African/American: Making the Nation’s Table
African/American: Making the Nation’s Table
This first-of-its-kind exhibition reveals the stories of innovators, cooks, mixologists, and entrepreneurs as it emphasizes that African American food is American food.
FREE
The Africa Center
May 01, 2022 to July 17, 2022
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Exhibition details

The centerpiece of the exhibition, the Legacy Quilt—illustrated by Adrian Franks, sewn by the quilting collective Harlem Needle Arts using period-appropriate fabrics, and featuring blurbs on each block by writer Osayi Endolyn—depicts, through traditions stitched together and interconnected across the Diaspora, space, and time, a selection of hundreds among countless stories that deserve recognition. This awe-inspiring artifact stands 14 feet tall and nearly 28 feet wide.

More details

While the Legacy Quilt offers a breathtaking panorama, the Ebony Magazine Test Kitchen—saved from wreckage thanks to preservationists Landmarks Illinois and accessible to the public for the first time in history —offers immersion into a specific institution (and its vivid, Afro-Modernist aesthetic representation of its historic moment) that served as a culinary touchstone for more than two generations of African Americans.

Location

The Africa Center
1280 5th Ave
New York, NY 10029

Image: Johnson Publishing Co Test Kitchen / photo courtesy of Lee Bey Architectural Photography