African Soup Kitchen and Mancala Club (615)

​A Black Forest School program at Vanderbilt University

​At Begonia Labs, we’ll be presenting the first sessions of African Soup Kitchen and Mancala Club leading up to the 2nd in New York at Frog Bar. These two programs celebrate Black food traditions and agriculture practices from making soup from nuts to making games from pits and seeds.

​Our founder and Berg Global Artist-in-Residence Fellow, Ekene Ijeoma will be teaching students and attendees how to cook Nigerian okra soup with mixed seafood and learning to cook a new soup from a guest (TBA). We’ll also have mancala boards on the tables for open play. Towards the end of the event we’ll be raffling 4 of our Black Forest School Crates.

​We’re looking for volunteers so please message us if you’re interested.

​One tree at a time, we’re growing our Black Forest, now with more than 600 trees across 8 states, including 200 in the South Bronx and soon 40 across Nashville this Fall 2026. One installation at a time, we’re building our Black nature library through Black Forest School, a series of programs and network of spaces (including libraries) focused on archiving and presenting Black perspectives on nature across various forms of expression and modes of knowledge.