Beer Kulture In St. Pete Gives To The Black Culture

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A St. Pete woman is working through a non-profit craft beer organization to widen the craft beer culture within the Black community.

Latiesha Cook, a Black woman, developed a passion for increasing craft beer knowledge to minority communities in 2017. She has taken that desire to her new position as president and CEO of St. Pete's Beer Kulture.

Beer Kulture announced on July 21 that it relaunched as a nonprofit to expand the craft beer community into communities of color.

"My husband and I love craft beer, and I noticed that when we were at a brewery, we were usually the only Black or brown people in the room," Latiesha Cook told Patch. "Out of seeing the lack of diversity over and over again, we decided we wanted to create a voice for the community, and space so that people would feel they belonged."

She and her husband of 16 years, Dom Cook, bought craft beer and started sharing it in minority communities.

"Most people in the community would say, 'Wow, this is good. I've never heard of craft beer. Where can I buy this,'" Latiesha Cook said.

By continuing to share their beer knowledge, their community voice became popular. Her husband became a certified cicerone to further his knowledge, and Latiesha Cook became a certified beer server.

Latiesha Cook wanted to bring her knowledge to a wider audience, so she decided to partner with Beer Kulture.

"The Beer Kulture vision is to be the change, do good in our communities and build a brighter tomorrow by starting with what we can do today,” explained Latiesha Cook. “When we say that beer has the ability to change and shape the world, we mean it. We have an opportunity to reach beyond the taproom and touch the heart of our communities, and ultimately, the world. Beer is the entry point to start conversations and bring people together to create change.”

One of Beer Kulture's goals is to partner with breweries that are already doing inclusion and equity work in their space. Latiesha Cook wants to create collaboration beers that would raise money to help not only minority communities, but communities that are already doing great things around St. Pete.

A local partnership with Green Bench Brewery was formed, and they were able to donate $7,000 to a local charity from the proceeds of Kulture Khronicles, a craft beer created for the purpose of raising money for charity. Latiesha Cook said they are going to start a second round of raising money to donate with Green Bench to give to Building Beds, a 501 (c)(3)in St. Pete; an organization that builds beds and delivers them to children who sleep on floors across Pinellas County.

The owner of Green Bench Brewery, Khristopher Johnson, serves as vice president on the Beer Kulture board.

Through personal tragedies of losing loved ones, Latiesha Cook was inspired to create scholarships within the non-profit to help other families with the loss of loved ones.

In response to systemic and structural barriers facing the Black community, specifically black men and boys, Latiesha Cook created the Sparks Foundation scholarship. She created this support after she lost her 31-year-old brother, Darren "D Sparks" Massenburg last year to what she said was senseless gun violence in the Bronx.

Another scholarship offered is the Joshua Fund, which was created in memory of her 3-month-old son, Joshua, who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in 2011. This scholarship helps families afford funeral costs of unexpectedly losing their baby to SIDS.

If you would like to donate to Beer Kulture or become a partner or volunteer, visit the Beer Kulture website.