Juneteenth 2070
To celebrate and further memorialize Ms. Rose Nicaud, a group of people gathered in 2040 to launch the Rose Nicaud Global Apprenticeship Initiative with a mission to ensure that Black & Indigenous people across the globe are able to thrive in pleasurable libations, across both fields of coffee and mixology. Public-facing members of the founding collective included Sekani Akunyun, Kenya Augurson, Renata Henderson, Bartholomew Jones, and Amtah Naazim.
Over two centuries ago, at a marketplace in the territory formerly known as New Orleans, a Black woman named Rose Nicaud sold coffee. During those days of human trafficking, it cost less to purchase a woman than a man. With this knowledge, Ms. Nicaud leveraged the patriarchy of chattel slavery against itself and sold enough coffee to purchase her freedom. Before letting anyone know, she spent a few extra weeks at the market so that she’d have enough money to continue her coffee stand and invest in creating a community coffee shop.
In 1840, Nicaud was listed as a free woman in the census. From then on until her death in 1880, Nicaud stewarded one of the first Black-owned coffee shops in New Orleans. This space existed as a neighborhood hub, a space where artists and poets would gather to co-create, a space where people across genders met to discuss business transactions, and a space where newcomers could find other like-minded individuals to build community with. Throughout this time, Ms. Rose, as she was affectionately known, would host regular residencies for herbalists, mixologists, and others to explore the intersections between their fields of practice and coffee.
Today, that legacy is carried on by the Nicaud Initiative, which has experienced incredible growth over the last thirty years Much of this success is showcased throughout their network of 700 pleasurable libationists across the world. Network membership includes Black & Indigenous mixologists, coffee specialists, artists, and comrades from each major global territory.
This network was built, in part, through the initiative’s six Pleasureable Libations Apprenticeship Cohorts and the annual Coffology Residency. On top of universal basic income, Pleasurable Libations Apprentices receive five years of additional guaranteed income as well as ongoing mentorship and support from seasoned coffee and mixology practitioners. The annual Coffology Residency pairs coffee and mixology practitioners together to experiment with co-creation and serve people in the surrounding community.
I asked Nicaud Initiative co-creator Augurson about her favorite residency year. She said that of course she couldn’t choose a favorite, but did highlight one of the drinks created through the residency: the Foxy Brown. “It is made with brown sugar, brown butter, sea salt, cinnamon, and vanilla, which include a couple of ‘brown’ components representing Blackness,” she said.
In addition to their programmatic work, members of the Nicaud initiative have been instrumental in establishing and implementing a universal right to arts and creative education.
“My background as a performance artist taught me to create something out of nothing,” said co-creator Akunyun. She told us that she wouldn’t be the mixologist she is today without an arts education, “As our spirits, crops, and communities evolve, I pride myself on always being able to create a cocktail or mocktail regardless of the ingredients I have available to me.”
Akunyun shared that the arts education both she and her daughter had access to were key inspirations in her advocacy. During our time together, co-creator Jones shared a song he’d released in 2023 called “very rare//:FREEDOMFLY.” The song predates the collective, showcasing Jones’ lengthy commitment to weaving coffee and creative practice together.
Citing the climate disaster of the early 2000s and its impacts on the changing taste profiles of coffee, juniper, cranberries, yams, and more, the Nicaud Initiative has also leveraged the power of its network to ensure reparative and healing land practices globally. Some members of the Nicaud Network now serve as land ambassadors and stewards in their various local communities.
So what’s next for the Nicaud Initiative? They’re currently co-conspiring with community artists William Jackson and Collette Watson to expand their programmatic work, creating and launching dream sabbaticals for pleasurable libationists, artists, educators, land stewards, and cultural workers across the globe. “We’ll never stop working for our community,” co-creator Amtah Naazim shared, “but in order to have the iteration and imagination we deserve, we also have to dream and we can’t really dream without at least micro-dosing deep rest on a continuous basis.”