Making Alcoholado with Iris Brown of Las Parcelas

Photo Credit: Anh Thai

Making Alcoholado with Iris Brown is scheduled for Saturday, September 14, from 4-6 PM, with a rain date of Sunday, September 15, from 4-6 PM. The FREE workshop takes place at the Norris Square Neighborhood Project, 2248 N Palethorp St, Philadelphia, PA. Parking is available surrounding the park. This event is fully wheelchair accessible and will be primarily in Spanish with English interpretation provided.The alcoholado workshop is organized in conjunction with Convalescence, an immersive art installation by artist Pepón Osorio at Thomas Jefferson University.

Join Iris Brown for a workshop to create alcoholado. Alcoholado is a traditional Puerto Rican remedy made from the Malagueta tree and alcohol, used to relieve fever, muscle aches, insect bites, and more. Attendees will learn the art of using nature’s finest ingredients to create powerful homemade remedies and take their alcoholados home. A traditional vegan-friendly Puerto Rican meal will also be served at the event.

Iris Brown is dedicated to the rich exchange of culture, agriculture, and food, amplifying this diasporic connection between her Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia and her hometown of Loíza. In the early 1980s, Iris Brown co-founded Grupo Motivos, bringing together Puerto Rican women from different parts of Puerto Rico, united by the desire to use their surroundings to create beautiful spaces for their children and neighbors, ultimately converting abandoned lots into award-winning gardens and ancestral education sites. She is the visionary force behind the Norris Square Neighborhood Project gardens; El Batey, Las Parcelas, the Butterfly Garden, Raíces, and Villa Africana Colobó.

“Growing up in Loíza, we hardly went to the clinic! There was a clinic with one nurse and one doctor to treat the whole town, where they reused the needles after sanitizing them with boiling water,” says Iris. “I grew up with my grandma, my mother, and many other wise women who knew the power of herbs and used them daily to help the neighbors and anybody who needed their care. In the garden, Villa Africana Colobó, I have planted various medicinal plants that I use to make teas and alcoholado… made with organic herbs we grow in this garden and one herb that is from Puerto Rico, malagueta. I’m looking forward to meeting everyone to share more about your experiences with medicinal plants.”

Thank you to our community partner, Norris Square Neighborhood Project, for making this event possible. Major support for Convalescence has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Wagner Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Questions? Contact Chelsea-Mia Pierre, Public Programs Manager for Convalescence, at [email protected].

About Norris Square Neighborhood Project

Norris Square Neighborhood Project is a unique organization that offers youth and community residents a safe space to explore culture and social justice issues, create art, and develop their sustainable agriculture skills. For over 45 years, youth have developed their leadership skills, built relationships with each other and their staff, learned about urban agriculture, and created performing and visual art. Annually, they serve up to 100 high-school-aged youth through our after-school and summer programs. Norris Square Neighborhood Project also serves community members through innovative programming and their six Puerto Rican/Latinx culturally-themed garden spaces. Norris Square Neighborhood Project works in collaboration with The Philadelphia Horticultural Society. To learn more about the Norris Square Neighborhood Project, please visit https://myneighborhoodproject.org/.

About Convalescence

Thomas Jefferson University presents Convalescence, an immersive installation by internationally renowned, Philadelphia-based artist Pepón Osorio. Convalescence is free and open to all from September 3 to November 1, 2024, on Jefferson’s health sciences campus in Center City Philadelphia, continuing Osorio’s practice of premiering works in the environments that inform them. Convalescence is rooted in the artist’s personal experience of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The project highlights systemic health and health care inequities in the U.S. and includes stories from other Philadelphians of color who have lived through, or are currently experiencing, life-threatening illnesses. Drawing on relationships with groups typically underserved by the health care system, Osorio’s installation explores the nature of community-based care. The project extends Jefferson’s ongoing medical humanities program, which engages students in the arts and humanities in parallel with their health professions education. A series of public programs created with community-based partners will be coordinated in conjunction with the installation. To learn more about Convalescence, go to Jefferson.edu/Convalescence.