Dans la cuisine des Rencontres culture et solidarité

Booking recommended: online registration from 30 October

The libraries of the 18th arrondissement invite you to a 15-day highlight (17 November – 5 December 2026) where cooking becomes storytelling. Alongside people in emergency housing situations, they orchestrate encounters between cooking pots and memories, between culinary gestures and cultural histories.

The project deploys an audio collection of gastronomic stories: during cooking workshops led by Dalila from the association Graine et Noyau, at the heart of partner structures, Géraldine from the association Racines Barbares and the librarians guide the gathering of words — passed-down recipes, family anecdotes, kitchen sounds, words in native languages. These recipes and testimonies then become artistic material: kamishibai illustrations, created collectively in libraries, embody the dishes and the stories behind them.

The final presentation, which will be held on 05 December at the Bibliothèque Robert Sabatier, releases these stories in the form of an exhibition and performance, where recorded voices resonate alongside the illustrations. A booklet brings together visuals, recordings, and quotes and will circulate throughout participating district facilities and libraries.

Photographer Stéphanie Poisson accompanied these encounters with her sensitive gaze, documenting these moments of creation and sharing, and highlighting the richness of the recipes and stories collected. The opening of the exhibition of her photographs will take place on 21 November on the occasion of the screening of Delphine Piau's film: Ça s'anime en cuisine.

Racines Barbares ; Credits: Racines Barbares

Graine et noyau ; Credits: Graine et noyau