Liberated Passions Cider Tasting

press release: This October, Civic Exchange Society (CES) will release CES-002 Liberated Passions Cider, the second libation in its new line of beverages. Made from apples, plums, and passionfruit, it is a flavorfully fruity cider with a bite of tartness.

CES is the result of an ongoing collaboration between MMoCA, artist Meg Mitchell, Octopi Brewing, and Art & Sons. This collective evolved as a way to call attention to acts of creative exchange—the ways individuals and organizations can combine talents, resources, and innovative thinking to encourage human connection through shared experiences. An outcome of this effort has been the development of a line of craft beverages: the first, CES-001 Juicy Exchange IPA, was released in May and quickly sold out.

CES-002 Liberated Passions Cider will be available to the public the first week in October and can be purchased at the following locations: Whole Foods Market, Woodman’s Market, Steve’s Wine Beer Spirits, and other stores in the Milwaukee and Fox Valley areas. It will also be available at Food Fight restaurants, including Fresco, Avenue Club, Bassett Street Brunch Club, Canteen, Cento, Craftsman Table & Tap, DLUX, Everly, Luigi's Pizza, Johnny Delmonico's, and Miko Poke.

Octopi Brewing generously donates a percentage of profits from CES sales to support MMoCA and its ongoing projects.

The release of CES-002 Liberated Passions celebrated with a special tasting event:

Date: Thursday October 11, 5–8 pm , Art and Sons Studio, 408 East Wilson Street, #2

In keeping with CES’s overarching interest in thinking about the socio-economic, political, and creative systems of exchange that govern our society, the design of the Liberated Passions Cider can centers on a quote by Emma Goldman. An influential radical, Goldman fiercely advocated for freedom of expression, equality for women, and workers’ rights. She believed the political and economic organization of modern society was fundamentally unjust, and instead embraced anarchism for its vision of a new social order based on liberty, harmony, and true social justice. In Anarchism and Other Essays (1910) she wrote, “Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals. …”

Although the CES creative collective leverages a famous anarchist's quote to spark imaginative thought about what a more civically oriented culture might look like, the members of CES embrace the irony of their commercial venture. Their tongue-in-cheek approach to the project is based on satisfying aesthetic and consumer impulses through the common exchange of buying and sharing beverages. They simultaneously encourage a fresh examination of consumption and probes our relationship to labor, capitalism, and each other.

A third and final release of the year is planned for November and will coincide with a harvest event taking place at MMoCA. This event will feature a participatory performance led by artist Meg Mitchell.