Sharing African American History Through Hospitality with Kristin Kitchen, Sojourn Heritage Accommodations
Key Points From This Episode:
• Kristin and her history with the Six Acres property where she runs her B&B.
• How the history of the Six Acres property informs Kristin’s approach to hosting guests.
• Kristin’s thoughts on her commitment to sourcing products by Black-owned businesses.
• How Kristin weaves Black histories tied to the locations of her restaurants into her design choices and the guest experience.
• How Kristin’s business choices tie into the growing heritage tourism movement.
• Questioning norms and Kristin’s thoughts on Blackness being branded in negative ways.
• Perspectives on luxury and a story about a travel writer who appreciated her experience at Six Acres.
• How the pandemic is challenging us to find new ways of inhabiting our spaces.
• The role of Kristin’s team in building her brand and how a common value system drives them.
• Thoughts on telling Black stories and excitement for what is in store for Sojourn.
Today’s guest is Kristin Kitchen, Founder and CEO of Sojourn Heritage Accommodations, talking about how she is using hospitality to share African American history and inspired community building. Sojourn is a heritage tourism brand where luxury meets history, with a vision to share the rich past of African Americans across the country through art, jazz, wine, and food in a uniquely diverse hospitality setting.
The first property Kristin acquired is now the Six Acres Bed & Breakfast, a house in the Underground Railroad Network, which she converted into a very successful hospitality business in Cincinnati, Ohio. This was the first in Kristin’s brand of boutique hotels that blend the intimacy of a bed and breakfast with the amenities of a first-class hotel. Our conversation begins with the story of how Kristin found the Six Acres property and decided to convert it into a bed and breakfast that incorporated the rich history of its context into the guest experience.
We talk about Kristin’s decision to support Black-owned businesses through the products she sources and then dive into the importance of keeping African American history alive in the present. Our conversation explores the importance of defining luxury for ourselves and how this connects to the experience of basking in the beauty of our shared culture. We speak to Kristin about the importance of her team, the intersection of her business plan with the heritage tourism movement, and what is in store for the different locations that she currently has under operation.
