Campfire Stories with Alys Beach Crafted

Cozy up around the fire for an evening celebrating the craft of written and spoken word. In partnership with Alys Beach Crafted, we'll gather around the Pedestrian Path Firepit to hear from local writers as well as participating Alys Beach Crafted talent as they share stories centered around the theme for the evening, Liquid Courage. Hear from Featured Storyteller and returning Crafted mixologist, Keyatta Mincey Parker as she shares her journey co-founding Sip of Paradise and the "liquid courage" it took to get her where she is today.

The evening will kick off with a happy hour from 4 to 4:30, with the event starting at 4:30 PM.

To purchase tickets, please visit: https://alysbeachcrafted.com/events/emerald-coast-story-tellers-at-the-firepit/

For those interested in taking the mic, we ask that you please email emeraldcoaststorytellers@gmail.com to be considered for a reading spot and include your name, genre, a little bit about yourself, and what you plan to present. We've had a lot of requests and would like to give everyone a chance to share their stories! If there's time for extra people, we'll open the floor before our Featured Storyteller: Keyatta Mincey Parker.

Keyatta Mincey Parker brings a diverse background of over 20 years in the food service and hospitality industry, experience that combines hotel expertise with fine dining and the fast pace of dance clubs. After years of walking the runway, and gracing covers of magazines, Mincey Parker switched her focus to bartending and found a fantastic synergy between herself and the drinks she was making. Her love of creativity is reflected in her service - how she takes the time to talk to guests, find out how they are feeling and build a relationship - so she can truly craft. Thrillist named Mincey-Parker one of the city’s female bartenders you “MUST KNOW”, along with Tastemakers making her one of the Top 50 Bartenders in the South, and she has been featured in Forbes, Food and Wine, The AJC, and countless other publications. You can find Mincey-Parker partnering with some of the country’s most influential spirit brands, chefs, home bartenders, and farmers to realize her goal of creating picture-perfect cocktails. Because of her rewarding career in craft cocktails and the current state of the world with the global pandemic, Keyatta is currently working hard on her personal brand Pictures and Cocktails as a creator, creating cocktails, experiences, and gardens, working with brands and consumers creating cocktails and developing systems and content, A Sip of Paradise Garden, a 501c3 nonprofit bartender community garden based in Atlanta that she owns and operates, and The Jim Project, her foundation that focuses on training young women back in Liberia in hospitality and bar culture as an alternative to prostitution and other unhealthy ways to make a living. 

She created the celebratory cocktail for the Liberian Olympic National Team and it became the official drink of the team. Keyatta has most recently been inducted as a member of the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, an invitational organization of women who are leaders in the culinary, beverage, and hospitality field, as well as being selected as a member of Wine Enthusiat’s 2023 Future 40. She is blessed to find herself speaking across the country on panels and in conferences about philanthropy, building community, mental health, gardening, agriculture, black land ownership, and leadership, but she still loves to talk cocktails.