Cxffeeblack Barista Exchange Program
The Cxffeeblack Barista Exchange Program: an innovative program where the Cxffeeblack team is seeking to re-imagine the role of coffee in the African story by partnering with 8 young coffee lovers of African descent at the Anti Gentrification Coffee Club.
The program aims to bridge a glaring gap – African baristas paying hefty fees to foreign instructors for certification while their generational coffee knowledge remains untapped, and African American baristas shut out from the opportunities to reconnect to the origins of coffee, ironically mirroring their own origins as descendants of the enslaved.
BXE MERCH
GOFUNDME PAGE
[COMPLETE November 2023] Phase 1: First, Cxffeeblack will bring four African-American aspiring coffee nerds on an two week origin trip to Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Kenya in the last two weeks of November 2023, for a chance to learn from baristas at origin about the histories and traditions of pre-colonial Black Coffee culture, and collaborate on what the restoration of this generational thinking could look like for the diaspora 100 years in the future.
Phase 2: The second half of the exchange will see four African baristas being flown out to Memphis for two weeks in the fall of 2024 to prototype culturally content business models in coffee and train at the Anti-Gentrification Cxffee Club, ending in a trip to visit other melanated coffee shops across the cross country coffee crawl starting in Memphis ending at the NY Coffee Fest in NYC
1. "Voices from Origin" panel conversation and brew up at the Institute for Coffee Studies at Vanderbilt University.
2. The "Barista Exchange Cafe Tour" will visit key cafes in Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh NC, and New York to share cultural innovations in coffee and brews from origin, featuring the Anti Gentrification Cxffee Club, Black & White, and more.
3. A documentary is in progress for Phase 1, and we will screen the finished product during the tour while hosting panel conversations ant participating cafes about the importance of recognizing Africa's contribution to coffee.
4. All applicants, whether accepted or not, will have be able to contribute to and access the Cxffeeblack virtual curriculum prototype in our discord where members will be able to freely share coffee knowledge and inspiration for culturally congruent coffee business in the African Diaspora and beyond.
Create the next phase of coffee, returning the fruit to its roots. Scholarship 4 continental baristas from our trip to the motherland to come to this side of the diaspora and compete the cypher.
Cxffeeblack Barista Exchange Recap #1 // Why Black Baristas? Buna Qualla