AFRICAN/AMERICAN: MAKING THE NATION'S TABLE
Overview
African American contributions to our nation’s culinary culture are foundational and ongoing. For over 400 years, African Americans have inspired our country’s food through their skill, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Black foodways have shaped much of what we farm, what we cook, what we drink, and where we eat. At African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, we invited visitors to walk the fields, see the kitchens, and meet the people who show that African American food is American food.
Lead Curator - Dr. Jessica B. Harris
Dr. Harris is widely considered the world’s preeminent expert on the foods of the African Diaspora. Dr. Harris is the author of 13 critically acclaimed books and was recently inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Hall of Fame. In 2012, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture engaged Dr. Harris to conceptualize and curate the Museum’s acclaimed cafeteria. Following a 50-year teaching career at CUNY Queens College, and building on over four decades of work as an acclaimed journalist, African/American is a natural extension of Dr. Harris’s life work. As Dr. Scott Barton writes, “Dr. Jessica B. Harris has championed the heretofore invisible African American / African culinarians, rendering them visible and in plain sight.”
Highlights/Installation Images
The Legacy Quilt honors the countless African American food and drink producers who have laid the foundation for American cuisine. Standing at 14 feet tall and nearly 30 feet wide, this awe-inspiring object makes a powerful point: there are countless stories that deserve recognition. Share the story of your own African American culinary hero as part of the Legacy Quilt Project.
Take an immersive VR journey to explore the stories of African American farmer and herbalist Matthew Raiford and Jovan Sage at Gilliard Farms, and pitmasters Deborah and Mary Jones at Jones Bar-B-Q. Watch now on YouTube,
The Ebony Magazine Test Kitchen is a psychedelic, 1970s state-of-the-art kitchen. In 2018, Landmarks Illinois (LI) rescued the Ebony Test Kitchen from demolition and awarded MOFAD’s proposal to refurbish and restore the Test Kitchen for display in our exhibition. MOFAD was honored to open the doors of the Kitchen to visitors publicly for the first time. The Test Kitchen now has a new home at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Outside facade of the Africa Center which hosted MOFAD's exhibition, African/American: Making the Nation's Table. Photo by Francis Dzikowski
A visit to African/American concludes with a Shoebox Lunch tasting inspired by the Shoebox Lunch with recipes contributed by top African American chefs including Carla Hall, Chris Scott, Adrienne Cheatham, Tanya Holland, and Kwame Onwuachi. Image Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library
Inside the exhibition. Photo by Francis Dzikowski
Curatorial Team
Exhibition Advisors
The African/American advisory committee comprises some of the country’s most distinguished scholars, writers, chefs, and food and drink producers:
Scott Barton, food historian and professor
Gustave Blache III, artist and visual biographer of Leah Chase
Adrienne Cheatham, chef and star of Top Chef
BJ Dennis, chef and cultural activist
Charla Draper, former food editor of Ebony and Southern Living magazines
Carla Hall, chef, author, and television personality
Tanya Holland, author and chef/owner of Brown Sugar Kitchen
Tonya Hopkins, co-founder of James Hemings Society
Charlotte Lyons, former food editor of Ebony
André Mack, owner of Maison Noir wines
Adrian Miller, James Beard Award-winning author of Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine
Thérèse Nelson, founder of Black Culinary History
Garrett Oliver, Brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery
Kwame Onwuachi, James Beard Award-winning chef
Questlove, co-founder of The Roots, author, and entrepreneur
Matthew Raiford, chef and farmer at Gilliard Farms
Glenn Roberts, founder of Anson Mills and president of the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation
Jovan Sage, the Alchemist behind Sage's Larder
Marcus Samuelsson, television personality and restaurateur
Chris Scott, chef and star of Top Chef
Michael Skolnik, board member of the Trayvon Martin Foundation
Alexander Smalls, James Beard Award-winning co-author of Between Harlem and Heaven
Omar Tate, creator of the Honeysuckle dinner series
Nicole Taylor, author of the Up South Cookbook
Pierre Thiam, chef, educator, and author of Senegal
Toni Tipton-Martin, author of The Jemima Code and Jubilee
Michael Twitty, James Beard Award-winning author of The Cooking Gene
Colleen Vincent, Director of Culinary Community Initiatives at the James Beard Foundation
Jarobi White, founding member of A Tribe Called Quest
Psyche Williams-Forson, author of Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: Black Women, Food, & Power