CL-054 Stephanie Grant Tells a Tale of Two Cities
I love interviewing Good Beer Hunting contributors in these Collective episodes, mainly because I get to learn behind-the-scenes stories that might otherwise have been left on the cutting-room floor. Hearing about our writers, their lives, and their sources of inspiration lends new context to their work\u2014and makes their already-accomplished articles feel even more complete.
Today, I\u2019m talking with Stephanie Grant, who wrote \u201cDrinking While Black\u2014The Isolation and Loneliness of Navigating All-White Taprooms,\u201d published on our website on June 25, 2020. This piece has lived a lot of lives. It was first commissioned before COVID-19 effectively shut down taprooms around the country, and later had to adapt to the new, post-pandemic world. It morphed again after the murder of George Floyd, and subsequent nationwide Black Lives Matter protests. Ultimately, Stephanie's essay is intentionally dualistic, contrasting her experiences drinking in taprooms in Asheville, North Carolina\u2014an overwhelmingly white city long known as "Beer City USA"\u2014and the much more diverse city of Atlanta, where she's based.
That tension\u2014and that pull between two totally different experiences\u2014is no accident. Stephanie studied information design and communication, and thinks a lot about how people take in information. This shows up in her current work as a social media manager for Monday Night Brewing in Atlanta, and is especially important now, given how many breweries and brands are relying on social media to communicate with their customer base. Stephanie\u2019s story is also personal\u2014she\u2019s used to highlighting others, and working behind the scenes, but this piece was a journey in telling her own story. We talk about finding the moment where you realize the most powerful story you possess is your own. Here\u2019s Stephanie.