First filmed at Jamaica Flux 2016 and screened at Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning • Jamaica, Queens • 4 June 2016
In 2016, Jeffrey Allen Price and Juan López Espantaleón launched This Is How I Say Potato, a participatory film and oral history project exploring language, culture, memory, and human connection through the simple act of saying the word “potato.” Developed during the three-month Jamaica Flux 2016 residency in Queens, New York, the project was inspired by the extraordinary linguistic diversity of one of the most multicultural communities in the world.
Participants were invited to share how they say, sing, and scream the word “potato” in their native language while also discussing family traditions, favorite recipes, personal memories, jokes, songs, films, works of art, and cultural associations connected to potatoes. Throughout the residency, Price and López Espantaleón conducted a series of recording sessions that culminated in the public presentation of the project at the conclusion of Jamaica Flux 2016.
Unlike many earlier Think Potato Institute projects, which focused primarily on exhibitions, collections, performances, or festivals, This Is How I Say Potato shifted attention toward participation, oral history, and cultural exchange. The project transformed the potato from an object of study into a catalyst for conversation, allowing participants to contribute directly to a growing archive of Potato Humanities.
Following its debut in 2016, the project continued to expand through additional recording sessions held at the Charles B. Wang Center, libraries, classrooms, private homes, exhibitions, community events, Iona University, and other locations throughout New York. The current version of the film features more than 100 participants sharing over 65 different ways of saying “potato,” while the larger archive contains more than ten hours of recorded interviews, stories, songs, jokes, memories, and cultural documentation.
Since its creation, This Is How I Say Potato has been exhibited and screened at museums, galleries, and cultural institutions including the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, the Charles B. Wang Center, the Bridgehampton Art Musuem, the Islip Art Museum, the Global Center for Latvian Art, and other venues in the United States and abroad.
Today, This Is How I Say Potato remains an active and ongoing project. Conceived as a living archive rather than a finished document, it continues to collect new languages, stories, and participants while demonstrating the Think Potato Institute’s commitment to participation, cultural exchange, and the global study of potato culture.
Related Projects:
→ THIS IS HOW I SAY POTATO (2016–Present)
Film Coverage:
2025 — The Spud Has Its Day in the Sun — The East Hampton Star
2024 — MainPotRe during Vidzeme Innovation Week 2024— Interreg Baltic Sea Region
2019 — The Art of Collaboration — The Islip Bulletin [PDF]
Project Archive:
→ Official Facebook Page for THIS IS HOW I SAY POTATO