I love a good cup of coffee, but if I'm being honest, I never really gave much thought to where my coffee came from or the history of this delicious beverage itself. That was until I learned about Cxffeeblack, a Memphis-owned coffee company, and its associated Anti-Gentrification Coffee Club. Founded in 2019, by husband and wife team, Bartholomew Jones and Renata Henderson, Cxffeeblack is a community-oriented, multi-disciplinary, education-based coffee company that’s centered around reclaiming coffee’s Black roots.

Coffee originates in Ethiopia, but because of trade and colonialism, there are now coffees that we’ve come to associate with various parts of the world, like Moka from Yemen or Java from the Indonesian island of Java. Although each of those countries or regions have their own coffee histories, we lose something when we only know history in part. We become disconnected from ourselves and one another.

Today I’m excited to share a very special episode of the Cxffeeblack podcast where host Bartholomew Jones sat down with Martin Mayorga of Mayorga Coffee & Sahra Nguyen of Nguyen Coffee Supply to discuss how they honor their roots through their coffee enterprises. As a bonus, I'm including a few snippets from previous Let's Grab Coffee episodes with Bartholomew Jones (Ep 108) and Renata Henderson (Ep 131).

Watch the award-winning "Cxffeeblack to Africa: documentary and the video episode of The Cxffeeblack Podcast on Bartholomew Jones' Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bartholomewjones5450

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a nationally recognized heritage month established in 1992 to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Asians in America. Currently there are over 22 million Asians across the US representing a range of ethnic groups originating in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Yet, oftentimes, the ways we think of Asian American history is tethered to the East and West Coasts. But Asians in America have a long history in the Deep South, a history that has garnered growing attention. Documentaries like “Far East, Deep South” and “Blurring the Color Line: Chinese in the Segregated South” follow the filmmakers as they explore their personal family histories. How does knowing these histories help us have a fuller and richer understanding not only of Asian Americans but also the South? And how might these histories be shaping our shared present and future? Today I sit down with Dr. Shaolu Yu, whose work examines these questions and more. Dr. Shaolu Yu is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and the Chair of Asian Studies at Rhodes College. Trained as an urban geographer in an interdisciplinary background and participating in projects in urban studies in China, the U.S., and Canada, she has developed a comparative and global perspective and a mixed method approach in her research on cities. Her papers have been published in the journals Annals of Association of American Geographers, The Professional Geographer, Urban Geography, Geographical Review, and The Journal of Transport Geography.

This year I had the honor of moderating a panel conversation at SXSW featuring Dominic Lawson, Leta McCollough Seletzky, and Chassidy Jade. You may remember Dominic from our February feature of his multi-award winning podcast, Black is America. Leta was a previous guest (Ep 97) discussing her book The Kneeling Man: My Father's Life as a Black Spy Who Witnessed the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Today I'm sharing our conversation with you!

Telling It Like It Is, Was, and Could Be

Whether it's uncovering hidden narratives or reinventing the familiar, this panel will inspire you to rethink how stories can captivate, challenge, and resonate in fresh and impactful ways. Join creatives representing film, podcasting, and creative writing as they delve into the techniques of narrative design that they use to push the conventional expectations of their fields, inviting audiences to find new meaning in the stories that shape our world. They’ll also explore the intentional choices and potential challenges to prepare for when offering new perspectives on well-known stories.