‘Changing the game’: Black brewers unite for screening of documentary in Jazz District

In just under a year, Vine Street Brewing Co. has become Kansas City’s ambassador for Black beer culture around the country.

The brewery’s founders and co-owners, Kemet Coleman and Woodie Bonds Jr., participate in national brewing competitions and have landed on multiple lists for new breweries. Now Vine Street, Missouri’s first Black-owned brewery, is bringing Black brewers from around the country to gather in the metro area this weekend.

“This is not just a local conversation we are trying to have,” says Coleman. “We are trying to bring these folks to Kansas City and also show the city the place we hold in these conversations about Black beer culture.”

The two-day event — Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 — will have the brewery, located in Kansas City’s Historic Jazz District, at 18th and Vine streets, teaming up with the local podcast, “Beers with Nigel” to record a live episode on the first day and the following day present a screening of the documentary “One Pint at a Time.” The film highlights and follows the journey of Black brewers around the country.

It “tells the story of Black brewers who are challenging the status quo and changing the narrative of craft beer culture,” according to information about the film on the Vine Street website

The film not only delves into the challenges Black brewers face in the industry, but also discusses their unwavering passion for creating high-quality beers.

The success and support that Vine Street has received, not only locally, but nationally, far exceeded expectations but “it was always the goal,” says Coleman. “This was the dream and it has gone past our dreams. We get to represent Black culture within the brewing space here in Kansas City and let the world know we are here,” he says.

The idea for this weekend’s event came about when the documentary premiered last year at the Kansas City Film Festival at a theater on Ward Parkway. The brewery was approached by the makers of the documentary to pour beers there for attendees and introduce themselves as people driving Black beer culture in the Kansas City metro area.

Annie McGinnis, another co-owner of Vine Street Brewing Co., was the one who attended last year’s screening and set the groundwork for this weekend’s event.

“Back in August I saw the film and it was awesome,” says McGinnis. “First the idea was let’s do a screening and it turned into seeing if the filmmakers would be interested in coming. It snowballed into this very large event with the people also in the film.”

She is happy for Vine Street to be the one that brings this event to the metro and shows the community just how deep the roots of Black brewing go in this country.

Vine Street brewery will be bringing in representatives from the biggest Black-owned breweries in the United States like Teo Hunter, co-founder of Crowns and Hops out of California and Jon Renthrope of Cajun Fire Brewing in Louisiana. Hunter, known in industry circles as a craft beer connoisseur, is also a Black culture activist and on the board of the Black Brewers’ Association.

“We are still in the process of understanding what the scope of Black breweries are in the United States,” says Hunter. “It has been a collective effort among many of us. The purpose of me even being here is to collaborate and celebrate a film, One Pint, and the chronicling of the experience of the Black brewer looking to establish community.”

Hunter says he is excited for a weekend of “beer and barbecue,” during his first trip to Kansas City. He hopes this weekend will inspire the next generation of Black brewers to join the growing movement and carve out their corner of the industry.

Kansas City residents, Nigel Woodberry and Nick Parker, who created the “Beers with Nigel” podcast — in its 4th year — are excited about the aspect of bringing this first-of-its-kind event to the Jazz District.

“Vine Street is changing the game,” says Woodberry. “It is one of the most diverse tap rooms, beer-wise, I have seen and I go all around the country.”

After experiencing a Black brewing festival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and seeing the overwhelming growth of breweries of color in the industry, the podcasters knew they wanted to bring something new and unique to Kansas City.

Woodberry and Parker met the, “One Pint at a Time,” filmmakers last year and pitched the idea of holding screenings at breweries around the country. They told them Kansas City has an up-and-coming Black-owned brewery and it was a prime location for reaching the local beer audiences.

Parker, who is the white person in the podcast duo, said that sitting and having beer with someone is his “way to learn about people and hear their stories.”

He is hoping that this documentary will help bring together the various corners of the brewery communities in Kansas City. And there is a surprise.

“The filmmakers just told us they had done a new cut so Kansas City is going to be seeing a cut that the world has never seen before.”

With 25 collaborations under their belt in just under a year, Vine Street Brewing continues to build bridges throughout the beer world and hopes to encourage fellow breweries to embrace other communities too.

This weekend the brewery will unveil its newest beer called “Dreamland” in honor of the iconic Dreamland theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma that was destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. In June the Vine Street Brewing Co. will have its 1st-anniversary celebration and is also planning on a beer and music festival in September called “Hip-Hops Hooray” that will combine the founders’ love of brewing and music.

Coleman says he and the other three founders are beyond motivated to push the envelope on what a Black-owned beer company is capable of.

He said that being an ambassador for Black beer culture in Kansas City, “is great,” but he’s even more honored to be a representative of the Historic Jazz District as other Black brewers from around the country come to his town..

“For us to have this iconic place in our name makes me really proud and it is a double blessing to represent Black culture within the brewing space in Kansas City.”