Tunde Wey opened a restaurant in Detroit in 2013. A year later, realizing that the influx of capital to the city was not contributing to an inclusive revival but to the profit of those already “fluent in the language of privilege,” Tunde left the restaurant and moved to New Orleans. He now travels around the country holding dinners, using food as a medium to have conversations about race, equity, and cultural values. Recently, the Nigerian-born chef and writer has received national press for Saartj, his lunch counter in New Orleans where white patrons were asked to pay $30 per plate and people of color were charged $12 per plate as a way to call attention to racial wealth disparity. Participants of color could “opt-in” to receive the profit redistribution. In Ann Arbor, Tunde will host two private dinners for local residents and advocates concerned with equity and race, and will offer food truck conversations for four nights.

At the Ann Arbor District Library, artist and Stamps School Professor Rebekah Modrak (whose works, such as Rethink Shinola, critically intervene in consumption) will moderate a conversation with Tunde about his work as a chef, his decision to use food as provocation, the possibility of transforming consumptive acts through dinners and pop-up restaurants, discriminatory development, racial wealth disparity, and the importance of self-determination in affecting the outcomes of your life and community. 

Tunde’s talk is co-sponsored by the Ann Arbor District Library, The Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning, and Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design.