Beyond the cup · Experiences
An Ethiopian coffee ceremony, brought to your room.
Roasting, grinding, brewing and serving — each step making room for conversation, memory and presence. The ceremony Eyakem Gulilat has carried across the United States for Sacred Grounds, hosted for your audience.
What happens
Ninety minutes. Three rounds. One room.
In many cultures ritual is what holds a community together — a moment where time pauses and people gather in recognition of one another. The ceremony is one of the oldest of these. Guests are not an audience; they sit, drink, and talk. Coffee becomes a medium for storytelling and the affirmation of community.
01
Roast
Green beans from Shone roasted in a pan before you, the room filling with the smell.
02
Grind & brew
Ground by hand, brewed in the jebena, poured in three rounds — abol, tona, baraka.
03
Sit
Conversation shapes the gathering. Eyakem leads; the room does the rest.
04
Add on
A screening of the trailer or a cut of the film, a curated Ethiopian meal, or an installation in the space.
Impermanent Presence
The installation.
For two years as a Tulsa Artist Fellow, Eyakem has worked with coffee as a lived, relational material. Impermanent Presence — the first pilot installation, at Queen Rose Art House in Tulsa through March 2026 — invited visitors into dialogue; images emerged as visual traces of those shared moments. The installation travels with the ceremony and can be built into a gallery, lobby or classroom.
Duration
90 minutes, or an afternoon drop-in
Guests
Up to 60 seated
Needs
A room, a table, ventilation for the roast
Travels from
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Book an experience
Tell us about the room.
Dates, audience and setting are all we need to start. Eyakem replies himself, usually within a day.