11/20/24 : BIPOC Speaker Series - Perspectives on Psychedelics in Colorado

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION
Our November 20th presenter is Melanie Rose Rodgers. The title of the presentation is:
Healing, Lessons Learned and Insights from almost a Decade in Activism in Denver, Colorado

From expanding medical cannabis access in Colorado to decriminalizing psilocybin mushrooms in Denver and also running a grassroots ballot initiative in response to the Natural Medicine Health Act, Melanie Rose Rodgers has learned the ins and outs of advocacy, policy making and community organizing. This will be an evening of storytelling sharing insights, tips and hard lessons learned along the way.

BIO

Melanie Rose Rodgers is a Filipina community organizer and grassroots activist based in Denver. She has been an advocate on the frontlines of cannabis, psychedelics and criminal justice reform through record sealing for nearly a decade. Her involvement as a petitioner behind Denver’s successful 2019 ballot initiative to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms led her on a healing journey with entheogenic plants and psilocybin mushrooms. Melanie’s advocacy and organizing efforts have been instrumental in passing and implementing policy and legislation in Denver, Washington DC and in Colorado.

In this talk, she'll share stories from her lived experience providing insights to Colorado's political landscape and lessons learned in community organizing.

Melanie is the Executive Director and Co-founder of local nonprofit Expunge Colorado and founder/co-leader of BIPOC Psychedelic, a community organization that is BIPOC-led/centered in Denver Five Points. Follow BIPOC Psychedelic's journey on Instagram @BIPOCPsychedelic.

is designed to provide educational material and community input to psychedelic policy makers in Colorado and elsewhere, incluing Denver's Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, and the 15-member Natural Medicine Advisory Board and its working groups created by the passage of the Natural Medicine Health Act (Proposition 122) in November 2022.

Learn more about speakers and schedule here.

Host or Publisher BIPOC Psychedelic + CU Denver Anthropology Dept