David Drake was a slave in Edgefield, South Carolina, where he lived on a plantation owned by Harvey Drake, a potter. David had vision. He started producing stoneware jugs in the 1820s and kept at it until his death in the 1870s. Although there’s not much information about this masterful artist, we know he was also a poet—a punishable offense after South Carolina’s Negro Act of 1740, which prohibited enslaved Africans from learning to read and write. According to multiple sources, Drake had a missing leg, the consequence of a violent beating. This exhibition focuses on Black potters of the 19th century, such as Drake. Fifty ceramic objects from the Old Edgefield district are paired with contemporary responses by current star sculptors Theaster Gates and Simone Leigh. —Elena Clavarino