Shower beers are cool, but stage beers are better. On August 6th, we're making that happen with our friends at Auditorium Theatre. (fb)

We are incredibly pleased to announce the first ever Beer History Studies Fellow! Onteya Zachary is a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and will begin her month long fellowship on August 1st. While at the Newberry Library, Onteya will be focused on her research project entitled Dark Debts: The Spatial Politics of Race and Beer in Chicago’s Landscape from the Great Migration to the Black Power Era Drawing on critical geography, Black studies, and geographies of alcohol, this project investigates how racialization, colonial legacies, and debt shape the roles of Black communities within the beer industry, from the Great Migration to the Black Power era. Central to the analysis is the concept of “unpayable debt” (Da Silva 2022), which frames racialized debt as a relational force extending beyond economics to shape political and social realities. Using archival materials, the project examines how colonial structures inform racial dynamics in the beer industry, while also considering the archive as a site of colonial power and erasure. By recovering marginalized histories, this project challenges colonial legacies embedded in historical narratives. Ultimately, this research contributes to critical scholarship on urban geography, race, and debt, offering new insights into the spatialization of Blackness in Chicago’s brewing history. Please join us in welcoming and congratulating Onteya on this inaugural award and exciting initiative! 🎉🍻 (fb)