During the 2022–2023 academic year, bryant terry was a fellow in the Abolition Democracy Fellows Program, a project of the Black Studies Collaboratory at University of California, Berkeley. The program takes its name from Black Reconstruction by W. E. B. Du Bois and convenes artists, activists, and scholars to advance the interdisciplinary, political, and world-building commitments of Black Studies.

Over the course of the fellowship, terry expanded his studio practice through experimentation with new forms and methodologies, including Visual Food Data, a series of research-driven mixed-media works, and Sacred Larder, a sculptural and social practice project rooted in ancestral food preservation traditions. For Sacred Larder, he cultivated relationships with three Black farmers in Northern California, sourcing ingredients directly from them to engage in practices such as canning, pickling, drying, and fermenting. These processes informed the creation of a pantry-based sculptural installation that would later anchor his MFA thesis exhibition in Art Practice at UC Berkeley.

As the culmination of the fellowship, terry organized and moderated a public program titled Sacred Larder: Uplifting the Histories and Memories of Traditional Food Preservation Techniques in the Black Community. The panel centered the voices and expertise of his farmer collaborators—Will Scott Jr., Kanchan Dawn Hunter, and Pandora Thomas—foregrounding their lived experience, ecological knowledge, and cultural stewardship. The event also included a live intergenerational performance with terry’s mother, Beatrice Terry, channeling her own mother through song, as well as a collaborative performance with Brooklyn-based artist Joshua Gabriel.

You can view the event here.