Earlier this month, we welcomed Kim M. Reynolds, a U.S. writer, educator, maker and recipient of the G.A.S. Fellowship Award 2026, for an eight-week at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ. Her multidisciplinary practice spans research, literature, culinary arts, and food history, with a focus on pan-Africanism, ritual, social justice, and arts movements across the African continent and its diaspora. She is also the founder of Home Spice, a culinary project tracing the history of capsicum in Black cuisines through writing and cooking.
During her residency, she hopes to explore the relationship between literature and culinary traditions through an iterative practice where research and writing inform cooking, and cooking in turn generates new lines of inquiry. She will focus on the history and movement of capsicum across Black cuisines in Africa and the diaspora, developing this cartographic research into stories, recipes, and culinary workshops. She also hopes to engage with Lagos’ cultural landscape during her stay, attending talks, performances, and workshops, as well as visiting galleries, museums, and cultural spaces. She is particularly interested in everyday food culture and street cuisine, noting resonances between Jamaican and Nigerian culinary traditions, and looks forward to engaging with local artistic and historical institutions throughout her residency.
Kim M. Reynolds residency is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art. To find out more about supporting G.A.S. Foundation, click here.
Zine publication launch At The House at One Park, Cape Town. Photo: Sunga Konji.
What is the current focus of your creative practice?
Like many drawn to justice, I spent years developing a robust vocabulary for violence, imperialism, and systems of power. And while this affords clarity, I found myself easily disconnected from the earth I stood upon, earth that so many others have built on (and of course tried to destroy). My current practice is focused on the generative space between politics, literature, food, land, and the arts as they pertain to Black peoples. Over the last three years, I have been making hot sauce, body butter, and cordials to bring me closer to my inherited Jamaican palate under my project Homespicesauce. I aim to evolve this project into a deeper artistic and research initiative that examines culinary and seed histories, the legacies of slavery, and the centuries-old human practice of breaking bread, particularly highlighting the significance of capsicum in Black cuisines and the stories embedded in the cartography of seeds. Ultimately, I'm interested in the rituals and recipes that bring us closer to the communion and meaning we are often reaching for.
Conversation during Part 2 of the AT THE HOUSE zine launch at One Park, featuring reflections from Dream Press, Kim M. Reynolds, and Luyanda Zindela on music, joy, and making. Photo: Tapiwa Guzha
What drew you to apply for this residency and how do you think it will inform your wider practice?
I was attracted to G.A.S. for its multidisciplinary orientation and its inclusivity of agronomy as artistic practice. With over eight years as a writer and educator, I've focused on postcolonialism, pan-Africanism, Black and African feminisms, and media and cultural studies. My culinary work is deeply informed by the history and politics I've explored, creating an intriguing feedback loop between literature, food, and ritual - all interconnected through history and humanity. All extend a hand to layer the story.
Home Spice at The Remedy, a community-driven organisation in South Africa supporting creatives and entrepreneurs through music-led events, cultural experiences and creative collaborations.Image courtesy of the artist.
Can you give us an insight into how you hope to use the opportunity?
I would like to play this feedback loop at a bigger volume and hear what comes out of it. In other words, I aim to create food, condiments, drinks, and zines that reflect both historical narratives and the contemporary food landscape I'm in. There are certain obvious overlaps between Jamaican, Caribbean, and West African cuisines, and I would like to deepen my understanding by focusing on process, essence, and ritual rather than just ingredient comparisons. Ultimately, I would like to develop a curriculum and narratives that offer a multidimensional and participatory recollection of the work, as well as, of course, the cooking and making to be done in the kitchen and on the land while at the G.A.S. Farm House in Ikiṣẹ.
About Kim M. Reynolds
Kim M. Reynolds is a writer, educator, and maker. She works across the fields of arts writing, politics, and food, focusing on the histories of pan-Africanism, ritual, social justice and arts movements on the continent of Africa and its diaspora (and their pitfalls). Reynolds runs Home Spice, a culinary project on the history of capsicum in Black cuisines, utilising both literature and cooking. She holds master's degrees in Media Studies from LSE and UCT, with work published in monographs, poetry anthologies, and over 30 bylines in publications like Mail & Guardian, and ContemporaryAnd. Reynolds has lectured widely and enjoys teaching the most. She will be in residency at the Zeitz MOCAA later this year with her publishing collective (B)andWi(d)th. Lastly, she co-leads Our Data Bodies, a collective examining how big tech and surveillance reproduce coloniality. Originally from Ohio, she has lived in South Africa for 8 years.
Kim's residency is generously supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
