What’s it like to be the first (and only) black person in America with a license to make liquor, and how the hell do you become that person, anyway? Join Laura Gassner Otting on this episode of LGOtv: Big Talk with special guest Jackie Summers – maker of Sorel. Jackie Summers is a New York-based food writer, a speaker, a distiller, and the author of a soon-to-be-published illustrated book about social justice.
He’s been sharing this story about his experiences with racism in the drinks industry for a decade, though since the nationwide protests for Black Lives Matter, it seems like people might actually be listening. “It feels like I have been saying, ‘UFOs are real,’ and people just saw their first UFO,” he told me when we talked a couple weeks ago. So, he’s sharing it once again.
2:46 – You’re a mama’s boy!
4:24 – Why do you call me Notorious?
5:53 – Tell us about being an Autodidact, Polymath, Liquortarian.
6:18 – You are also a griot. What is a griot?
7:44 – Jackie Summers isn’t your given name. Where did it come from?
10:12 – “School is designed to create workers, not thinkers.”
13:35 – How did you get into graffiti?
16:24 – And how does that lead to a career in the bar industry?
20:19 – At what point do you break in your corporate career?
23:44 – “Me being me, and doing my job well, was problematic for everybody else.”
29:45 – “And then I had a brain tumor removed.”
35:56 – Sorel is a family recipe. What’s in it?
40:23 – “I was the only black person in America, at that time, to get a license to make liquor.”
44:41 – “Women don’t get enough credit for having started the Cocktail Revolution.”
47:45 – The timeline of Sorel Liqueur.
56:59 – The Phoenix Myth
1:00:53– What’s Jackie doing now?
1:02:51 – A special sneak peek at The Garden of Infinite Fucks
1:04:35 – A little poetry, and I dare you not to be taken by its power.
Social Links
Instagram: @TheLiquortarian
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JackFromBkln
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-su…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jackfrombkln
Washington Post Best Selling Author and Motivational Keynote speaker, Laura Gassner Otting, inspires people to push past the doubt and indecision that keep great ideas in limbo because her presentations make listeners think bigger and accept greater challenges that reach beyond their limited scope of belief. She delivers strategic thinking, well-honed wisdom, and perspective generated by decades of navigating change across the start-up, nonprofit, political, as well as philanthropic landscapes. Laura dares listeners to find their voice, and generate the confidence needed to tackle larger-than-life challenges. She leads them to seek new ways of leading, managing and mentoring others.
Website: https://lgo2.kinsta.cloud/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heylgo
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