Seitu Jones
ARTIST, MASTER GARDENER, BAKER
The Nashville Bread Oven, 2018
Mixed media, site-specific installation; variable dimensions
Seitu Jones’s project brings people together to literally and figuratively break bread. Working in collaboration with Nella “Miss Pearl” Frierson, the founder of the Brooklyn Heights Community Garden, Jones has helped Frierson to complete her vision for an “outdoor speakeasy,” a communal gathering and performance space for her neighborhood. Jones’s installation centers on a wood-fired bread oven and four wooden picnic tables that join to make a 24-foot-long platform. Placed underneath a pre-existing steel-pipe structure, the platform is partially covered with shade-providing fabric panels co-designed by Frierson. Drawing on his expertise as a baker, Jones hopes to work with residents to realize a large-scale baking event, using a local biscuit recipe. Jones says, “Working together, we can use bread to not only bring a neighborhood together but also increase food equity.”
Thanks to neighbor Brian Reed for assisting with installation.
Community Partner
Brooklyn Heights Community Garden (1831 Haynes St., Nashville, TN 37207) unites residents, exposes participants to diverse cultural experiences, and produces life-sustaining vegetables, fruits, and herbs.
