What Is the Language of Taste? 

Co-presented by Stanford Institute for Advancing Just Societies (IAJS), Zócalo Public Square, and BRIC, with support from our community media sponsor, Epicenter NYC

Date & Time: Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 6:30 pm EST

Location: BRIC, 647 Fulton St, Brooklyn, New York 11217 

About the Event: New York City has always been a center for Americans on the move; a magnet for newcomers, who carry with them languages and flavors from home that take root anew. Kreplach and pierogi in the East Village. Xiao long bao in Flushing. Manti in Sheepshead Bay. Unsettled in the movement of peoples and cuisines is whose palate determines quality, and whose tongue sings history. How does taste evolve in a multicultural society? Can we keep native words and ways, even as we relish the language of the times? Who plays host, who guest, and who gets a seat at the table? 

This program is inspired by Speak Sing Shout: We, Too, Sing America (2025) by Pakistani American artist Sarah K. Khan. The piece, eight blue and white porcelain serving vessels featuring images of spices, delicate flowers, and incense as depicted in the 16th-century Sultanate period recipe book The Book of Delights, is commissioned by IAJS and will be on view at BRIC in Brooklyn from October 7 to December 23, 2025.

Join IAJS and Zócalo Public Square at BRIC to view the artwork and experience a performance by Khan. A panel moderated by Stanford IAJS faculty co-director Brian Lowery and featuring James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and Jewish cuisine expert Joan Nathan, community organizer and immigration activist Power Malu, and food studies scholar Krishnendu Ray will follow, exploring how what we eat, and where it’s from, shape our sense of identity.

We invite our in-person audience to continue the conversation with the artist, speakers, and each other at a post-event reception with complimentary drinks, small bites by street vendors from the Street Vendor Project and EatOffBeat, art-viewing, and music.

Agenda:

6:30 pm ET – Doors open

6:30-7:15 pm ET – Check in and art viewing

7:15-8:05 pm ET – Panel conversation (in-person & livestreamed)

8:10-8:30 pm ET – Artist performance (in-person & livestreamed)

8:30-9:30 pm ET – Reception

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