, white supremacists, anti-science activists, and others to shore up injustice, promote misinformation, and anxiously guard existing systems of power and privilege. From white supremacist milk-drinking performances to liberatory uses of culinary performance as pedagogy, Kristin Hunt analyzes both disturbing and inspiring alimentary events to understand how performers, cooks, scholars, artists, and activists can effectively cultivate models of alimentary performance that center plenitude, joy, and justice while pushing back against models rooted in anxiety, diminishment, and cruelty. The text should be of interest for students in performance studies, contemporary theatre, and theatre history as well as courses in food studies and popular culture.

This book examines historical and contemporary activist alimentary performance with an eye toward, or perhaps a taste for, what these performance modes can reveal about changing relationships between the senses, truth, justice, and ethical action amid the post-truth era’s destabilization of shared notions of truth. This inquiry emerges in response to an urgent need to understand how multisensory models of knowledge, truth, and justice can be ethically employed to nurture a more just society. Alongside this goal is a drive to understand the ways in which these modes of performance are being co-opted by authoritarians, white supremacists, anti-science activists, and others to shore up injustice, promote misinformation, and anxiously guard existing systems of power and privilege. From white supremacist milk-drinking performances to liberatory uses of culinary performance as pedagogy, Kristin Hunt analyzes both disturbing and inspiring alimentary events to understand how performers, cooks, scholars, artists, and activists can effectively cultivate models of alimentary performance that center plenitude, joy, and justice while pushing back against models rooted in anxiety, diminishment, and cruelty. The text should be of interest for students in performance studies, contemporary theatre, and theatre history as well as courses in food studies and popular culture.

A pea soda. An apple balloon. A cotton candy picnic. A magical mole. These are just a handful of examples of mimetic cuisine, a diverse set of culinary practices in which chefs and artists treat food as a means of representation. As theatricalised fine dining and the use of food in theatrical situations both grow in popularity, Alimentary Performances traces the origins and implications of food as a mimetic medium, used to imitate, represent, and assume a role in both theatrical and broader performance situations. Kristin Hunt's rich and wide-ranging account of food's growing representational stakes asks:What culinary approaches to mimesis can tell us about enduring philosophical debates around knowledge and authenticityHow the dramaturgy of food within theatres connects with the developing role of theatrical cuisine in restaurant settingsWays in which these turns toward culinary mimeticism engender new histories, advance new epistemologies, and enable new modes of multisensory spectatorship and participation.This is an essential study for anyone interested in the intersections between food, theatre, and performance, from fine dining to fan culture and celebrity chefs to the drama of the cookbook.

A pea soda. An apple balloon. A cotton candy picnic. A magical mole. These are just a handful of examples of mimetic cuisine, a diverse set of culinary practices in which chefs and artists treat food as a means of representation. As theatricalised fine dining and the use of food in theatrical situations both grow in popularity, Alimentary Performances traces the origins and implications of food as a mimetic medium, used to imitate, represent, and assume a role in both theatrical and broader performance situations. Kristin Hunt's rich and wide-ranging account of food's growing representational stakes asks:What culinary approaches to mimesis can tell us about enduring philosophical debates around knowledge and authenticityHow the dramaturgy of food within theatres connects with the developing role of theatrical cuisine in restaurant settingsWays in which these turns toward culinary mimeticism engender new histories, advance new epistemologies, and enable new modes of multisensory spectatorship and participation.This is an essential study for anyone interested in the intersections between food, theatre, and performance, from fine dining to fan culture and celebrity chefs to the drama of the cookbook.

Early on in this unique book-part poetry collection, part life story-Kristin Hunt recounts a disturbing experience she had at a sleepover with her volleyball team. As the party got underway, her white classmates began using racial slurs and laughing. Hunt, one of the few black girls at the party, tried to explain what was so wrong with these words but quickly realized that her classmates didn't care.Hunt, a natural poet and writer, instinctively knows the vital importance of words, and she carefully chooses precisely the right ones to describe her experiences with racism and sexism. Several of her poems, including "STOP," show the frustration she feels with white society and its relationship with black artists.One section features odes to old boyfriends, balanced between thoughtful insights and hilarious lines. Other poems showcase the pains of growing up. Verses like "I Want" and "A Yearning Soul" explore her powerful desires and dreams. While Hunt probes delicate situations and heartfelt emotions, she never loses her bold and brilliant voice. Through her poetry, she invites you into her life and offers a new spin on growing up and finding your place in the world.

Drama and Education provides a practical, comprehensive guide to drama as a tool for teaching and learning. It is among the first practical drama and performance textbooks that address brain-based, neuroscientific research, making the argument that creativity is necessary in our lives, that embodied learning is natural and essential, and that contextual learning helps us find our place in society in relationship to other peoples and cultures. As well as a historical and theoretical overview of the field, it provides rationale and techniques for several specific methodologies: linear drama, process-oriented drama, drama for social justice, and performance art.Each approach is supplemented with sample lesson plans, activities, ideas for differentiation, and extensive bibliographies. The topics are discussed from five key angles:• Historical and theoretical foundations• Curricular applications• Practical toolkits for a range of classrooms and learning environments• Different strategies for lesson plans• Extension options for longer workshops.Alongside these core methods, the integration of other innovative forms—from performance art to Theatre of the Oppressed—into drama-based learning is explored, as well as the pragmatic concerns such as assessment, planning, and advocacy for arts learning and arts education partnerships. Drama and Education is the comprehensive textbook for teachers and students on Applied Theatre and Theatre and Education courses.

Drama and Education provides a practical, comprehensive guide to drama as a tool for teaching and learning. It is among the first practical drama and performance textbooks that address brain-based, neuroscientific research, making the argument that creativity is necessary in our lives, that embodied learning is natural and essential, and that contextual learning helps us find our place in society in relationship to other peoples and cultures. As well as a historical and theoretical overview of the field, it provides rationale and techniques for several specific methodologies: linear drama, process-oriented drama, drama for social justice, and performance art.Each approach is supplemented with sample lesson plans, activities, ideas for differentiation, and extensive bibliographies. The topics are discussed from five key angles:• Historical and theoretical foundations• Curricular applications• Practical toolkits for a range of classrooms and learning environments• Different strategies for lesson plans• Extension options for longer workshops.Alongside these core methods, the integration of other innovative forms—from performance art to Theatre of the Oppressed—into drama-based learning is explored, as well as the pragmatic concerns such as assessment, planning, and advocacy for arts learning and arts education partnerships. Drama and Education is the comprehensive textbook for teachers and students on Applied Theatre and Theatre and Education courses.