Fork Famine: Ephemeron

Ephemeron, our fourth edition, is centered on the idea of fate. The ancient Greeks described humans as ephemeroi: creatures of a day, fragile and finite, in contrast to the immortality of the gods. The Fates, said to be more powerful than the gods themselves, were the arbiters of our ineluctable destinies. Clotho spun the thread at birth, Lachesis measured its length, and Atropos cut it at death.

The Igbo, too, speak of chi, the manifestation of the self in the spirit world, with whom a destiny is negotiated and agreed before conception.

Across an evening of courses and readings, characters sit caught in the contradiction of will against fate: human agency pressing against the caprices of destiny on one side, the metaphysical pact made before birth on the other. The evening will draw from fables, novels, sagas, and myths, including Boccaccio's Decameron, Herodotus's Histories and traditions further afield

A portion of proceeds from this edition will support We the People NYC, a community-based mutual aid collective dedicated to fostering a safe, equitable, and loving culture and addressing food insecurity in Bed-Stuy and Harlem.