Rewriting the Recipe of Who We Are

Food is memory, tradition, and a code we are taught from birth. But what happens when we rewrite the recipe of who we are?

On Tuesday, July 28th, as part of the official Queertropolis 2026 public program inside the Pavilion at Treehouse NDSM, we hosted the Blackout Poetry Dinner. Conceived and co-hosted alongside Elisa, the ultimate, perfect host of the evening, the event bridged culinary creation, personal storytelling, and radical literary revision.

Together, we invited our guests onto an intimate, four-course journey through four symbolic stages: The Roots, The Departure, The Journey, and The Discovery.

"We took traditional stories and rigid recipes from the past, blacking out the old rules to let new, proud words of identity, freedom, and belonging emerge."

A Parallel Journey: From Italy to Amsterdam

Throughout the dinner, Elisa and I shared our personal stories, guiding guests step-by-step through our migration from Italy to Amsterdam. We talked about the intermediate stops, the vulnerabilities, the search for home, and the ultimate discovery of a place where we truly belonged, a place that gave sense to our identity.

The texts provided to the guests for the Blackout Poetry activity were written specifically by Elisa. Her writings beautifully intertwined our personal narratives, creating a textured canvas of shared human memory.

Between courses, as each plate revisited and liberated traditional Italian culinary heritage through an evolved, plant-based lens, guests picked up black markers to redact, alter, and extract their own hidden poetry from our stories.

Sensational Results: Taking the Stage

The outcome of the workshop was nothing short of extraordinary. At the end of the meal, the energy in the Pavilion shifted into an open, empowering circle:

• Guests stepped up to the stage, one by one, to read their newly created blackout poems aloud.

• Participants shared raw, deeply personal reflections on what it truly means to be queer, proud, and authentic today.

What began as an intimate meal transformed into a powerful collective soundboard of individual voices, vulnerability, and mutual pride.

Radical Accessibility: Stadspas Integration

In alignment with the core values of Queertropolis, the Blackout Poetry Dinner offered full financial accessibility, remaining free of charge for Stadspas holders. This ensured that economic barriers never prevented community members from pulling up a chair, breaking bread, and sharing their stories.