MADISON, Wis.— A Madison beer company the first in the U.S. to put a Black woman on a beer can.
Madison muralist Lilada Gee provided the artwork for Working Draft Beer Company’s latest lager — Justified IPA. The craft beer can features a woman with her eyes closed and gold earrings made of tipped scales of justice.
"Yes, because unfortunately justice is supposed to be blind, but it has not been that way for us," Gee said.
Gee has gone from State St. murals to lawn signs and now she is proud to put her talent on the can's 'canvas.'
"And I think the fact that this beautiful Black woman is on this can is inviting more Black women. A lot of my friends say, 'I don't drink beer, but I'm going to start now.' You know, and I've been receiving these photographs of black women just beaming holding this four-pack of beer. I tell you it's not is nothing like it when you were so used to never seeing that kind of positivity celebration of your beauty and your brilliance, to see it in this way is revolutionary," she's said.
While the effort is revolutionary, it has been done in at least one other country.
"I did find one can in Brazil, which wasn’t received well because it was actually a photograph of a Brazilian slave. And so there was protest by the Black people in Brazil to say this is not how we want to be used in our images in our experiences," she said.
It's why this contrast and creativity mean so much to her.
"If one can use beer to support justice to ask for justice to model justice. We can use anything," Gee said.
Working Draft Co-owner Ryan Browne says he's so proud of the passion-filled project.
"And really invite people to, to think about beer in a different way you know we've always talked about beer being a catalyst for getting people together. You know, this is, this feels different in nature," Browne said.
A portion of the proceeds helps support Madison’s Justified Anger Coalition. The non-profit addresses long-standing and harmful racial disparities.
Learn more about where you can buy Justified IPA, here.