Those who feel at the margins of a world are often those who have the most insight into how it could be transformed.
Liz Garibay had a nagging perception throughout her career that, given her professional interest in beer and her identity as a gay Latina woman, she didn’t quite fit the professional mold in academia or museums. This was no small part of why and how she created the Chicago Brewseum’s Beer Culture Summit.
The goal behind the Summit, Garibay says, is to present beer as more than just a beverage, but as a dynamic cultural force. In 2020, the Beer Culture Summit hosted its second annual event (virtually, this year), squeezing 34 presentations, tours, and discussions into a three-day, four-night stretch in October.
To anyone who presented or attended the event [Disclosure: I moderated a panel discussion about labor and beer] one thing was clear: The Summit does not look or feel like any other beer event. It puts academics and historians in conversation with people sharing their lived experiences with beer and other alcoholic beverages.
“How many academic and museum and beer conferences have I gone to? It’s the same goddamn shit over and over again. It’s the same people,” Garibay says. “I wanted to present good diversity, not just in terms of humans, but content.”
The Beer Culture Summit blows the doors wide open on both fronts. This year’s program included presentations on Chicago’s 1885 Lager Riot, queer beer spaces, Jewish contributions to brewing history, a Cajun cooking and beer pairing demo, and more.
The virtual format initially seemed daunting, but Garibay says it actually furthered the Summit’s mission.
“People all over the world were able to participate and that’s the whole idea: Beer and its story are for everybody. Everybody belongs.”
Words,Kate Bernot