Abstract
In this interview, Manya Rubinstein, Brown University class of 2001, talks about opening and operating the Industrious Spirit Company in Providence during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Rubinstein begins by recalling that she first learned about COVID-19 from a friend who was living in China. She notes that she did not immediately feel like the virus was a threat to the United States. She goes on to discuss that she had been developing the Industrious Spirit Company for five years and had just opened her doors for friends and family events when the pandemic halted further opening plans.
Rubinstein explains that she quickly realized her business – hampered by the pandemic – could assist in manufacturing hand sanitizer. She touches upon the process of making the sanitizer with some of her company’s alcohol byproducts and distributing it to Providence’s city employees, first responders, and postal workers. She also shares stories from the “Wish We Could Window” – a window at the Industrious Spirit Company that Rubinstein used to sell spirits and distribute free hand sanitizer in a socially distanced and safe manner.
Rubinstein closes her interview by saying that issues such as environmental sustainability and racial justice were prevalent before the pandemic and that she hopes that changes brought on by the pandemic will be used to make the world a better place.
Recorded on June 24, 2020 via Zoom
Interviewed by Amanda Knox, Pembroke Center Assistant Archivist
Suggested Chicago style citation: Rubinstein, Manya K. Interview. By Amanda Knox. Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. June 24, 2020.
Biography
Manya K. Rubinstein is the CEO of the Industrious Spirit Company (ISCO), Providence Rhode Island’s first distillery since Prohibition. ISCO produces sustainably sourced vodka, gins, bourbons and experimental spirits. Housed in a former industrial mill complex that is now part of an arts district, ISCO proudly carries on a centuries-old tradition of making things by hand, combining attention to craft and detail with a creative approach. ISCO creates base spirits from scratch on their 500 gallon Vendome copper still, and cares deeply about each step in their process—from the regional farm partners that grow their grains according to biodynamic farming practices, to the time taken to mash, ferment, distill, bottle and package on site, to the “spent grains” that go to local farms to feed livestock—if you connect the dots, all these steps add up to amazing flavor, and to creating a virtuous regenerative cycle to allow us to do it all over again!
During COVID-19, ISCO has been operating the #WishWeCouldWindow (aka the “Wish We Could Give You a Hug But at Least We Can Give You Spirits, Cocktails and Sanitizer” Window), where they not only sell their spirits but give out free bottles of house-made hand sanitizer, no purchase required. They have also been producing larger quantities of sanitizer for the City of Providence, the Post Office, the Fire Department, nursing homes, healthcare workers and other first responders.
Before jumping headlong into the booze business, Rubinstein ran an independent marketing consultancy and published Outpost Journal, an arts/activism publication that highlighted “underexposed” cities. The Journal was sold at the Museum of Modern Art’s PS1, Opening Ceremony, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art among other locations, and was selected as a Best New Magazine of 2012 by the British Journal of Photography. Before Outpost, Rubinstein worked at Google, where she provided marketing advice to financial services clients, and prior to that she worked in both traditional and online publishing with stints at PAPER magazine, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and CondeNet, blogging on occasion for GOOD and Metropolis.
Rubinstein is currently on a brief leave as the chair of the Communications Committee of the American Farmland Trust, a rotating trustee of the David Rockefeller Fund, and was formerly on the boards of the Providence-based Southside Community Land Trust, which helps people grow food, as well as the Steel Yard, an industrial arts education and job training facility. She holds an MBA from Columbia University, an MA in Media Studies from the European Graduate School, and a BA in Comparative Literature from Brown University. A passionate cook and enthusiastic gardener, Rubinstein divides her time between in Little Compton, a tiny farm town by the sea, and Providence, Rhode Island.