The Black Bean
In 2020, Hannibal Bracey created the Instagram page @TheBlackBeanNYC, which is dedicated to reviewing BIPOC-owned and operated coffee institutions throughout NYC. Partly inspired by his own experiences of exclusion and racism in various coffee shops, Bracey hopes to use @TheBlackBeanNYC to empower local communities and businesses that were hit hard during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this episode, “The Black Bean,” Hannibal Bracey tells a story about his personal love of coffee, the emerging Black coffee culture movement in New York City, his family’s dedication to activism, and the colonial legacy of coffee production and consumption. For him, ecological change is not just environmental, but social as well. And that change comes about “one cup at a time.”
All proceeds from this episode will be donated to Together We Thrive, an NYC-based coalition that provides access to capital, social networks and technical assistance to support the survival, success and sustainability of Black-owned businesses.
Further Resources
Coffee Cart to Cafe Owner feat. Nigel Price, 95+ Podcast
Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-Ins, Carole Boston Weatherford
Caffeine: How Coffee and Tea Created the Modern World, Michael Pollan
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[The voices of all the storytellers from Season One of The Sonocene begin to overlap and blend together in a single, collective gesture.]
Listen.
Listen to my voice.
To spoken words and ambient sounds.
[Patrons chat quietly. A coffee bean grinder grinds. A finger taps a piece of plastic. The soundscape of a coffee shop enters your foreground.]
Together they tell the story about people and place; about plants and animals; about the ecological relationships within New York City during a time of rapid change. And the way they all resonate as an interwoven network of vibrations.
[Voices and sounds crescendo, and then hard cut to silence. All the storytellers from Season One exclaim in unison:]
Welcome to The Sonocene—
[The voice of “The Black Bean” episode storyteller, Hannibal Bracey, replies.]
ecological stories told through sound.
[Water falls from a sink faucet, and a pitcher begins to fill with the cool liquid. A plastic lid snaps into place, as the pitcher is set on a magnetic housing. The water begins to heat.]
[00:53] It was a personal passion project of mine. @TheBlackBeanNYC, start the page and start highlighting all of the businesses I wanted to go to. Going there, getting the feel, trying the coffee, talking to the owners, seeing the neighborhoods and all of that stuff. You know, it started from there. So…
[As the storyteller speaks, a bag crinkles in the background. Water heats and a bag of coffee beans is inspected.]
Today's storyteller is…
Hannibal Bracey, The Black Bean, King! You know, whatever you wanna call me. Haha!
[The bag of coffee continues to crinkle from inquisitive hands. It’s as if someone is attempting to find the best method for opening the bag of whole beans.]
[1:27] First of all, I start off with a good bag of coffee.
[Finally, the bag is pried open with a forceful “snap.” Other “snaps” and “clicks” signal that the opening is being widened.]
[1:37] I like to look into the bag. See the design of the bag. See what country it's from. See who my money's going to and going towards to help, as far as like sustainability. You want to get the best coffee, but also use the best product—the best fair product—so look for sustainability as well as taste.
[Coffee beans cascade into a small glass bowl with a soft series of “tink-tink-tink’s.” The magnetic pitcher continues its slow hum as the temperature of water rises.”
[2:07] So I weigh it on the scale. Weigh about 30 grams of coffee, maybe 40.
[Fingers tap the back of the bag, making sure just the right amount of beans escape.Then, the beans are swiftly poured into a plastic enclosure with a sharp, “shiiiick!” The water continues to rise in temperature (its “hum” grows louder).]
[2:18] You grind your beans.
[A coffee bean grinder activates. Its drone is aggressive. After a moment, the aggressive drone gives way to a higher-pitched whine, as all the beans have been pulverized into fine grounds. The water pitcher “clicks” to completion as the water finally boils. The plastic cup, holding the coffee grounds, slides from the grinder.]
[2:41] You put your beans in the filter and sit it on top of the scale.
[Coffee grounds fall into a paper filter with a warm, friction-like slide. Fingers clean the plastic cup—rubbing all the grounds from the cup into the filter. The cup is replaced in the grinder with a “thud.” And fingers return, this time compressing the grounds within the filter in clockwise circles. This creates the coffee bed. Skin-to-skin friction sounds out, as someone cleans their hands of fine coffee grounds. Hot water meets coffee grounds, “plopping” and “churning” together in the filter.]
[3:04] Sometimes in my mind I'm just like alright, pour for this amount of time. 30 seconds versus another 30 seconds versus another. You know, as soon as you put the first one, I shake it up. Shake the coffee bed up.
[A “fizzy” sound begins as the water continues to pour over the coffee bed. Small “drip, drip, drips” begin as fresh coffee fills the bottom of the pour over pitcher.]
[3:35] I get some oat milk with that and then, boom! My Chemex and oatmeal, that's my morning.
[Someone slurps a fresh cup of coffee. A guttural “swallow” resounds satisfaction. A saxophone melody enters the background.]
One cup at a time.
[The saxophone is joined by voices of patrons, milk frothers, and coffee bean grinders. These sounds blend together and create the soundscape of a coffee shop, which has now entered your foreground.]
[4:42] And I love this sound, that feeling, just I'm in the shop. Good vibes, good energy. It's like a feeling of, like, comfort. Say, a comfort sound.
[People continue to chat. Cafe machines continue to thrum. A piano melody takes the place of the saxophone.]
[5:10] I've been going to coffee shops in New York City since about 2012. I'm a face of this coffee culture movement that's going on right now that a lot of people may not even know about.
[5:36] Around that time, 2020, you saw a lot of places shut down and you couldn't really go anywhere. A lot of protests, a lot of racial tensions in the city. I felt like it was important to highlight businesses in the Black community, especially that were hit hard around like the pandemic time and all of that. I started to look for a different spaces that I felt comfortable in with different shops throughout the city and the inclusive shops that I felt like comfortable staying around just like, I guess that feeling of home right there. I want people to find those spaces. It's more than a coffee, just like a safe space to create ideas, to brainstorm. Just where a gathering space where like minded people are able to get together and, you know, just feel at home, feel comfort.
One cup at a time.
[The soundscape of the coffee shop continues. It is a calm and peaceful atmosphere.]
[7:08] I come from a long line of people that's always been progressive in moving forward and fighting for the right side. My mom's a teacher. My grandmother was an educator. My mom would do a lot of protests in the 1960's and stuff like that, go to DC with my dad. So then as far as Black Businesses, that's in my blood. And so, just in general, I always was taught to support the community. We're not going to take things as they are. We're going to try to make things better. You never should look at yourself or your community, how the world views you. A lot of times the way I felt in a lot of coffee shops just in different neighborhoods, depending on where you are. Whether do they think you should be there or not, when clearly anyone should be here. If I'm buying a coffee, why shouldn't I be here? And especially being an African-American, a black person in America. If you don't know your history and where your people come from, you're liable to take anyone's. You know, it's a lot of negative stuff that you can form a lot of self-hate from. I was always taught to know your history. Know that you come from greatness and you will be greatness. The Greensboro Four was a sit-in. Four black people, went into the coffee shop and refused to leave. It was a Woolworth's counter. I have that spirit, for real. They were like "F*** it!" They asked for coffee, which was dope. That was the part of history that asked for coffee and didn't get up. It's always been that way with the fight for civil rights and people of color stuff, But now it's like we don't want our spaces. It used to be like, people would be like, can we get a seat at the table so we can get, you know, their table? Now they're like, F*** your table. We want our own. We're creating our own. That's the, you know, we don't care about the table. We don't want to see that. We have our own counterculture, our own coolness. I feel like that's what's going on now.
One cup at a time.
[The soundscape of the coffee shop continues unchanged. It’s as if you are listening to the storyteller, within the coffee shop itself. You’re surrounded by other patrons and light, jazzy music.]
[9:52] Like downtown Brooklyn and just hanging out there. But then I would see this coffee shop: Drip. They had pour over and just the shop was so cool. And then the owner was so cool. I put it on my page (@TheBlackBeanNYC). And he's always been like, "reach out to me if you want anything," or just try to help or anything that I need in the coffee community because he's been doing it for a while. And he started with a coffee cart, just like a little small coffee cart making pour over coffee in the park. It looked like some times he was at Fort Green. So he built his thing up from doing a coffee cart and stuff like that. And he inspires me a lot. Wherever you live, you should add to it. And that is the thing about New York. A lot of people come to this city and just want to take, take, take, take, take! Like, that's the city. But that's a lot of people's mentality.
I always see what I can provide and give back to the community because I just see how the poverty versus like the rich versus poor versus like... You go down one street is million dollar houses. You go to another: ceilings are leaking! The problems of the city and the struggle and the people that live here, I want toprovide hope and just actually help people and like not just take. One day, I'm going to go by the train station and just make people coffee. They're just going to the train and just seeing how they doing. And that's part of community. And I do that just, you know, just 'cause. I can make somebody day better. It's small but it's big. Little steps push the big steps.
One cup at a time.
[The soundscape of the coffee shop, once again returns to your foreground.]
[11:56] There's the Coffee Community, and then there's like the Black Coffee Community it's even smaller. Even in my own community of Canarsie, that's another thing that I want more like in those type of neighborhoods to get more people interested. Because a lot of people don't think that coffee shops are a Black thing. So I'm here to say it is, and it's a product that's grown by you that comes from you. Coffee was started in Ethiopia and Yemen. Those are like one of the first civilizations. It's a couple stories. One says a goat herder was throwing beans into the fire and then it started to, you know, crackle up. And then there's another story saying that the goat herder was wondering why his goat was so excited with the energy and it was eating those red beans. What do these red beans do? So then they started to roast them. And then, boom, some of the first coffee. It's grown in the most perfect atmosphere. The perfect heat, plus the perfect moisture, equal the perfect beans. And it grows in a specific area. By that, I mean, nine times out of ten, you're getting your beans from a Black or Brown country: Ethiopia, Jamaica, Hawaiian, Columbia. Picking them, opening them, cleaning them, to roasting them. Ecological is more than just like where it's being grown, like ecological as in it's part of the social aspect as well. You know, the hard work that it came to your cup, it came to your neighborhood, and then the shops, you know, a little fun coffee shops that's in your neighborhood? People don't even think about that. So number one, I would say, that I love about coffee is the people. The people behind the coffee that actually get it to the whole world that people forget about.
[13:55] The second thing I like about coffee is the ritual aspect of it. I like that it brings together people. As I was growing up, my mom would always start off the day with coffee. She sitting at the table like, "How y'all's day doing? Or what are y'all about to do?" So it's so important in so many people's lives. I just, as far as pulling people together, like a conversation-starter. If you see any of your friends now you haven't seen in a while, you see anybody, you're like, "Hey, you want to get some coffee?" You know, you might not even want coffee, but it's just like a way to connect. That's another aspect that I love about coffee, just that connecting people.
[14:44] It's part of, like, moving forward the coffee, but also progression in society with accepting different cultures and accepting people for who they are and not judging who you are. Coffee is the vehicle. You know, I didn't really… I didn't even know it was going to be the vehicle. I do so much stuff. But this is the vehicle that's going to, you know, help everybody, help cultures and different stuff like that—one cup at a time.
[The soundscape of the coffee shop continues. Although, the sounds from the opening of the episode return—water filling a pitcher, fingers dusting-off coffee grounds, pour-over coffee brews. All of these sounds begin to blend, and slowly crescendo in volume and intensity.]
[15:28] You sit there, you drink a cup of coffee, and you just figure out like, "Oh, where does this coffee come from?" I'm a face of this coffee culture movement that's going on right now that a lot of people, you know, might not even know about. I mean, I've been concrete my whole life. I've dealt with a lot of stuff. I'm the type who's going to find a rose in a concrete. How can I change anything to make it better? One cup at a time.
[All the sounds surge in volume, but suddenly cut to silence—replaced by a strident “slurp!” Someone’s content “gulp” of a fresh cup of coffee slowly fades to silence.]
[A simple electronic melody, alongside a resonant percussive groove elicits a feeling of earnest contemplation. This is the outro music, composed by UCC Harlo.]
Good energy, good vibes to whoever is listening. Shout out to them!
The Sonocene is supported by Humanities New York, the NYU Center for the Humanities, and the NYU Graduate School of Arts and Science Music Department. Our production team is a collective of environmental humanities scholars and artists, including Elizabeth Fickey, Bailey Hilgren, Konstantine Vlasis. Original Music by Annie Garlid, a.k.a. UCC Harlo. Sound Design and Mixing by Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan. And voiceover by me, Elizabeth Geist. All proceeds from today's episode will be donated to Together We Thrive Coalition. If you'd like to support this podcast, have an ecological story you'd like to share, or would like to learn more about the topics of today's episode, please visit our website at www.thesonoscene.com or check out our social media pages @thesonocene. Thanks for listening.
