Though the pandemic rages on, the peak of this current wave of COVID-19 is expected to peak any day now, and coffee companies are slowly and cautiously planning new events for 2022. One of the most exciting additions to this yearโs slate is the inaugural Queer Coffee Conference. Taking place at the end of March in San Francisco, the Queer Coffee Conference looks to build on a โcommitment to social justice by highlighting the tireless work of LGBTQ-affiliated purveyors, roasters, and workers.โ
The QCC is the work of the Fluid Cooperative Cafe, a transgender-, POC-, and youth-owned cafe and event space inside La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, a food-based incubator in San Franciscoโs Tenderloin neighborhood focusing on helping women, immigrants, and low-income residents become business owners. Taking place March 25th through 27th at Fluid Coopโs space inside La Cocina, the Queer Coffee Conference will bring together coffee professionals and LGBTQ+ advocates for three days of panel discussions and training sessions that center โqueer joy and resilienceโ as well as talks from โqueer icons in the world of coffee and learn about sustainable bean harvests.โ And as is tradition, there will also be a drag performance. Per COO Sarello Buyco:
Our goal is to be as proud and fluid in everything we do as we create and embody Fluid, and the idea that a coffee conference can be affordable, accessible, and queer/trans/BIPOC-led for the first time is going to disrupt the expensive, elitist, cis/het/white coffee industry as we know it and Fluid is here for it.
Attendance is expected to be around 300 individuals. If you are interested in taking part in the first-ever Queer Coffee Conferenceโas an attendee, sponsor, presenter, or ally/volunteerโhead over to the QCC event page to RSVP. From there, you will receive more information about your participation interest, including when registration for the even officially opens. For more information, visit Fluid Cooperative Cafeโs official website.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas.ย Read more Zac Cadwaladerย on Sprudge.
