Creative Strategist Naz Riahi on Building Equity in Food Culture

BY VICKY GU
APRIL 28, 2020

This week, we check in with Brooklyn-based strategist and program curator Naz Riahi on building a more just and equitable future for food programming, both physical and digital.

Naz is the founder of Bitten, an events series and consultancy that positions food as a pillar of culture. She earned her stripes in the ad and art worlds and currently works with brands and agencies as a creative director and experiential strategist—designing campaigns, partnerships, content and events across industries. Her creative practice includes filmmaking and writing. Her memoir, Bad at Love, is forthcoming.

Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @nazriahi.

Tell us about Bitten—and anything else you’re working on.

Bitten is a cultural events series I've been putting on for the last several years. It's grounded in food and explores culture and I've hosted seven main stage events with over 100 speakers and thousands of attendees. The event is mostly known for the quality of talks. We were covering cultural appropriation in food before it was a mainstream topic, we explore our hidden identities and pains, the now too-often tragic journey of bees, how to start a business in 30 days, all the ways in which art and food are interconnected and much more. It's truly an extraordinary and magical event. It is not a fake museum with Instagram backdrops or a series of brand sponsored talks, and that's why it's so meaningful, but that's also why it's so difficult to put on.

A project like this needs a financial champion who wants to be involved because they believe in the work and in the people who are gathered to speak and attend. Unfortunately, most brands spend their money on impressions (they are more concerned with the number of people in the room and the social reach) than impact. So that said, it's on hold, until someone great rises to the occasion and supports the next gathering. 

The other aspect of my work is program curation and culture first creative and strategy, which I do for select clients and quite love. This time of quarantine has been spent working on my writing. I'm a creative writer with an MFA. I've published a number of essays and stories and am working on a memoir and a TV show based on the memoir. It's an exciting time for that and I'm glad to have the space to focus on it. You can read an essay about love here, an essay about grief here and a very long essay about girlhood in Iran, here.

In these unknown times, how do you view your social responsibility as a strategist and programming curator, working with the food & hospitality industry?

I think more than ever, it comes back to people. At this moment, I don't give a damn about another pair of boots or a new dress (things that on a good day are destroying our environment) but I do care about all the fashion brands that are pivoting to make protective gear, all the restaurants that are back in their kitchens to feed frontline workers. I think this is a moment for us to get back to our humanity and I hope that after this pandemic we don't go back to the way things were, but to recreate our world to be much better, more just and equitable. 

As a strategist and program curator, I'm eager to get back to work and help brands, envision their future—what they offer and how they engage with the world, from their stores to their social media, from their neighbors and employees to their manufacturers and partners. 

What’s the biggest impact you see COVID having on physical/digital gatherings, and how can we adapt to it?

I've been very impressed with how brands have adapted to digital gatherings in a very short and quick time. I think the next iteration of that will be more thoughtful—less about adding to the chaos and the noise and more about creating valuable experiences (for example, not all brands need to host their own Instagram Live videos, but they can be valuable in supporting creators who are doing a more sincere experience). Likewise, I hope that we as a people and the brands who create experiences for us, can be more empathetic to those who weren't able to gather for whatever reason and we continue to provide digital opportunities for them to be included. I'm thinking about LACMA which is doing a great job hosting film screenings live on YouTube.

And, of course, after this, people will be thrilled to gather IRL again. I hope that those gatherings will be more thoughtful, as well. Less about fake museums and disposable experiences with Instagram backdrops (that are terrible for culture and our environment)  and more about meaningful connections, inspiration and education. I hope we can go back to a moment when people can stand in front of a painting and think about it/talk about it, as opposed to take a shitty photo of it to post, and move on.

As for Bitten, I'd like to do more frequent, smaller activations, as well as our annual main stage events and am seriously considering a no phone rule. I don't care about being on Instagram, I do care about getting an email from an attendee saying "I learned more in one day at Bitten than I did in my entire masters in food studies program at NYU." (That's an actual quote! From an attendee!)

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve read, watched, or listened to recently?

I'm obsessed with Pamela Aldon and her brilliant show, Better Things. I have never felt so connected to a woman I've seen on TV and the story she's telling. I'm listening to the new Fiona Apple album on repeat and loving her genius. I'm watching a lot of films on Criterion Collection and I'm reading a lot of Forough Farrokhzad poetry. She's my favorite Iranian poet (second to my grandfather who was an amazing, revered poet and lyricist) but the translations of her poems into English are dismal. So, I'm slowly translating them, one verse at a time. 

What’s bringing you joy right now?

Every phone call and Facetime with someone I love, someone I haven't talked to in a while, someone I miss. It's truly a joy. Experimenting with YOLA Mezcal cocktails. My favorite so far is a drink I call Rosie. Recipe below. And, art. Art more than ever, books and poems and songs and films. Reading about painters, watching documentaries. All the world I haven't been to that come to life for me. All the stories. I thank the universe and all the artists every day. 

What’s tough about right now?

Our government. I am dismayed, disgusted and heart broken by the actively evil and unkind and apathetic and unintelligible leadership about 20 times a day. Every single one of us needs to get out and vote and get Trump out of office. And while we're at it, Mitch McConnell has a real contender for his seat in Amy McGrath. Everyone who can, should donate a few dollars to her campaign. 

Give us a recipe.

Rosie: YOLA Mezcal with a splash of grapefruit juice, a bit of seltzer, a hint of rose water and a pinch of Maldon salt.