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Kansas City entrepreneur visits White House to talk about Vine Street Brewing Company

 Local musician Kemet Coleman will be bringing the city's first Black-owned craft brewery to the Jazz District sometime in 2023.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Kansas City musician Kemet Coleman is set to open the city's first Black-owned craft brewery to the Historic 18th and Vine District sometime this year.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas chose entrepreneur Kemet Coleman to represent Kansas City at the Young Men of Color Roundtable at the White House this week.

Just weeks before opening Vine Street Brewing Company in the Historic 18th and Vine District, Kansas City musician and entrepreneur Kemet Coleman was invited to the White House to talk about his plans with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Coleman was watching Netflix one night when Mayor Quinton Lucas sent him a text about representing Kansas City at the Young Men of Color Roundtable on minority entrepreneurship.

"Honestly, it was it was an equal an honor to be at the White House as having the mayor of Kansas City select me to represent Kansas City," Coleman says.

Coleman says he could relate to what the other entrepreneurs were saying about access to funding, especially for small minority businesses.

"We don't have a lot of that generational wealth that a lot of business owners that are not minorities have access to," Coleman says. "That was kind of the story around the table: How do we make that first jump? But then after we make that first jump, which a lot of us at that table have made, how do we scale from there?"

Coleman joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss what it’s like to rub shoulders with the vice president of the United States, and preparing to open his new business.

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When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.
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