Alexa Romano
My goal is to promote transparency, justice, and knowledge regarding the coffee we consume and the humans who produce it.
“Anthropology is less about the study of an object, less about gaining knowledge about the world and the people in it, and more about opening our eyes and minds to other possibilities of being.
Anthropology is a way of attending to and thinking an otherwise. To know another is, in some senses, the most intimate act, and as a “way of knowing it is also a way of being.”
Yellow Earth
Welcome to Yellow Earth! I created Yellow Earth as my creative space to share my photography, storytelling, and writing reflections.
I was raised in the scenic and vast landscapes of New Mexico. I earned a scholarship to attend Stanford University, where I played basketball and received a BA in Anthropology with a double minor in Art Practice: Photography and Ethics in Society. During my studies, I conducted research on the bureaucratic and affective productions of “heritage” at both the central Andean town and UNESCO archaeological site, Chavín de Huantar, Peru.
I also received an MA in Anthropology from Stanford, where I investigated the coffee commodity chain involving women and youth small holder coffee producers in Costa Rica. My research explored the mystified, obscured, and (un)ethical relations that tether producer societies to consumer societies. I became passionate about climate and social justice through the mentorship of coffee producers demonstrating their lived realities. Throughout all my research, I ground photography and storytelling at the core.
Currently based in San Francisco, I keep a presence in coffee spaces, which underlies everything I do. I have been a farm-to-table apprentice with Stanford’s Executive Dining program, a coffee roaster’s apprentice, a barista and caterer at Ritual Coffee Roasters, a baker at a renowned Scandinavian bakery in San Francisco (because pastries always must accompany espresso), and front of house manager for a non-profit social enterprise restaurant that employs and trains San Franciscans who are formerly homeless, incarcerated, substance abusing, or citizenship seeking. The common thread between all these experiences is my love for people, the environment, and the commodities that we make and enjoy together.
Currently, I still write about coffee, I work for a health and fitness startup, and after a lifetime of basketball, I have returned to running again– this time in the form of ultra marathons!
Although Yellow Earth is just a name for now, a coffee project in Costa Rica in the works.
Stay tuned…
Alexa
Yellow Earth 