Name: What the Tongue Remembers: An Invitation Beyond Language
Start: 2025-08-28T17:30:00-04:00
End: 2025-08-28T20:30:00-04:00
Location: Artspace

What the Tongue Remembers: An Invitation Beyond Language

“It is not only empowering to represent heritage and identity through food—it has the power to heal our generational trauma…”

In collaboration with Artspace NC:
"What the Tongue Remembers" is a sensory dining experience rooted in the elemental wisdom of cultural memory, where scent, sound, and story move alongside each course.
Guided by recent Chopped winner and 2023 North Carolina Chef of the Year Adé Carrena, this evening draws inspiration from the flavors and foodways of West Africa, the American South, Haiti, and Brazil. Each bite carries lineage. Each pour, a reflection. Each moment, a soft invitation to feel what lives beyond language.
Woven with quiet rituals and glimpses of Chef Adé’s film, Bite of Bénin, the night honors what was carried, what was created, and what continues.
Come curious. Come open. Let the tongue lead you home.

About Chef Adé:
Adé Carrena is an award-winning intuitive chef, filmmaker, and storyteller redefining the future of food through the lens of West African traditions and Southern roots. She is the founder of iLéWA Foods, a spice company creating economic opportunities for women farmers in Bénin and Ghana.
Named 2023 North Carolina Chef of the Year and recently crowned a Food Network Chopped Champion, Adé is known for her immersive dining experiences that nourish, reclaim, and celebrate diasporic identity. Her acclaimed documentary Bite of Bénin has earned multiple awards for its bold exploration of food, memory, and belonging. Whether in the kitchen or behind the camera, Adé’s work honors ancestry, uplifts community, and feeds liberation.

About Artspace NC:
Artspace, your host for this event, is a non-profit visual arts center located in Downtown Raleigh. Visit Artspace for a multitude of exhibitions featuring national and local artists and to enjoy a community of more than 35 artists working in studio, artists in residence, and to find other art classes for all ages and abilities.