Community Supper
The festival opens with a gathering: a free, family-style, long-table supper co-hosted by artist Yanira Castro, with creative contributions by partners and artists from across Troy, NY and the Capital Region, including food grounded in Indonesian ancestral traditions by Chef Ria Ibrahim, healing beverages from YesFolk Tonics, and creative offerings by Jude Abu Zaineh and Taína Asili. Sharing food, stories of where it comes from, and rich conversations across the table about what it means to gather here and now—these are all rituals of care and nourishment that shape this meal.
ALLERGENS: The supper will have vegan/vegetarian and GF options, but fish and chicken will be served, and peanuts and tree nuts in many dishes.
Main Image: Taína Asili performs at the community supper on the EMPAC mezzanine as part of Corpus Festival 2026. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Michael Valiquette/EMPAC
Community supper on the EMPAC mezzanine as part of Corpus Festival 2026. Photo: Michael Valiquette/EMPAC
Yanira Castro’s work is rooted in communal construction as a rehearsal for radical democracy. She is an interdisciplinary artist born in Borikén (Puerto Rico), living in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn), and working at the intersection of communal practices, performance, installation, and interactive technology. Castro is the lead artist directing Raft, designing the project with the whole creative team, writing the performance scores that accompany it, and choreographing the chorus of performers that make a visitation in the space.
YesFolk Tonics
We are a small family-owned brewery specializing in fermented and functional beverages like kombucha and kombucha vinegar. We also offer other spirited and therapeutic creations. We believe in bringing valuable and supportive offerings to our local and greater community and feel strongly about using our voice and platform to uplift social and cultural movement. Our offerings are influenced by our home traditions from a combined Mexican and Egyptian ancestry. All of our formulations start with a desire to provide wholesome support in the form of a tonic experience.
Ria Ibrahim
Ria Ibrahim is a chef and farmer born and raised in Indonesia, from the Bugis tribe of South Sulawesi. Coming from a family of fishermen and farmers, her work is rooted in land, sea, and ancestral knowledge. She is the founder of Rumah Kitchen and serves as Farm-to-Table Director at Soul Fire Farm. Ria is passionate about storytelling through food, working with farmers, and sourcing fresh ingredients that bring joy to the table and carry the feeling of home.
Jude Abu Zaineh is a Palestinian-Canadian interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of culture, displacement, and belonging through her use of art, food, and technology. She examines ideals of home and community through decolonial practices while developing aesthetics and counter-archives informed by her childhood and upbringing in Southwest Asia. Her work has been exhibited across international cultural institutions and featured across VICE Arabia, PBS, NPR, and CBC Canada platforms, as well as in Canadian Art magazine and NEUES GLAS-NEW GLASS: art & architecture magazine, among others. Abu Zaineh holds an MFA from the University of Windsor (Canada), and an Interdisciplinary Arts PhD from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA). She lives and works between Upstate NY, Ontario, and Halifax.
Taína Asili is a dynamic singer, composer, interdisciplinary artist, and activist carrying on the tradition of her Puerto Rican ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. She is celebrated by NPR, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and Democracy Now! for her soulful, genre-blending music echoing calls for love and liberation. For over 25 years she has offered energetic performances at diverse venues nationwide—from iconic stages such as Carnegie Hall, to renowned festivals like San Francisco Pride, to historic events like The Women’s March on Washington—inspiring audiences to dance to the rhythm of rebellion.
