DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2023.1.3| WILLIAMS-FORSON: SEEKING THE ABSENT POTENTIAL_ INSIGHTOUT 1(2023) 40 exhibitions need to involve theory, practice, and ref­lection. Or, in short, praxis. Working from this point of view, I sought to“queer” the exhibition, which ac­cording to Sullivan and Middleton basically means to deviate from whatever is perceived to be the norm or the traditional, the dominant way of seeing things, specifically to push back on homophobia and trans­phobia. At the same time, there was an investment in shifting the narrative to challenge traditional power systems that viewed enslaved women, men, and chil­dren—of all ages, abilities, and sexualities who wor­ked in either(or both) the plantation household or the fields—as mere powerless servants. Consequent­ly, I embraced the position suggested by theorist Cathy Cohen, who rejects the label“queer” because it is“fraught with unspoken assumptions which inhi­bit the radical political potential of this category” 2 . labelling resources, and more, almost all museums have been, and continue to be, complicit in replicating and reproducing in­equitable power relations. Sullivan and Middleton include curatorial practices that can and should be queered to include“juxtapo­sing disparate objects; tracing object biographies; cataloguing diverse interpretations and multiple ontologies facilitating the emergence of previous­ly marginalised voices, knowledges, and forms of engagement; and acknowledging[...] structural violence” 4 . As the curator, I did not want to see in­equitable power relations perpetuated, and argua­bly, neither did the NLM, which is probably why they invited me to lead why they invited me to lead the project. Building on Cohen’s notion of freeing the radical po­litical potential of queer, I noted, too, what perfor­mance theorist Sandra Richards refers to as the“ab­sent potential” that was embedded in the description of the library’s goals for the exhibition:“to explore the nation’s first First Lady, Martha Washington, and food” and“to consider[...] the role of women and ens­laved peoples in preparing food for the family and/ or plantations, among other themes”. I wanted to do more than consider this possibility, I wanted to make it a central focus of the exhibition. Further thoughts about this interpretive project mir­rored one of the central claims found in Queering the Museum . That is,“museums can, and should be active participants in the articulation of critically engaged and socially transformative ways of knowing, being, [and] doing”. 3 And, this must be a goal because From collection practices to interpreta­tions, object placement, cataloguing and Meals Tell Stories/ Martha Washington+ Food – The Planning Meeting The exhibition design team and curators held their initial creative kick-off meeting in December of 2016 to explore potential narrative approaches for the project. During the first half of the meeting, I sat si­lent, listening to all of the perspectives and ideas. We walked into the meeting with the tentative title of the project being Martha Washington+ Food, and the goal of leaving the meeting with an agreed-upon sto­ryline that would inform and focus the research and development of the content and project schedule. As I sat there silent, taking notes, I thought about how intersectionality would inform this project but also about what was happening in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia during that time. The more I thought about these things, the more I saw the poten­tial to do more. Our exhibit’s completion would coin­cide with the opening of the Smithsonian Institution’s 2 Cathy J. Cohen,“Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?”, GLQ, 3/4(1997), 437–465, at 451. 3 Sullivan and Middleton,(see n. 1), 109. 4 Ibid., 110.