How to get labels to display over graphic

I've created a graphic polygon that is actually a polygon with the center cut out (I created it using ITopologicalOperator.Difference to remove the smaller polygon from the larger one).

Now I want the labels on my map to display in the cutout area of my polygon. I found a suggestion to set IBarrierProps.Weight on my graphics layer and tried setting the weight to 0 hoping that the labels would then display but no luck.

Any suggestions for me?