International Women's Day Celebration & Panel Event - 3/8/21

In February 2019, business leader, author, and speaker Phyllis Johnson gave a compelling keynote speech at a major coffee conference in Kigali, Rwanda, focusing on how coffee professionals need to pay more attention to black consumers and to value the women who are "the backbone of the industry." Inspired by her words, we decided to celebrate International Women’s Day with a conversation to address the intersection of race and gender.

The invited panelists were Ciera Young of Mama's Brew Coffee, Cydni Patterson of Caravela Coffee and Furaha Umwizeye of Kivubelt Coffee - Teuscher Invest Ltd. In this conversation, we talked about how to see and serve your community, integrate racial and gender awareness into all aspects of our work in coffee, and covered multiple action items for pursuing racial justice within any role.

During ticketing, we encouraged donations — and we raised $800 for the International Women's Coffee Alliance (IWCA) Global.

We are incredibly grateful to Phyllis Johnson, Sara Drabik of NorseMedia and Northern Kentucky University, and the IWCA for their support for the content in this program. Special thanks go to co-hosts and moderators Ruth Ann Church of Artisan Coffee Imports and Sum Ngai of Coffee Project NY.