Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice
Serving a Plate

Serving a Plate Back Home is an audio interview series and photo exhibition that explores the stories of five restaurant owners — Yveline, Joaquin, Welbi, Milena, and Jenny —  who have reimagined how and where they can make home. This project offers a glimpse into the personal journeys and intentions behind five restaurants that function as enclaves for Latinx and Caribbean communities in Providence, Rhode Island. Serving diverse customers from multifaceted yet culturally-rooted menus, each establishment serves as a nourishing site of transnational convening and a counternarrative on the predominantly-white New England landscape. These five restaurant owners build for themselves, their communities, and all Rhode Islanders spaces that transcend the limits of geographical borders and expand the practice of storytelling into the culinary.

The photo exhibition was on view from March 20th-April 21st at the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice at Brown University located at 94 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02906.

This exhibition was curated by CSSJ Graduate Fellow for the Study of the Public History of Slavery, Kennedy Jones '23 A.M., in collaboration with Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice (CSSJ) and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS).

This project is part of the Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar "Rethinking the Dynamic Interplay of Migration, Race, and Ethnicity in the Caribbean and Latin America," led by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Center for the Study of Slavery & Justice, and the Africana Studies Rites and Reason Theatre.

Visit exhibition website to listen to each restauranteur