On April 3, neighborhood based mostly arts and music venue Yes We Cannibal introduced it might be closing on April 21 to change into a innovative, gestalt eating restaurant known as Can-I-Ball.

This luxurious eating service provided dinners at $50 per individual for a 7 course meal for April 21, April 22, April 28 and April 29. On the twenty ninth, the press convention after the meal revealed that this was all a staged inventive endeavor from Nigerian chef, artist and author Tunde Wey.

Tunda Wey’s website reveals that he “uses nigerian food to interrogate colonialism, capitalism and racism” and has “been featured in The New York Times, NPR, GQ, The Washington Post, VOGUE, Black Enterprise, Food and Wine.”

The Baton Rouge neighborhood responded rapidly to the announcement of Yes We Cannibal closing with one Instagram remark studying “So where did y’all’s marbles go?”

Continuing with the deception, Yes We Cannibal made a put up quoting The Economist’s “In Praise of Gentrification” from 2018, which acquired additional backlash from those that felt Yes We Cannibal had forsaken its mission and forgotten those that it was constructed for. Comments on this put up learn “There’s no way this is real.” and “The phrase ‘avant garde speakeasy’ makes me want to put a power drill through my temple.”

However, this was all a part of Wey’s master-plan which was to have an area the place eating and artwork may very well be mixed to behave as a performative reenactment of gentrification that will act as a commentary on racism, capitalism, provide chains and alienated labor and the connections between these matters. 

Despite opposition, the restaurant was successful. Yes We Cannibal revealed on its instagram that Can-I-Ball “was a fully functioning prix fixe restaurant that operated for two weeks and served about 50 people.”

However, the dinner itself was way more difficult. On April 29, a gaggle of company arrived at Yes We Cannibal for the dinner with many wearing fashionable date evening garments. The company had been introduced inside and advised they weren’t allowed to take a seat on the tables for now and that they need to sit on cushions on the ground for “mingling time.”

The partitions had been lined in balloons which Wey later stated had been impressed by the story of his mom’s beginning. He defined that the docs couldn’t find his mom’s head in his grandmother’s womb when she was pregnant, and this data rapidly unfold as information all through their city that his grandmother had a “headless baby.”

“My grandmother, when my mother was born, said that my mother hid her head from heaven,” he said. “When I did this project in Pittsburgh, the balloons were sort of like in a cage with the balloons over the cage, and it was a reference to that.”  

Soon, the company had been introduced again exterior then known as in one after the other to placed on their “new skin.” Each visitor was assisted by a server into a big stable colour sumo-esque bodysuit with a masks over their face and gloves overlaying their fingers.

This was meant to simulate life-support fits in a darkish future the place they’re wanted to outlive and the way that will change communication and eating.

“This dinner was rooted in this post-apocalyptic future where we are hiding ourselves from heaven and other things,” Wey stated.

As the variety of company left exterior dwindled down, two company refused to be part of it and determined to depart earlier than they may very well be known as inside to be put into the fits.  

After being put into the fits, company had been positioned at tables with folks they didn’t know and advised the principles of the dinner. No one was allowed to talk for themselves; as an alternative, they need to name a server over and whisper what they wish to say into the server’s ear for the server to announce to others. Next, folks might solely elevate up their masks to their nostril to uncover their mouth when they’re consuming or consuming, in any other case, it should at all times be fully on. Lastly, no telephone utilization or photos of any type in the course of the meal. 

Then, the company had been subjected to a 7-course meal ready by Wey. Each course was vegetarian and gluten-free. In between the programs, the company got prompts to reply by a speaker that echoed all through your complete room.

Some of those prompts had been “What is the most memorable dance you’ve had in your life?” or “What was one thing you wanted to be when you were a kid that you aren’t now?” Guests would then must name their server over to announce their reply to the questions or touch upon one other visitor’s reply to the query.

Then, the voice from the speaker commanded the company to face up and dance. After, the voice requested us to level to who danced the perfect, then the voice commanded for that individual to sing their favourite track in entrance of the room. Finally, they needed all company to hitch in singing that individual’s favourite track.

At one other level, the company had been made to march across the room in a circle whereas the voice from the speaker sang. Then lastly, all company had been made to sing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from “Monty Python.”

Wey defined that this artwork set up had a connection to loss of life in addition to social loss of life. By inserting folks into uncomfortable conditions the place identification is blurred behind the swimsuit, they’re pressured to rethink how they convey. In 2022, Wey’s mom handed away.

“This is an exploration of death in a different sort of way,” he said.

“People have cried, people have had to leave due to various things affecting them,” the co-founder of Yes We Cannibal Matt Keel said. “I feel really reverent about that, I feel really honored about that to sort of see people have something in them budge in some kind of artistic space or experience. It’s really refreshing for me and encouraging.” 

True to their standard anti-profit ideology, Yes We Cannibal didn’t make any revenue throughout this restaurant set up.

“When we started working on this project, there was a lot of talk about supply chains, labor, gentrification, the way that dining plays into those things,” co-founder Liz Lessner stated.

Yes We Cannibal paid for this endeavor by grants from the Arts Council of Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, EBRPL, The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, LSU School of Art and Visit Baton Rouge.

The $50 greenback ticket charges went straight to the servers who had been paid $50 {dollars} an hour for the work and every made about $1000 {dollars}.

“One of the things about Yes We Cannibal that Liz and I have always been interested in is that it’s really good that there is a lot of discussion about identity and social justice at this time,” Keel said. “It’s also a little stuck in places, so how do we experiment with talking about these same things but finding new languages, new conceits, new spaces where something new can happen.”