Nowshin Shithi: Carrying Legacy Beyond the Book

 Reflection on the Uncle Nearest Retreat

Walking through the Uncle Nearest Distillery in Shelbyville, Tennessee, I felt the history closer, not as words in a book but as something living in the ground and air. Reading Fawn Weaver’s Love & Whiskey gave me a background into Nearest Green’s legacy, but standing on the site where his story began and continues, I felt a fuller sense of its weight. Our journey from Atlanta to Tennessee was beautiful. Out of the window, we saw rolling fields, wooden still houses, and the careful preservation of a name once almost forgotten. This retreat reminded me that history is not just a static collection of facts. History is carried forward in people, places, and choices, and it asks us to position ourselves within its unfolding. 

Being at the distillery gave me a more profound sense of historical consciousness than reading alone could provide. Weaver’s book recounts how Nearest Green taught Jack Daniel the art of distilling whiskey. This story remained untold for generations; however, it was not unknown to Jack Daniel’s and Nearest Green’s family. And standing in the place that now holds his name was to see how memory can be buried and recovered. Traveling from Atlanta to rural Tennessee heightened my awareness of how stories move across geographies. It is one thing to honor Nearest Green on the page. It is another to see a thriving business built around his name in a region where legacies of slavery and erasure are still felt. Like Danielle Allen’s Our Declaration, which is based on America’s founding ideals through inclusion, this retreat challenged me to see history as where voices long silenced can be brought forward with dignity. 

The visit also raised questions of ethics that felt more immediate when surrounded by the signature green of Nearest Green Distillery. Love & Whiskey celebrates how Weaver turned a neglected history into a thriving enterprise. An enterprise, a business, surrounding the legacy of Nearest Green, and the portrait of his son that seems to be the brand’s “face”. Many without prior knowledge might even assume the book’s cover and the photographs, paintings, and murals in Nearest Green’s distillery are of him and not George Green, his son. However, perhaps we would have never known the legacy if it weren’t for Love & Whiskey. Robin D.G. Kelley’s Freedom Dreams urges us to imagine futures where communities thrive beyond exploitation. Would this be considered exploitation? Would Nearest Green have wanted this? In hindsight, it is easier to criticize than to bring truth to a story, which Fawn Weaver and her husband tried their best at. Still, the tension remains, and encountering it in the distillery space made it harder to ignore. 

The most personal impact of the retreat came from a shared experience with my honors sisters. Walking through the distillery on a guided tour made the history come alive in new ways. Each room and display revealed the craft of whiskey-making and the intentional work of honoring Nearest Green’s legacy. Meeting Keith Weaver during the visit added another layer of connection, as he shared stories that blended personal commitment with a sense of responsibility to history. He seemed passionate about doing what he does, and when he said how he kept pushing despite struggles, it resonated with me. I saw myself differently than just as a student analyzing a text; instead, I saw myself as part of a group that encountered history, ethics, and identity in real time. The retreat asked me to imagine myself as a participant in a larger narrative of recovery and recognition of many stories that often go unheard. 

-Nowshin Shithi

Love Story:

Complication or Tension:

Brand vs. History