This project asks how prefigurative spaces and mutual aid can be used as a model for the creation of a public kitchen as a point of entrance to advocate for new public infrastructures. The kitchen will engage community in cooperative cooking and procurement practices that connect and fill gaps in our local food systems, address the effects of a racialized health crisis, redistribute care practices outside of the nuclear family, prefigure new ways of being public, and circumvent the over-commodification of our daily lives.

The initial kitchen programming at Arlington Library in East New York will also serve as an exploratory model for East Brooklyn Mutual Aid and ENY CLT’s Black Radish Food Hub, part of the Sackman Street development in the East Brooklyn Industrial Zone (IBZ). Beyond modeling what a community-led kitchen space could look like in ENY, the People’s Kitchen seeks to mobilize residents against speculation, uneven development, and displacement, while deepening engagement with ENY CLT. It offers a replicable and evolving model for community-controlled public infrastructure that can be adapted across different urban contexts.

The material outcome of this project is a People’s Kitchen facilitation guide, developed through public engagement to support the implementation in Summer 2025.