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Cofounders: Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson intended to reinstate the origin, purpose, and integrity of cxffee through the knowledge of its Black history and being a part of its Black future, creating Cxffeeblack.
“What would happen if cxffee culture loved people of color as much as it loved their cash crops; and what if we cared for and celebrated single-origin people as much as we celebrated single-origin coffee?” These questions Jones posed as a social experiment, as he started both his musical journey and the journey to Cxffeeblack.
The name, “Cxffeeblack'' started as a musical metaphor that Bartholomew used to interconnect cxffee and Blackness. He wanted us to begin seeing ourselves as the way God intended us to be, without all of the cream and sugar of the world; but just you, beautifully, unique, and Black.
As they both traced the origins of cxffee back to Africa, they were also able to trace the significance of cxffee to their childhood.
For Bartholomew, it was his dad; a student of Lemoyne Owen College traveling to Kenya, falling in love with the culture, and learning about Kenyan coffee. His dad passed down the knowledge of Kenyan culture and the origin story of its coffee to him while he was a child.
For Renata, it was her grandfather, a sanitation worker marching alongside Dr.King with his canteen of coffee by his side while they fought for the rights of all sanitation workers. Seeing that canteen in her grandparent's house each day was like a medal of honor. Renata also got a chance to see African American traditions; witnessing the love her grandparents shared for one another, as they poured each other’s cups of coffee in the mornings.
Cxffee was always a part of the story, we just had to realize how far back the story went.
Layer by layer, if you could strip away all of the cream and sugar, you would witness coffee returning to its original state of Blackness. Similarly, if you could strip away all of the cultures and inputs that have layered themselves on coffee, you would trace its origin back to Blackness. From starting a business out of the house in North Memphis and achieving six figures in the first nine months with the launch of the signature roast, Guji Mane, Make Cxffee Black Again, is us setting the record straight of our history that was lost in the layers of cream and sugar.
The layers of slavery that diluted our identity and made our knowledge of ourselves, almost intractable. The secrets of our culture, lost in the bottom of the ocean, washing away the Blackness, but keeping the cream and sugar. As we navigate through a world of distilled cxffee, and remove the conditions we found our way back home, from Cxffeeblack to Africa.
To the land of Ethiopia, where the indigenous Ethiopian women taught Renata how to brew and roast cxffee, traditionally. To the city of Memphis, where Bartholomew wanted to create a space free of gentrification, and give opportunities back to the community, intentionally.
“We were going to go and meet the homies in Africa for the homies back in the hood in Memphis,” said Bartholomew Jones.
“Don’t cover my dreams, please.” Cxffeeblack, as a storefront, is the Anti Gentrification Cxffee Club, which acts as an embassy connecting the motherland to the lands of Memphis, TN.
It was important that this space could comfort Black Americans through relativity and cultural congruence; while encompassing traditional African artifacts and sharing the history and future of cxffee and Blackness.
As the movement, Cxffeblack continues to press forward to educate the community about the history of cxffee through the lens of Blackness; it also seeks to inspire the uniqueness, authenticity, and future of Black people. So, what do you think would happen if cxffee culture loved melanated folk as much as it loved their cash crops? Let’s find out together.
