Jesus Walks: Cocktails, Holy Week & the People Who Taught Me Faith
On Thursday, I partnered with The Equity Alliance to host Power + Plates: Breaking Bread- Spirits & Soul, a Holy Week-inspired cocktail and dinner storytelling event rooted in personal narrative, scripture, and survival.
The evening featured three original cocktails I created. Each one built around a story of Jesus:
1. Jesus Walks- A gin-based aperitif symbolizing faith and making the impossible, possible.
2. The Last Sip- A dirty martini-style mezcal cocktail, fat-washed with olive oil, honoring grief and the unseen presence at our tables.
3. Galilee Miracle #1- A Cognac Sidecar, infused with figs and olive oil, celebrating Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine—not as spectacle, but as resistance through joy.
Music by Dalona Jones and poetry from Gionni Carr set the tone. Dinner was provided by Street Injera—arguably the best Ethiopian food in Nashville.
But Easter didn’t just show up in the drinks, it lived in a monologue I shared.
Here’s an excerpt I’d like to share with you today:
My mother and father never wanted the spotlight, even though life kept handing it to them.
She’s a daycare teacher. He works inventory at a factory. But they’re also a First Lady and a Pastor. Four generations deep in ministry.
If La Cosa Nostra made men, my family made preachers.
One Sunday in the ‘90s, riding in our burgundy Maxima, I asked my dad,
“How do you know God is real?”
He cracked the window and said,
“Stick your hand out. What do you feel?”
I said, “The wind.”
He replied, “Exactly. You can’t see it—but you feel it.”
Then he turned the radio up and kept driving.
Even when life wore him down—third shifts, pastoring, raising us—he kept walking.
My mom? She quit her job after a teacher hurt my baby brother. She went on to care for her parents and a little girl named Miracle, born with medical conditions that told us she wouldn’t survive.
We walked Miracle through the house, wires and all.
Now she’s almost 30.
Around the same time, my dad was diagnosed with sleep apnea. A CPAP machine saved him.
And that’s when Miracle… started walking.
They’ve faced job loss, cancer, grief, road trips between St. Louis and Tennessee just to keep food on the table. And still—they walked.
That’s what inspired our first cocktail:
Jesus Walks — Gin. Elderflower. Campari. Lemon. A single grape garnish.
It’s an invitation to awaken the spirit and open the soul.
Because sometimes, you walk through silence. Through heartbreak. Through unanswered prayers.
And still—you keep walking.
So here’s my Easter question:
How do we nourish one another while destruction is happening in us… and around us?
I hope your Easter is filled with more than tradition. I hope it’s filled with breath.
Because breath is proof you’re still walking.
Happy Easter.
And I hope my parents have a great one, too.
#JesusWalks #EasterHope #BreakingBread #BlackFaith #SpiritsAndSoul #StorytellingAsMinistry #CocktailTheology #TheBellyRubExperience #WeekendReflections