In November 2015, bryant designed a meal for the inaugural Black in Design Conference at Harvard University. Framed as a site-specific intervention, the menu functioned as both nourishment and provocation, aligned with the conference’s aims of recognizing the contributions of people of African descent to design fields, reclaiming marginalized histories within design pedagogy, and foregrounding the ethical responsibilities of designers to build just and equitable environments.

The meal extended the conference discourse into the body, using food as a medium to explore questions of labor, authorship, access, and cultural memory. Lunch was followed by a facilitated conversation on the cultural significance and legacy of “soul food”—interrogating not only whether it can or should be “healthy,” but how dominant narratives around health, public policy, and sustainability are shaped by power. Together, the meal and dialogue invited participants to consider where food comes from, who produces it, whom it serves, and how it operates as a carrier of history, identity, and care.

Viewed within terry’s broader studio practice, the project exemplifies his use of food as an artistic tool to activate collective reflection, challenge inherited assumptions, and reimagine design as an embodied, relational, and justice-oriented practice.

Visit here for more information about the 2015 conference.