liberatory libations
BIPOC COMMUNITY-CRAFTED COCKTAIL RITUALS
Seeded during Listen Bar’s 2020 Night Shift program as many communities were shifting their relationship to alcohol, this virtual experience asked:
What if BIPOC creative activists who are “sober curious” could experience a nightlife that liberated our spirits?
What if our love for collective healing and rituals could co-exist with our love for joyful nightlife and cocktails?
Liberatory Libations existed as an experiment in designing community-crafted, booze-free cocktails rituals inspired by the felt sensations of liberation among BIPOC creative activists.
MY ROLE
Creator + Experience Designer
DURATION
Oct 2020 - Oct 2021
EVENT COLLABORATORS
Ky Vassor, Bekah and Katari
MADE POSSIBLE BY
Night Shift Pitch Award
The first Liberatory Libations experience focused on radical intimacy and was financially supported after I received the Night Shift Pitch Award, celebrating my creation of meaningful, magical experiences rooted in joy and healing.
I invited three collaborators to join me in designing an experience where we could celebrate the spirit of radical intimacy through community ritual and booze-free cocktails: Kateri (she/her) Indigenous Hand Drummer, Yoga Instructor, Healing Practitioner & Wellness Guide, Bekah (she/her) Community Herbalist, and Ky (they/ them) Mixed Media Illustrator and Friendly Neighborhood Craft Bartender.
Practicing co-design, our process moved through three phases:
During the registration, participants respond to a liberatory theme through the senses: what’s the smell, taste, texture, color, and sound of radical intimacy?
Their responses help craft the cocktail ritual and gathering as our team made of experience designers, herbalists, craft bartenders, and healers use their responses as inspiration.
Participants gather for a cocktail ritual and celebrate each other’s love for joyful nightlife, without the alcohol.
Everyone received an ingredients list weeks before the gathering with several alternatives to create accessibility and to focus on things that are more likely to exist in our kitchens.
rosemary, one of the main ingredients of our “radical intimacy” cocktail became the unexpected star, coming in as an aphrodisiac herb with the ability to get you in touch with
your sensual nature.
a digital zine was shared that included the plant meditation, recipe, healing properties within the herbs, reflection prompts, and sensory-based mantras.
during my booze-free cocktail experimentations, I was gifted this bar cart, along with with generous offerings from community that allowed me to fill it with crystals, candles, and tinctures.
People who gathered are artists, racial justice workers, psychologists, designers, and healers who are either sober/sober curious or taking a break from alcohol.
They entered Zoom Land based in various geographies, from Oakland to Toronto.
While crafting the cocktail and engaging in the plant-based ritual, our conversations were guided by two questions:
How do we want to experience intimacy with the people we love as a way to nourish ourselves and our communities?
How would our bodies feel if we embraced the courageous act of closeness?
booze-free cocktails, ritual, herbalism,
co-design, nightlife, joy, and liberation
Liberatory Libations invited a creative, community-driven way of designing a nightlife experience that speaks to our dreams for liberation and keeps us in touch with our bodies and each other. Honoring the spectrum of sobriety with a focus on nightlife that can be nourishing, Liberatory Libations became a revolutionary offering back to BIPOC creative activists—an offering that we’ve been longing for and deserve.
My six-years of sobriety and love for making nonalcoholic cocktails continue to live on as I create intimate gatherings with friends and play with plants.
