‘The
Generous Table’
Call for Contributions (deadline: 10
August, 2012)
To invite someone is to take responsibility for their
well-being the whole
time they are under our roof – Aphorism XX, Brillat-Savarin
The Nineteenth Symposium explores themes
of hospitality, sharing and social inclusion in an era of billionaire power,
greed is good, anger and entitlement, privatisation and ‘no’.
What used to be called ‘soup kitchens’
have changed in interesting ways with charity meals providing not just
nutrition but also community. The Loaves and Fishes Free Restaurant in the Sydney
The event runs from Friday evening, 5
April, until Monday morning, 8 April 2013. (This is a week later than
originally advised.)
The topic
is the ‘generous table’, its limits and its negations and in all possible dimensions
- from the intimate (a mother forever inviting ‘waifs and strays’) through the
literary (‘Please, sir, I want some more’), popular (Scrooge McDuck), consumer
(how generous is the ‘Whopper’?) and empirical (a historical study
of a city’s socialite banquets) to the political (‘Lucky Country’ becomes ‘Stingy
Country’), economic (market rationality and philanthropy),
philosophical
(Epicurean solidarity based on mutual need) and theoretical (a Muslim theology of
meal-based charity).
Separately,
and also responding to requests at the eighteenth symposium in Canberra
This
symposium will be different, if for no other reason than a limit on numbers. We therefore invite immediate expressions
of interest.
In conjunction with this (and in keeping with
the original derivation of ‘symposium’ from sym
= together), everyone attending will contribute in some way. So, we also
call for proposed contributions.
This is
not a spectator event, so please think about what you can offer, and discuss
proposals with us. You might offer to make the coffee or the official photographic
record, or something entirely unexpected. We need papers and also meals that directly
address the theme.
Working
with the chefs and staff at the Loaves and Fishes Free Restaurant, we employ
gastronomic imaginations to provide three breakfasts for around 150 guests and
two lunches for 250, plus an anticipated 60 or so symposium participants. We
might work with whatever gleaned materials the restaurant happens to have
available, or supply our own. A person or a group might devise and supervise a
menu that others put into practice, simply volunteer their labour, or take
responsibility for everything. More information can be provided about the
commercial kitchen and dining room, which is a lovely, old church hall. An option for one lunch might be to accompany an Exodus van to a
site adjoining Reverse Garbage, Marrickville.
Proposals are invited for the three
evenings, too, when we have the restaurant to ourselves (another Exodus van is
off serving in the city), so that the format can be more flexible and we can
serve alcohol. While we intend that the symposium stays largely on-site, an
evening meal could be elsewhere. Ashfield is richly endowed with Chinese
restaurants.
That’s
just an outline; we welcome suggestions as to how you might best contribute. To
indicate further options, yours could be a significant donation to the Loaves
and Fishes Free Restaurant of money or a store-cupboard of preserves. The
committee will even accept special pleading, such as having contributed
inordinately to previous symposiums.
To
enable reasonably orderly planning, we ask for immediate expressions of
interest (and please ensure that any other potential participants know what’s
going on). Secondly, offer a contribution with the deadline for proposals being
Friday 10 August 2012. The committee will require enough detail to make a
reasonable assessment.
Correspondence:
sydneysymposium2013@gmail.com.
Marion
Maddox (convenor)
For
the committee (Staci Crutchfield, John Fitzpatrick, Jill Hayes, Jennifer
Hillier, Kelie Kenzler, Gae Pincus, Rosemary Stanton, Michael Symons)
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