DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2023.1.3| WILLIAMS-FORSON: SEEKING THE ABSENT POTENTIAL_ INSIGHTOUT 1(2023) 45Banner 1 – Introductionto the ExhibitionThe flow of the exhibition follows the logic posited byNigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie, whose TEDtalk highlights“the danger of the single story”. Thatis the story that tells only one narrative of a person orgroup of people, thereby becoming the defining truth,no matter how false it may be. Part of an intersectional framework requires that this approach be debunked and that the myriad stories of Black lives cometo the fore. This was the aim and intention of the exhibition. As the story unfolds, the viewer is made awareof the various enslaved persons who help to ensurethat the meals are complete—the butler, Frank Lee, theteenage waiter, Marcus, and the cooks, Lucy and Nathan. By contextualising the cook’s day within a largerdiscussion of the labour and technology of enslavedpeoples, we can convey the various ways in which power informs meals, from food acquisition to preparation,presentation, consumption, to disposal. We can alsohighlight the“fires” of enslavement, especially in thekitchen, to reveal how brutal it was and how the workwas often forced with threats of humiliation, separation from family and community, even rape or death.The introductory banner and texts set the stage bycommunicating how meals can tell us how power isexchanged between and among different peoples,races, genders, and classes. It also highlighted theChesapeake region of the United States and the waysin which early Europeans relied upon the labour ofNative Americans on whose land they had settled, ofenslaved Africans who had been forcefully brought tothis new world, and of indentured servants for life-saving knowledge of farming and food acquisition. Thisbanner explained how settler colonialists used thesehuman resources, the natural environment, and maritime trade to gain economic prosperity. Finally, the firstbanner indicated that Mount Vernon was simply beingused as an example for exploring how labour was extracted and the ways that foods tell stories that arebeyond taste and sustenance.To convey this story, the banner included the frontalimage of the plantation site, a maritime compass, abody of water, and the visage of an enslaved womanthat mirrored the image on the diary page of the“Cooks Day” schedule. The banner colour was a warmbrown to imply the relatively somber tone of the narrative but also to prove to be inviting to viewers.Banners 2 and 3 – ProducingFood/ Negotiating PowerThe focal point for banners 2 and 3 were the waterways. Consequently, over half the banner is a darkblue representing the power of the Potomac Riverand maritime trade and activity. Banner 2 highlightshow power was negotiated between George Washington and the enslaved. Though Washington usedthe Potomac River for an extensive fishing enterpriseand grew food for sustenance and commerce, he relied upon the skill, labour, and knowledge of the enslaved at Mount Vernon for much of his wealth. Slavesused this position as a negotiating tool to bargain forlabour arrangements that provided some degree ofautonomy. To emphasise the possibility of this typeof negotiation taking place, we used a portion of thepaintingWashington at Mount Vernon, 1797,by Nathaniel Currier(1852), which depicted an enslavedman talking to a white man on horseback as if explaining a situation. We extracted this image to illustratethe possibility of negotiating.Rivers and waterways were important transportation routes and commerce centres. Markets wouldfeature food and luxury goods like imported coffees,but they also contained human chattel, in the formof a seemingly inexhaustible source of slave labour—men, women, and children. The waterways were alsoa means by which some enslaved people sought toescape by secreting themselves aboard boats andsteamships. To emphasise all of this, the banner contains images of slave ships as well as some of thegoods that could be found in the market. The display