LONGWOOD, Fla. – It’s known as the Black is Beautiful movement and breweries from around the country and globally are joining the effort to raise awareness of the social injustices many people of color experience daily.
“We want to see more gaps bridged and more people be brought to the table so that we can make changes that help everyone and not just one group of people,” Miles Mulrain Jr., the executive director of the nonprofit Let Your Voice Be Heard, inc said. “We do a lot of youth outreach, we do mentoring in schools, mentoring in communities, we do after school programs. We reach out to different members in the LGBTQ community.”
A local brewery in Central Florida learned about the organization and reached out to help. At Hourglass Brewing in Longwood, the head brewer said they stress to people that their space is safe and people from all walks of life are welcomed.
“(We) really liked what they were doing, like their approach is very, very community-based. It’s super close to home,” Michael DeLancett, head brewer of Hourglass Brewing said. “This shouldn’t even be an issue, like, we are all in the same community, we all come from the same place, we’re all human beings, we all deserve an equal share, we believe that’s part of the American dream.”
Hourglass Brewing is showing support by offering customers the Black is Beautiful beer and 100% of the proceeds will go toward Mulrain’s nonprofit.
“It’s something we can do to give a platform to folks that are misheard or underrepresented,” DeLancett said. “They’re our friends, they’re people we love, like, there’s nothing to it beyond that for us. We believe everybody deserves a seat at the table.”
For Mulrain, who founded Let Your Voice Be Heard in 2016 when he was 26 years old, in order for there to be more concrete actions, there needs to be more community participation.
“We’re not at any formal tables when it comes to the city or the county,” Mulrain said. “Let’s make a team where the community is actually part of changing these policies and we have people from different backgrounds not just people from one community, not people from one color, one race and one religion.”
The Black is Beautiful Beer can be purchased for take-out only at the moment due to restrictions on bars caused by COVID-19. Hourglass Brewing has another location in downtown Orlando.
For more information on the Let Your Voice Be Heard organization and to support them with a donation, click here.