PEOPLE'S PICNIC

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About

PEOPLE’S PICNIC is a special ARTIVISM edition of the Community Eats meals from Sprouts Cafe at UBC. This campaign increases food security while building community at UBC.

Each Friday, Sprouts serve hot, nutritious lunches to hundreds at the UBC Vancouver campus. Come celebrate their re-opening for the new term.

Bring container to eat from. By Donation!

Links

• Follow Sprouts Cafe! instagram.com

Organizer

Jesse Medrano

Jesse Medrano, the creative force behind "Artivism 2023: Madness in the Masses," is currently pursuing a degree in Gender, Race, and Sexuality Social Justice and Visual Arts and student director at UBC Arts & Culture. They firmly believe that creativity and cultural event-making are essential components of radical movements, providing avenues to celebrate community and challenge the capitalist system.

As an organizer, Jesse has gained valuable experience in community organizing, collaborating with TAIWANfest and Exposure UBC to create celebratory spaces for marginalized identities. Additionally, they have pursued academia, conducting collaborative research with ORICE on the importance of cultural heritage as an anti-consumerist practice and its connection to climate change prevention, as well as research in Vietnam representing ideas of National Identity.

Jesse's personal journey as a first-generation Filipino within challenging socioeconomic circumstances has profoundly shaped the vision of the festival. Angered and mentally affected by the oppressive conditions faced due to poverty and identity conditions leading to a self-identification of “mad”. However throughout their upbringing, Filipino culture and community spaces played a crucial role in cultivating a sense of collective care and support, allowing them to overcome challenges and experience privileges they cherish today.

In their role as student creative director of Artivism, Jesse curates a transformative festival experience, drawing inspiration from Jurelle Bruce's novel "How to Go Mad Without Losing Your Mind." Embracing "mad methodology," and marginalized cultures Jesse sees them as a powerful catalyst to bridge imagination, radical creativity, within radical change.

The festival's ethos is deeply influenced by Jesse's connection to Filipino culture, drawing inspiration from its deep-rooted values of collective care and national identity forged through anti-colonial resistance. This desire to care for the community and nurture a sense of collectivism informs the essence of the events they organize.Inspired by the resilience and hope found in art and activism, Jesse seeks to provide others with the same sense of empowerment and renewal.Incorporating the spirit of celebration and unity from their upbringing, Jesse aims to create an inclusive space for activists and masses to gather, exchange ideas, and find hope in their social relations.

Jesse’s hope for the overall festival is to highlight the mental and emotional conditions of a racialized capitalism through storytelling, imagine a world of care inspired by oppressed cultures fostered through creativity and lastly celebrate the resilience the collective holds.