- As our next speaker is coming up
raise your hand if you had a cup of coffee today.
Wow, look around.
Get ready for the most extraordinary story
about a beverage you love.
(laughter)
(claps)
- I'm really excited to be here.
Universal greetings of peace, love, and justice.
(foreign language)
I'll begin at the beginning.
I'm from Yemen by way of the Tenderloin, in SF.
By way of Brooklyn, New York.
By way of tock-sis Liverpool, UK.
By way of Yemen.
And sometimes I have to have a map to describe my life,
especially in America because we don't
understand geography that well.
(laughter)
I grew up in a small neighborhood called the Tenderloin,
and the best way to describe it
was by comedian Dave Chappelle who said,
"Ain't nothing tender about that place."
(laughter)
It's a very hard place for a young boy to grow up.
Lot's of violence and difficulties outside of your doorstep.
And I think one of the worst things in the world is
when young children aren't allowed to dream,
and to feel like they're boxed in
because of the society that they grew up in,
and because of circumstance.
But as young kid I loved to read,
and that was my way of escaping my reality.
In particular "Harry Potter".
Shout out to any "Harry Potter" fans.
Wave your wands. (laughter)
As a kid it's a pretty powerful book,
and a lot of kids relate to it because
they feel that maybe I don't belong in this world.
Maybe like Harry, Hagrid's gonna come and save me.
And so, I grew up, actually my background
was in community organizing.
And my goal in life was to become a paralegal,
and then become a lawyer.
And I made it to, I was a paralegal.
And so I was trying to finish my undergrad degree
while working as a paralegal for a non-profit
that did mostly immigration work.
And on the weekends I worked as a doorman.
Now they called us lobby ambassadors.
To make us feel better. (laughter)
So my epiphany moment was October 1st, 2013 at 12:02 pm.
It's pretty precise, right?
A friend of mine texted me about a statue
of weird Yemeni man drinking coffee next to my work.
So I got up and I looked out,
and this statue the symbol of the old coffee company
called The Hills Brothers.
And I began to research the history of coffee.
And I learned that there's an incredible history from Yemen.
For those who don't know,
there's actually a city, a port, called Mocha.
And this is the reason why we're here today.
And it's a port that changed the world.
There is a difference of opinion where coffee begins.
In Yemen or Ethiopia.
I think I'm the only Yemeni who
thinks coffee begins in Ethiopia.
(laughter)
There's not Yemenis here, which is great.
As an indigenous plant, but the first people to brew coffee
and to consume this amazing drink
were Sufi monks, who lived in the port of Mocha.
And in the 1400s coffee begins to enter Europe.
And in coffee houses in Paris,
and Vienna, and London, ideas flourished.
There were coffee houses known for musicians,
and some for politicians, and some for philosophers.
Actually in Oxford, they called coffee houses here
penny universities.
Because for a penny you could buy a cup of coffee
and learn something about the world.
And it's an incredible history in how coffee spread
and left through Yemen, and for those interested
to learn more about it there's actually a really good book
that talks about the history of coffee.
It's called "The Monk of Mokha",
and I recommend you read it.
I fell in love with this idea,
and I grew up in the bay area, in San Francisco.
And it's hard not to be someone who cares about
social justice, and someone who's a foodie,
growing up there.
And so I went and I had a cup of coffee,
and it was for me where my past and future
collided at one point.
As an immigrant you sometimes feel
that you're stuck between two different worlds.
And so I ended up,
I already know I'm gonna go over a couple of minutes.
That's okay.
You feel stuck between these two worlds.
And so coffee was a way for me to bridge between
my Yemeni roots and my American side.
I didn't know anything about coffee.
I went back to Yemen, 2014, to start this idea.
In 1875, Yemen was producing almost 60,000 coffee
that was being shipped out of port of Mocha.
Now it's less than 10,000 tons.
A huge decline.
And so I went to Yemen.
This is a picture of these beautiful mountain terraces,
and you can see there's actually a village
on top of that mountain in the middle,
and that's me trying to look like a brown Indiana Jones.
(laughter)
But I went and I saw an amazing, wonderful country.
Villages on the tops of mountains.
Images that we don't see often of Yemen,
when we think of Yemen,
because what the media portrays Yemen as.
And so I wanted people to see
something different from my country.
I took back samples from Yemen.
I brought them back to learn, to evaluate them.
I had to become a coffee sommelier, which is another story.
And I found two incredible coffees
that had incredible flavor profiles.
So I went back to work with these farmers,
and to work as a community organizer,
training on how to produce better coffee.
In the middle of this war begins.
And everything that we consume comes from somewhere
and there's a political reality to that place.
And so Yemen was going through a very difficult time,
that's just got worse and worse.
I was scheduled to leave to attend a coffee conference
in Seattle to showcase the coffee to the world.
And before I left on March 25th, 2015
I woke and I saw this outside of my window.
Yemen went into a regional conflict
that's still raging on until today.
And they bombed both airports.
So there was no out for me,
and I needed to leave to attend this event.
And so I went to the port of Mocha,
and I took this boat, and I crossed the Red Sea
to Djibouti, to Africa.
You hear stories of refugees from Syria or east Africa,
who go on these ocean journeys,
but no one leaves and had to go on the ocean
unless you have no option.
And so I took my samples, this was my getaway selfie,
(light laughter)
and made it back to the US,
and the coffees were really incredible
in these blind tastings.
And then much of my coffee made it through
to the port of Oakland.
And, you know, now my coffee's being showcased
around the world in different coffee shops.
And for me, I think coffee's an incredible way
to build bridges between different cultures.
Last year we were rated as
the number one coffee in the world
by the Coffee Review
Thank you. (applause)
But to Alley's point, my goal is to use my work an agency,
as a bridge between other people
who are really empowering themselves.
I was inspired by Rwanda,
and how coffee was used as a vehicle to move people.
From humanitarian aid to economic empowerment post genocide.
And so I believe that in life my only two advice
I can give, and I don't have advice to give,
I would say that you only become successful
when your passion is greater than your fear.
What is the problem that you want to solve in the world?
And the amount of passion that you have to have for that
project, product or service,
is what's gonna help you those hurdles in life.
Help you cross your oceans.
Because monetary desires are not gonna help you.
And the other is if you pursue your passions,
because there's a moment where your hobby,
your passion is your hobby, there's that moment of fear.
Do I do this?
Do I stick with my nine to five job
and go to law school and become a lawyer?
But there's a moment when you take that leap of faith.
A wise person told me this,
and he said to me if you pursue your passions
you'll have two options, or two outcomes.
Either you'll become an expert in that field
and have a thriving business,
or you'll become an expert in that field
and lead a happy life.
And so I think that, finishing my story,
I wanted people to have that reaction of Yemen.
To see people and children happy.
And I think as consumers my take away for you today
is that when you buy your next cup of coffee,
that you have the opportunity to uplift someone
rather than exploit them.
And I think that if you understood the incredible journey
it takes your coffee to get to you, or your clothes,
or your things that are made from other countries.
It crosses borders, and cultures, and political hardships
to find its way to you.
And I think that coffee is a wonderful way
for us to build those bridges.
Thank you.
(applause)
- Nailed it.
- She's my anchor.
- We've been having a lot of fun getting to know each other
in preparation for this panel,
and I have to tell you there is actually nothing
more transformative than a cup of Mokhtar's coffee.
It tastes of love, and dates, and fruit, and it's wonderful.
I strongly encourage to give yourself a chance.
You are the protagonist in a book right now,
written by Dave Eggers.
The book is called "Monk of Mokha".
What is it like to have your successes and failures
chronicled in book and put out into public?
- I'm still trying to wrap my head around it,
and it's honestly awkward to see your life
casually hanging on a bookshelf.
But Dave is a great writer,
and for me I wanted to take the opportunity to
reclaim my narrative, and to put something in the world
that's positive.
We live in such a divided time.
Even this book, you know, it made it last month
on the New York Times bestseller list.
You have all these Trump books, and this one weird anomaly.
(light laughter)
I wanted people from, whether your a kid growing up
and having a hard time, or someone who has a job that's not
really your passion, to find yourself in these pages
and maybe be inspired in some way.
I hope that happens.
- You showed us gorgeous pictures of Yemen.
Tell us one thing that we probably don't know
about Yemen that you want everyone to know.
- Some of the most hospitable and warmest you'll ever meet.
We would go to villages and they would,
this is the first time I would show up,
they would line up one person from each household
and they would do a lottery system
to see who gets to host me.
Just unbelievable hospitality and warmth,
and I'm just happy to use coffee
as the way to bridge between us.
- Beautiful, thank you.
- Thank you.
(applause)