Cocktails and Conversation with Toni Tipton-Martin

Join Toni Tipton-Martin, Cynthia Greenlee, and John Brown’s Band in The Fearrington Barn on Thursday, December 14th at 6pm to celebrate Toni Tipton-Martin’s new cocktail book – Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs and Juice. We’ll have fire-side sips and bites from Jubilee and music by John Brown to toast the season!

Discover the fascinating history of Black mixology and its enduring influence on American cocktail culture through 70 rediscovered, modernized, or celebrated recipes, by the James Beard Award–winning author of Jubilee.

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice spotlights the creativity, hospitality, and excellence of Black drinking culture, with classic and modern recipes inspired by formulas found in two centuries’ worth of Black cookbooks. From traditional tipples, such as the Absinthe Frappé or the Clover Leaf Cocktail, to new favorites, like the Jerk-Spiced Bloody Mary and the Gin and Juice 3.0, Toni Tipton-Martin shares a variety of recipes that shine a light on her influences, including underheralded early-twentieth-century icons, like Tom Bullock, Julian Anderson, and Atholene Peyton, and modern superstars, such as Snoop Dogg and T-Pain.

Drawing on her expertise and research in historic and rare texts, Toni Tipton-Martin shows how these drinks have evolved over time and shares the stories of how Black mixology came to be—a culmination of generations of practice, skill, intelligence, and taste.

About Toni Tipton-Martin
Toni Tipton-Martin is a culinary journalist and community activist and the author of the James Beard Award–winning The Jemima Code and Jubilee, named a James Beard Award winner and Book of the Year by the IACP. Toni was also recognized with the 2020 Trailblazer Award by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Her collection of more than three hundred African American cookbooks has been exhibited at the James Beard House, and she has twice been invited to the White House to participate in First Lady Michelle Obama’s programs to raise a healthier generation of kids. She is a founding member of the Southern Foodways Alliance and Foodways Texas.

About Cynthia Greenlee
Cynthia R. Greenlee holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina and a PhD in history from Duke, where she specialized in the late 19th century, African-Americans, gender, and the law. In former professional lives, she was the deputy editor at the Southern Foodways Alliance and the senior editor with Rewire.News. She is at work on a book about rethinking Black foodways in the South. She is the recipient of a James Beard Foundation Award, the nation’s highest honor in food writing, in 2020 — and earned two nominations in 2022.

About John Brown
Bassist, composer, educator and actor John Brown is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and currently resides in Durham, NC. He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Grammy and Emmy nominee, has performed in the US and abroad with artists like Elvin Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Ellis Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut, the North Carolina Symphony. John is an active recording musician and producer, appeared as an actor and has recorded for television and film and has served on and chaired the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Music multiple times. John currently serves as Vice Provost for the Arts, Director of the Jazz Program and Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University, and he has served on the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and Guilford College (NC).