‘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,” Coleman says. “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 is on Friday, April 12, and Saturday, April 13. On the first day, the brewery at 18th and Vine streets in Kansas City’s Historic Jazz District teams up with the local podcast “Beers with Nigel” to record a live episode. And the following day, there will be a screening of “One Pint at a Time,” a documentary that highlights and follows the journey of Black brewers around the country.

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

The documentary not only delves into the difficulties Black brewers face in the industry, but it 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,” Coleman says.

“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 drivers of 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,” McGinnis says. “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 said she is happy Vine Street is the one bringing the event to the metro and showing the community 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, including 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 National Black Brewers Association.

“We are still in the process of understanding what the scope of Black breweries are in the United States,” Hunter says. “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, which is in its fourth year, are excited about bringing this first-of-its-kind event to the Jazz District.

“Vine Street is changing the game,” Woodberry says. “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 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 that it was a prime location for reaching the local beer audiences.

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

He hopes the 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, Dreamland, in honor of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s iconic Dreamland Theatre that was destroyed in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In June, Vine Street Brewing will have its first-anniversary celebration, and it’s also planning 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.”