Lunch Bunchers Statement

9.11.13

Revised 9.17.13

We are the Lunch Bunchers, a group of former Oakland, California classmates from Lincoln School in Chinatown. We meet for lunch once a month.  Darlene Joe Lee, the Oakland Chinatown activist, was central to our group.  Following a short illness she passed suddenly on September 6, 2012.  After her September 22nd memorial, Flo Oy Wong, an artist, invited us to make an art pie to honor Darlene.  The pie would be shown at Flo’s upcoming 75th birthday exhibit in November of 2013.  

Flo was inviting artists and non-artists to make art pies that would either deconstruct a stereotype or honor a person who helped to build our country.  It was a no-brainer decision for us.  We jumped at the chance to make a pie to honor Darlene, a major presence in Oakland Chinatown where she worked with seniors and at-risk youth.  She cared for them deeply.

To start our pie we shared memories.  What was Darlene's passion?  How did she touch us?  What did she enjoy doing? What objects and materials would represent her?  

One of the first things we thought about was Darlene’s love of eating out daily with her husband, Paul.  That thought became our tasty start!  We gathered menus from some of her favorite Chinatown restaurants.  At our first pie workshop we read the menus, cutting out names of her favorite foods. We stuffed those names into fabric pouches.  We created our first ingredients for the DJL Memorial Pie atop the pie crust that Marianne Ong Siu knitted. All this time, we checked with Paul and their daughters, Pam and Suzanne, who gave us more ideas.  We added family photographs, candy that she loved to give out and memorabilia of Disneyland and the Oakland A's.  Our ingredients reflect the spirit of Darlene.

We met every two months in 2013 to finish the pie over food and friendship.  It was a delicious way to affirm our love for Darlene.  

We are grateful to Theresa Because, Flo’s assistant, who guided the making of Darlene's pie.      

For the exhibition, Flo invited 75 local, regional and national artists to contribute art pies.  All of these works created by Wong and the invited artists share a common thread.  They are narratives which either address the deconstruction of a stereotype or tell the stories of under-represented men and women whose lives and hard work have made a significant yet unknown difference in this country.