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Craft Distillery
discounts on events and trips and an invitation to
the BBS signature event, the annual Bourbon Boule
Labor Day weekend gathering in New Orleans.
Membership is not limited to African Americans:
It is open to all bourbon lovers who actively and
enthusiastically support the cause of improving
diversity within the spirits industry. BBS recruits
volunteer brand ambassadors in select cities to
help with networking events in the local market
and engage members on social media. With Covid-
19 restrictions easing, Davis anticipates that BBS
will be hosting more live events, always following
recommended safety protocols.
“We have to be smart about it,” Davis told
Beverage Master Magazine. “We can’t do every-
thing we used to do five years ago. We have to
keep it safe, which makes it more challenging,
but I’m so happy to see some degree of normalcy
returning.”
Besides connecting Black bourbon consumers
with spirits producers, BBS has created a nonprofit,
Diversity Distilled, to help promote diversity and
inclusion policies within corporations across the
spirits industry. “Companies are very eager to work
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toward diversity,” Davis said. “They just don’t know
how to go about it.”
Diversity Distilled assists brands in recruiting and
retaining a diverse workforce and creating inroads
for employees to advance to leadership levels
within the company. “This is where real change
happens,” Davis said. “You have to change the cor-
porate culture and mission.”
With her marketing skills as well as her contacts
and knowledge of the spirits industry, Davis is a
crucial player in fulfilling Diversity Distilled’s objec-
tives, offering consulting, job placement assistance,
training workshops, public speaking, and industry
research.
This year, to support Diversity Distilled, BBS cre-
ated #TheBlackManhattan Project, a month-long
hashtag campaign to raise awareness of Diversity
Distilled and its objectives. The campaign, spot-
lighting the Black Manhattan, was launched during
February for Black History Month in partnership
with Mitcher’s Distillery and Branca USA, who com-
mitted $20,000 to the Diversity Distilled job place-
ment program.
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