Ice Cream Queen with Lokelani Alabanza and Sugar Hill Creamery

Gather the fam for an ice cream social, meet & greet, and signing with Lokelani Alabanza, author of Ice Cream Queen: Flavors from Black America's Past, Present, & Future
The very Black history of America's favorite summer treat is ready for you in Ice Cream Queen, written by pastry chef and and Saturated Ice Cream founder Lokelani Alabanza.
With experience cooking across continents and over 300 ice cream flavors developed, Lokelani blends culinary expertise with equal parts nostalgia and innovation and puts it all on the page in this fantastic debut cookbook.
Spend a summer Sunday at BEM with Lokelani to ask all your ice cream questions as you get your copy of Ice Cream Queen signed and personalized. Then, dig into a complimentary ice cream treat from our friends at Sugar Hill Creamery!
Reserve a copy of the book as your ticket to join us in celebrating Black dessert legacies of the past and those building them moving forward!
Ticket Options
Signing, Meet & Greet, and Ice Cream!: a reserved copy of Ice Cream Queen along with an ice cream treat from Sugar Hill Creamery
We ask that you pre-order your copies to help us plan book quantities; a limited number of additional copies will be available for purchase onsite.
The cafe and bookstore will be open during the event; feel free to bring your family and friends. All ages welcome!
Add a contribution to the BEM Cultural Foundation to your ticket purchase to support our stewardship of Black food books and cultures!
More about the book
Back in the 1840s, a free Black woman ran a successful ice cream saloon in Nashville. Her name was Sarah Estell, and she became known as “the Ice Cream Queen.” Now taking up her crown is Lokelani Alabanza, a trained pastry chef and avid collector of all things Black Americana. Her love of ice cream and appreciation for those who preceded her come together in this joyful cookbook.
Ice Cream Queen features Alabanza’s original creations and revamped classics such as Malted Vanilla, Roasted Strawberry, and Mint Chip. Building on simple bases, standout flavors range from boozy and fruity to adventurous and decadent. Recipes include Nashville Hot Chicken, an ode to her adoptive city’s iconic dish; Juneteenth Sorbet, with summer-ripe raspberries and hibiscus flowers; PB&J, a vanilla swirled with peanut butter, strawberry jam, and slices of white bread; Chocolate-Covered Kettle Chip, a crunchy mix of sweet and salty . . . and many more.
A love letter to generations of Black ice cream makers, this cookbook offers something entirely new: ice cream as an act of memory, identity, and Black excellence.
More about the participants
Lokelani Alabanza is a pastry chef with 20+ years' experience. Over the course of her career, she has invented over 300 ice cream flavors. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, she is the founder of Saturated Ice Cream.
More about BEM
BEM Cultural Foundation (BCF) is the sibling nonprofit to BEM | books & more, a bookstore and culinary hub dedicated to global Black foodways and storytelling.
Established in 2025, BCF creates programs and experiences that deepen the public’s knowledge of Black culinary and literary traditions across the diaspora. BCF prioritizes communal gatherings, creating space to celebrate and explore Black food through literature while serving as a home for readers, writers, cooks, and eaters passionate about Black cultures in all their diversity.