TT NYC: "Get Woke on Power" | Jenn Chen (Coffee Marketer)

If New York was all about diversity and bias tackled from a variety of different angles, Jenn Chen’s talk, “Get Woke on Power”, was an important primer in the massively complex topic of power and power dynamics, which underscore every interpersonal interaction we have on a daily basis, for better or for worse. Using shared, anonymised stories about how power dynamics have affected the tellers’ coffee careers, Jenn has identified three main areas of potential difficulty in navigating the use and possible abuse of power in the daily life of coffee professionals living and working in consuming countries.

 

Misusing power doesn’t just lead to decreased emotional wellbeing—it impacts the physical and financial wellbeing of those working in coffee, too. Jenn’s talk is more than a call for awareness, it’s a call for action: whether it’s roasters considering the power producers have to control the stories being told about them to larger institutions stepping in to help take on employers who misuse employees, there is a never-ending list of areas in which we can “get woke” in regards to power.