About Us
Reimagining Us is a cultural storytelling project that uses food to explore who we are—and how we connect.
Based in New York, we celebrate the family recipes, food memories, and cultural traditions that shape the multiracial and multiethnic fabric of the American experience. Through stories passed down around the table, we honor heritage, build bridges, and spark conversations that foster understanding and inclusion.
What We Do
We bring people together through storytelling and food.
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One-on-one interviews centered on cherished family recipes, uncovering how food preserves personal memories, cultural traditions, and migration stories. Each conversation highlights the roots behind a dish and the shared connections that bring us together.
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In-person storytelling dinners and food-centered gatherings where culture, memory, and identity come alive through every bite. These events celebrate the traditions that shape our communities and spark meaningful dialogue.
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Editorial spotlights that blend interviews, photography, and recipes to showcase the people, dishes, and cultural traditions at the heart of our shared experience.
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A mix of articles, videos, and creative content that explore how food connects us across generations, cultures, and histories—offering insight, reflection, and inspiration.
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Collaborations with chefs, restaurants, and cultural organizations to co-create events, amplify underrepresented voices, and deepen community connections through food.
Our Mission
To celebrate cultural identity and community through the universal language of food.
We share the stories behind family recipes and food traditions—illuminating how they connect us across generations, cultures, and neighborhoods. By blending storytelling, culinary experiences, and creative media, we aim to preserve heritage, spark dialogue, and build bridges across the richly diverse American landscape.
Reimagining Us began as “Reimagining Immigration and Immigrants,” a project focused on exploring the immigrant experience in America through art and storytelling. It was first introduced in 2019 at a New York fundraiser featuring the exhibition Words of an (INK)migrant.
Though initially focused on in-person interviews, the project paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, it reemerged with a renewed purpose—centering food as a vehicle for cultural storytelling—and relaunched with an intimate event at Contento restaurant in Manhattan.
Since then, with support from our fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas, we’ve received public donations, a grant from Humanities New York, and continued producing self-funded work. Our multimedia stories—featuring interviews, photography, recipes, and cultural commentary—document how food connects us to our heritage and to one another.
Today, Reimagining Us continues to grow through storytelling dinners, culinary experiences, creative collaborations, and original content. We invite you to join us as we build a more inclusive, connected, and flavorful future.
Our Journey
Who are we?
Chris Yong-Garcia
Founder | Creative Director
Based in New York City, Chris Yong-Garcia is a creative director, designer, and cultural producer. With a career ignited at J. Walter Thompson Worldwide as an art director, Chris quickly became known for his innovative vision and dynamic approach to creative storytelling. At Indika Advertising, he crafted campaigns for clients like HBO, Miramax Films, Spike TV, and IFC Films.
Chris is the founder of Eyestorm, a creative studio. He also launched LatinLover Food & Travel Magazine in January 2012, a publication connecting Latinos and non-Latinos through a love for Latin culture, cuisine, and travel.
Chris's journey now continues with Reimagining Us, where he combines his extensive experience in creativity, communications, and cultural connections to create a platform that celebrates culinary heritage and the diverse tapestry of personal narratives.
Camila Valdeavellano
Project Advisor
Camila is a visual artist that explores human adventure in diverse territories. She considers herself to be a nomad. By crossing different languages and borders, she reveals the immensity of Nature and her endurance and fragility through installation, painting, drawing, and photography; Extraer_Contener (2019) was at the Centro Cultural Inca Garcilaso, in Lima, Peru, where she currently lives, after moving from Arequipa where she exposed Telúrica y Magnética (2018) at the Vargas Llosa Library.
She lived also in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she participated in NosOtros- Otra Vision de las Americas, at Instituto Cervantes; a group of artists curated from neighboring countries came-up with creations about territory and culture.
Cynthia Lawson-Jaramillo
Project Advisor
Cynthia is a Brooklyn-based Colombian digital artist, technologist and educator. She is Associate Professor of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design, and has held a variety of leadership roles including, starting in January, Dean of the School of Design Strategies. She is the co-creator of the “Business Design for Social Impact” non-credit certificate and her current research focuses on the Parsons DEED Research Lab, which she co-founded in 2007 and currently directs. DEED Lab brings together students, faculty, and external partners from business, design, development and policy to model more equitable ways for designers to work with artisans, and for artisans to sustain their livelihoods.
Brian Waniewski
Project Advisor
Brian has a record of establishing innovative organizations at the intersection of tech and social impact. Before Harmony Labs, he served as managing director at Institute of Play. He also served on the core founding teams for Quest to Learn, a New York City public school that leverages game design to make school engaging and culturally relevant for young people; and GlassLab Games, a Silicon Valley development shop transforming digital games, like SimCity, into classroom learning environments with real-time formative assessments built-in.
Alexandre Surralles
Project Advisor
Alexandre is Chair Professor of Anthropology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS, Paris), senior researcher at the Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique (CNRS) and member of the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale, Collége de France, Paris. His books include La raison lexicographique; découverte des langues et origine de l'anthropologie and Au coeur du sens; perception affectivité, action chez les Candoshi as well as the anthology, The Land Within: Indigenous Territories and Perception of Environment.
Contributors
Meg Adler | Writer
Beatrice Beugelmans | Writer
Natalia Chamorro | Writer
Benny Chueca | Writer
Margarita Garcia | Writer
Conrado Falco III | Writer
Daniela de los Rios | Illustrator
Molly Rockhold | Writer
Karisa Simchick | Writer
Support for Reimagining Us
Reimagining Us seeks to sustain its mission through foundation grants, corporate gifts, personal contributions, and in-kind support from like-minded agencies.
Reimagining Us is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Reimagining Us must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
