After being laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Georgetown University graduate and multitalented MacKenzie River Foy combined her skills and interests to create Village X (pronounced Village 10), a community centered around good food and fiction.
Each month she produces a magazine that she described as an incubator for culinary fiction. “Even though my interests are seemingly disparate, they all connect. It made a lot of sense to start this magazine,” she explained. “I do love cooking and I do write science fiction. If I am trying to get an idea out and I eventually produce a recipe and a sci-fi piece, it works best for that idea if they share the page. There are a lot of ways to know something, or to express something, and I find my expression most clear when I can incorporate the multiple aspects of my learning.”
Stay up to date with MacKenzie and the rest of the Village X team by following on Instagram and subscribing to the magazine on Patreon.
Laying the Foundation
Her interest in sci-fi began with the science aspect. “The sci-fi cannon is fascinating in where it has gone and where it can be,” commented Foy. “When I was younger, I was really into it. I started reading fantasy books at age nine. I read a lot of unpublished writers in middle school. Then I went to a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) high school and participated in hackathons, yet I still continued writing historical fiction in American history class.”
Even though she wanted to lean into another interest (cinema) during college, she never fully left STEM behind. “I began to use chemistry as a lens to better understand cuisine in my adult life. I have always been a mad scientist no matter what the task at hand,” she expressed. “I think this is a misunderstanding that people have had about me and even one I have had about myself — we are taught to learn disciplines and pursue careers in silos so when you made a crossover, it is seen as a big transition or switch-up.”
Georgetown doesn’t have a film major so she majored in American studies, while minoring in film and media studies. “That meant I had to do two thesis projects at the same time,” remarked Foy, who laughed at her own ability to make things more difficult for herself. “Senior year was overwhelming in every way, but I got through it. My American studies foundation interacts with my science history a lot with Village X. I could not have imagined how it all became one thing from cooking to storytelling, but it enabled me to use my academic pursuits of cultural studies and cultural geography.”
Her interest in cooking began in her home. “I grew up watching my mom cook, and helping my aunt and my grandmothers around the holidays. I was the sous chef in the kitchen and I was proud of it. That was my entry way into the kitchen,” she described. “Like the universe, I am always expanding. Science, fiction, and media were there in the beginning and will always remain at my core. Food has been a way that I know my family and it also has a place in everything I do and have done.”
She credits Georgetown’s location with expanding her knowledge in various aspects of food. “A lot of time spent outside of working on my theses was with food people. D.C.’s local food system is expansive, with a farmers market economy that takes over the city during certain seasons,” stated Foy. “Every summer, these small businesses needed help running their highly-trafficked markets so I would work for them. I met a lot of young people, slightly older than me, who were food entrepreneurs, doing both creative and traditional things and making it work without having a brick and mortar store.”
One of the first people she worked for was Rabia Kamara, who founded Ruby Scoops Ice Cream & Sweets in 2014. “I ended up helping her in her actual kitchen, where I met chefs and food stars of Tastemakers (which brings together taste makers and taste testers of the D.C. food scene),” she recounted. “I learned about how important ingredient quality is, especially in a global movement where food supply is threatened by climate change and global capitalism, dangerous processes for the earth.”
Foy also spent time working at a farm, the Three Part Harmony Farm in D.C. that produces healthy food through urban farming, which saves energy and promotes food sovereignty. “We are facing the consequences of extractive processes and pesticides for nearly 100 years,” she explained. “There are so many advantages to growing your own food. I would work for four hours on the farm on Saturdays and my payment was taking home fresh produce.”
As a film student, Foy delved into photography. “I learned a great appreciation for cinematography in school. I watched things like Moonlight, Queen Sugar, and Killer of Sheep. I became obsessed with the directing visions of (two-time Grammy Award winning director) Melina Matsoukas and filmmakers of the L.A. Rebellion,” she communicated. “They are often doing multiple things at once, but always producing powerful visuals and heart-stopping movements, the definition of beauty. The lighting, the camera movement, the colors in the shot all work intentionally to create an effect. By studying their cinematography, and studying color and lighting through my own photography, I was able to better execute my own concepts in writing and other forms of media. Those ingredients matter too.”
The Pandemic Accelerates the Timeline
When she was laid off in March due to the pandemic, she was forced to reevaluate her goals. “My big dream when I went to Georgetown was to write for television. When COVID set in, I realized I was not going to Hollywood,” she disclosed. “It is such a hard climate to break into and this was only going to make it that much more challenging. I thought about what I really liked about the idea of writing for TV and it was the writer’s room.”
She had always enjoyed writing. “I had been in small-scale writing rooms and it was so fun (which is also critical) and important to the work,” she said. “It is a privilege to feel like what you are doing is valued and worthwhile. I had good and generative ideas, even if they were not all good.”
Suddenly, the time was right for Village X. “I was thinking, I do know a lot of writers so let’s develop this concept. I wanted the writers’ room right now,” she explained. “I had the tools to meet this moment sufficiently and bravely with sure footing. I feel so privileged to have the foundation that I have and be able to readily hold space for writers and artists who are my friends.”
She began conferencing with selected writers about the themes of the magazine, giving them freedom to write in any way they want to, whether it be poems, short stories, archival pieces, drawings, and visual art. She has also been able to incorporate her photography into the magazine.
“It happened so fast, but it felt like it had been brewing for a long time. Once we jumped off with the concept, it was pretty much ready,” Foy articulated. “I knew how to make it work from all the things I had trained to do. Now it was a matter of taking a deep inhale of my learning and my experiences. Science is not as far from art as you might think. In science, you test, improve and test again. Art is the same way, cooking is the same way. It looks and tastes good because of how you approached the effort.”
Even in the non-fictional parts of the magazine, there is still room for storytelling. “One of my favorite gardeners in the city does a column and has brilliant recipes. People who grow food should know how to cook it and vice versa,” she pointed out. “Even with his column, there is still a character around it. The writer’s room environment allows us to create freely and collaboratively, but the food is simpler. I usually write the recipes myself. Sometimes the writers submit their own recipes too, which I love. Good stories can be complicated, but good food speaks for itself.”
Imagination and agroecology serve as the foundation of Village X and all the work Foy is doing. “Sci-Fi as a practice is already about building new worlds so coming from the tradition of cooking, I have to do something for myself that combines those things I love,” she illuminated. “Farming and agriculture acknowledge the natural ecological process that exists and works with them. That is something I apply to the magazine and try to as a philosophy in all my work. There are natural processes at work and the healthiest thing we can do is work with them across the board. I want to push agroecology to the forefront, following and honoring the natural processes at work.”
Combining Work and Social Justice
The first half of 2020 will certainly be remembered most for both the pandemic and racial unrest in the U.S. “As writers, it is critical that we use this moment to imagine what a better world will look like. Now is a chance to uplift that work, and to continue its legacy,” Foy explained. “Young writers engaging with the sci-fi canon and creating a new canon will give us language and visual language to describe the world we need. It will give us additional tools to describe the shortcomings of our current systems.”
Being a student of American history in and out of the classroom, Foy is well aware of what is at stake at this seminal time. “This is a revolutionary moment, a time for a cultural reset. My roommate said something haunting but funny in that COVID19 has caused more rapid change than electing the first black president did,” she said poignantly. “Representation doesn’t save us, and this moment is yet another reminder. We have queer Black women as mayors, sending armies to target and assault youth in the streets. We have Black landlords pushing their tenants out during a global pandemic. Individual efforts are not enough to dismantle a system designed to dominate communities. So it’s been really heartening to see organizers step up and back in this moment. The paradigm we’re moving towards is communities working together to solve problems, not unquestioned leaders.”
Inspired by the writings and teachings of Angela Davis and Mumia Abu-Jamal, Foy sees world building in terms of abolition. “A world with prisons is still a limitation. I have studied Critical Resistance, which seeks to end the prison industrial complex. People have been arguing for abolition as long as slavery has existed,” she stated. “Even as someone who identifies as an abolitionist, I know I have a lot to learn.”
Foy says that being an abolitionist flows well with the rest of her work. “I am really inspired by black artists. That really took off my freshman year of college as I had a community organizing fellowship all four years at Georgetown in different capacities,” she remarked. “I was working with local organizers on newsletters. The first time I was published was when I wrote a story about a Blue Lives Matter bill that was being passed.”
Like her magazine, Foy believes in a fluid approach to life and to imagining a better future. “I really like to be good at what I do. I believe in practice and training. When you practice and drill something, you can be better. Being in a politically intense moment calls for us to work harder, but for one another, rather than in a capitalist sense. As a person with a lot of privileges, I see learning and redistributing wealth as the most important steps toward achieving a safer world for everyone,” she ascertained. “I want to be part of collectives that take that work more seriously. As a queer black woman navigating systemic and interpersonal violence in spite of my privileges, I find this moment serves as a reminder that I deserve to rest.”
“Black women have always done the most work in the country, in the home, in the workplace, and in movement spaces,” Foy continued. “While I’m proud to be noticed and appreciated for my work, I am equally proud of the way I know how to relax, to eat well, to enjoy the company of others or my own company. I hope to use the life my ancestors have given me to spread awareness and appreciation about good rest as well as important work.”