This breathtaking quilt depicts Black people’s impact on American food, 406 times over

Upon entering Aliko Dangote Hall at the Africa Center in New York City, you’re immediately confronted with the breadth and scope of the role African Americans have played in shaping our country’s food and beverage. Standing nearly 14 feet tall and 30 feet wide, the Legacy Quilt — part of the Museum of Food and Drink’s (MOFAD) latest exhibit — includes 406 blocks that illustrate Black people’s impact on American cuisine.

“We’re in a few thousand square feet and we’re trying to tell 400 years of history. How do we do that?” Catherine Piccoli, the museum’s curatorial director, said about the exhibit, “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table.” “We discussed early on the concept of a quilt — since quilts are so deeply rooted in African American culture — being part of the exhibition, and as we continued to talk about the quilt it became the sort of holding place, if you will, for telling as many stories as we could.”

Scheduled to run through June 19, a.k.a. Juneteenth, the first-of-its-kind exhibit puts Black people’s culinary contributions in agriculture, culinary arts, brewing and distilling, and commerce on full display and allows guests to see, experience, and taste — yes, there is food available — the results. In addition to the quilt, the exhibit includes the Ebony Test Kitchen, a bastion of African American cuisine that was saved from demolition by preservation nonprofit Landmarks Illinois, along with photographs, artifacts, and virtual reality experiences.

Slated to open in early 2020, like so much of the rest of the world it was delayed because of the pandemic. However, given the events of the past two years — including the debut of Netflix’s High on the Hog, a docuseries based on the book of the same name by Jessica B. Harris that details Black people’s vital contributions to American food — Harris says society might be more receptive to such an exhibition than previously.

“I think clearly living in the post-George Floyd, post-COVID world, post all of the litany of names that we are now aware of, has made people more sensitized and more open to hearing about actually how foundational African Americans have always been in the creation not only of American food, but in the creation of American culture,” Harris told the Washington Post. “It’s a no-brainer in terms of music. It’s a no-brainer in terms of dance. Arguably, it’s a no-brainer in terms of popular culture and fashion, but in terms of food, people hadn’t really thought it through. So I think this is now enjoining people to maybe have that thought as well.”

MOFAD, which has been around for nearly a decade, had always wanted to curate such an exhibit. But it wasn’t until 2017 when Harris, one of the foremost scholars on foods of the African diaspora, had the capacity to be involved that it was finally put it into motion. Though Harris is listed as the lead curator, she is quick to point out that a team of people worked on the exhibit. “It was very much a collaborative effort, and that cannot be said enough,” Harris said. On top of MOFAD’s curatorial staff, an advisory committee of about 30 people, including Carla Hall, Questlove, Toni Tipton-Martin, and Michael W. Twitty, was formed to bring the idea to fruition.

Though MOFAD once occupied a space in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, the intent was to always house "African/American" at the Africa Center, located at the nexus of Museum Mile and Harlem. "It was important for us that this exhibition be housed at an African or African American institution, and that we were near a historically Black neighborhood in the city," Piccoli said.

The Legacy Quilt was sewn by Harlem Needle Arts and features illustrations by graphic designer Adrian Franks. "The idea was to find 400 people, one for every year for the 400 years that were initially being celebrated when we were opening in 2020, which would have taken us from 1619 to 2020," Harris said, referring to the year enslaved Africans were first brought to America. "There are blank quilt squares to indicate the number of people that we just don't know and that are being discovered daily."

Food writer Osayi Endolyn was tasked with writing text to accompany each tile, and those words are displayed on a screen at the exhibit. "It kind of became a narratively based copywriting job. And as anyone who's a copywriter knows, that is some of the most important texts you'll ever read or write because it has so much potency and power," Endolyn told The Post. "It was my job to distill a lot of information down in just a very short space and to convey the who and the import of the what. That was difficult at times because you're talking about some incredibly profound people, especially under the circumstances that many of the earliest figures were in. It's just astounding."

"The innovation and their creativity and the artifacts that have emerged, whether it was people or things or ingredients that we were talking about, it's just such an incredible picture," Endolyn said. "It's so easy to succumb to the misinformation around the acquiescence of people who lived through slavery, and when you see the entrepreneurship and you see the innovation, it just challenges that on so many levels."

Even as someone with great interest in and knowledge of Black food, she first learned about many of the inventions and patents during the course of this assignment. "From whatever vantage point you're at, you just always know that as much as we are learning, there's still so much to learn and just so much that is likely lost," Endolyn said.

While experiencing the quilt in person to take in its breathtaking expanse is highly recommended, those unable to do so can view the Legacy Quilt Project online and even submit their own African American culinary heroes.

"With this ongoing digital quilt, we are now able to, as people find folks and as people propose folks, to update and continue the quilt. And so it becomes an ongoing process that really reflects that history is not static," Harris said. As part of this effort, the museum's education staff assembled a guide for teachers and school groups to do their own legacy quilt projects, which has already been put to use by at least one classroom.

A media event and friends and family exhibitions held in the week leading up to the grand opening gave Harris and the rest of the team the first opportunity to see the public's response. "It was kind of wonderful," Harris said. "Hopefully they will have learned something, thought of things, or found a connecting point that will bring it forward and move it onward."

“African/American: Making the Nation’s Table” is at the Africa Center’s Aliko Dangote Hall in New York City through June 19. Click here for tickets.