"Word of Mouth: Asian American Artists Sharing Recipes, edited by Laura Kina and Jave Yoshimoto (University of Arkansas Press, 2025)
Conceived during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and the accompanying rise in anti-Asian bigotry, Word of Mouth: Asian American Artists Sharing Recipes is an artists’ cookbook featuring stories and artwork from twenty-three Asian American and Asian diaspora artists from across the United States, with contributions that range from Los Angeles–based performance artist Kristina Wong’s “Recipe for Political Action” to New Orleans–based painter Francis Wong’s family recipe for stir-fried Szechuan alligator.
A pandemic project turned illustrated cookbook, this unique collection disrupts genre expectations to celebrate how artists use food to nurture and sustain their diverse communities and artistic practices as well as to build connection during times of isolation, grief, and loss."
Dimensions: 8 x 10, 136 pages
Materials: Softcover
Laura Kina
(Pilsen)
Laura Kina is a queer, disabled, mixed-race Okinawan American artist and educator whose work focuses on Asian American art and identity. Kina is a Vincent de Paul Professor at the Art School at DePaul University in Chicago and is the coeditor of War Baby / Love Child: Mixed Race Asian American Art and Queering Contemporary Asian American Art and the illustrator of Lee A. Tonouchi’s award-winning children’s book Okinawan Princess: Da Legend of Hajichi Tattoos.
Jave Yoshimoto
Jave Yoshimoto is a recipient of the 2015 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant and a recognition award from the Friends of the United Nations in New York and associate professor of art at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he teaches painting compositions and professional practices. He is a visual artist, competitive axe thrower and cat lover. His works represent the visual history of humanitarian struggles."