The University of Arkansas Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of Word of Mouth: Asian American Artists Sharing Recipes, edited by Laura Kina and Jave Yoshimoto.
Conceived during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and in response to the rise in anti-Asian bigotry that ensued, Word of Mouth: Asian American Artists Sharing Recipes is an artists’ cookbook featuring recipes, stories, and artwork from twenty-four Asian American and Asian diaspora artists from across the United States, with contributions ranging from Los Angeles-based performance artist Kristina Wong’s “Recipe for Political Action: The Auntie Sewing Squad” to New Orleans-based painter Francis Wong’s family’s Chinese restaurant recipe for stir fry Szechuan alligator.
First published as an online exhibition, this print version opens with an introduction by art historian Michelle Yee and features expanded essays and additional recipes. Each contribution is accompanied by original illustrations by Laura Kina and Jave Yoshimoto, as well as by artists Hyegyeong Choi, heather c. lou, and Mia Matlock, and enriched by artists’ reflections on how their cuisine has been impacted by histories of war, migration, relocation, labor, and mixing.
A pandemic project turned illustrated cookbook, this unique collection disrupts genre expectations to elucidate how artists use food to nurture and sustain their diverse communities and artistic practices as well as a way to stay in touch, meet new artists, and build connection during times of isolation, grief, and loss.
Laura Kina is queer mixed-race Okinawan American artist Vincent de Paul Professor at The Art School at DePaul University in Chicago. Kina was born in California and grew up in the Pacific Northwest. She earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She coedited War Baby/Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art and Queering Contemporary Asian American Art. Kina illustrated Lee A. Tonouchi’s award winning children’s book, Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos.
Jave Gakumei Yoshimoto is an artist and educator of multi-cultural background. He was born in Japan to Chinese parents and immigrated to California at a young age. Yoshimoto has his Bachelors of Art from University of California Santa Barbara, Masters of Art in Art Therapy at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his Masters of Fine Arts in Painting at Syracuse University. He is a recipient of the 2015 Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painter’s and Sculptor’s grant, been featured in numerous publications nationally, worked in various artists residencies and exhibited his works internationally.
Word of Mouth will be published in March 2025.