PS2025 Black Liberation Tracks & Statement
Public Statement to the PS2025 Community
This is a statement collectively written by the official PS2025 Juneteenth & Black Planning Committee to both publicly recognize prior shortcomings and commit to a more inclusive Black experience at Psychedelic Science 2025.
Psychedelic Science 2023 was heralded as a groundbreaking event—a bridge connecting the medical, the mystical, the marginalized, and the mainstream. With over 12,000 attendees, it stood as the largest psychedelic conference in history. It was positioned as a space where healing, transformation, and inclusivity would take center stage.
Yet, for many Black participants, this vision did not hold true. Instead, PS2023 became a moment of harm, disappointment, and erasure. Despite the conference taking place during Juneteenth, there was a glaring lack of acknowledgment and celebration of Black culture, influence, and history. This was not just an oversight. It was a painful reflection of the same systemic exclusion and disregard Black people have endured in every sector, including within the psychedelic movement.
Juneteenth is not just a day of celebration — it is a reminder of delayed justice, stolen time, and the continued fight for true liberation. On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, TX, to enforce the liberation of enslaved Black people. But freedom had not been freely given — it had been deliberately withheld to continue exploiting Black labor for as long as possible. Even after that day, new systems of racial oppression emerged—Black Codes, convict leasing, Jim Crow, redlining, and mass incarceration — all designed to strip Black people of autonomy, wealth, and security.
The physical, psychological, and economic harm inflicted on Black communities is not a relic of the past. It is ongoing. Black people have and continue to experience some of the most barbaric treatment in human history. This country continues to allow the forced and unpaid labor of our people in carceral settings as “punishment for crime,” a clear exception to the supposed abolition of slavery. We have watched as police officers and private citizens murder Black people with impunity for no other reason than their insistence that we are “threatening.” Meanwhile, our women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, and our children, as young as six years old, are being handcuffed and arrested in institutions entrusted with educating them. We are incarcerated, impoverished, disenfranchised, and discriminated against at higher rates than practically any other race.
And yet, despite this, Black people have continued to create, to heal, to build, to thrive. In the face of centuries of oppression, we have cultivated art, music, literature, medicine, spiritual practices, and entire movements that have shaped the world. Our resilience is not just survival — it is transformation. We have taken what was meant to break us and turned it into brilliance.
The failures of PS2023 could have been just another dot in the long line of Black exclusion. But we refuse to let that be the story. In response to the harm experienced by many Black attendees, Black members of the MAPS team, alongside Black leaders in the psychedelic community, have come together to form the Juneteenth and Black Planning Committee for Psychedelic Science 2025. This committee was created because we will not idly stand by and allow another conference to diminish the power, presence, and shine of Black people in this field.
In 2025, Psychedelic Science once again falls during Juneteenth — but this time, we are doing it differently.
-Juneteenth will be honored with the reverence, the depth, and the celebration it deserves. This is not a day to be ignored or treated as symbolic — it is central to our collective liberation.
-There will be intentional, dedicated spaces for Black healing, Black joy, and Black community. Black people must feel safe, seen, and fully included in the psychedelic movement—not just invited in, but prioritized.
-Black voices, expertise, and leadership will be amplified and uplifted. We have been at the forefront of healing traditions for centuries, and our wisdom deserves respect, funding, and platforms — not tokenism.
-We will ensure this field is honoring its own ideals. Psychedelic spaces cannot claim to represent healing and liberation while replicating the same systems of exclusion and harm that exist elsewhere. Real change requires real action.
-Engaging Black leaders and organizations to ensure a community-driven, inclusive design process. Recognizing that the Black experience is diverse, we are committed to collaborating with a wide range of voices in the psychedelic space to shape our objectives and programming with collective wisdom and vision.
We are here to ensure that PS2025 does not repeat the mistakes of the past, but instead, becomes a space that truly reflects the values of justice, healing, and transformation.
-Devon Phillips, Hanifa Nayo Washington, Joseph McCowan, Kevin Cranford, Jr., Kufikiri H. Imara, Pamela Roundtree, Sia Henry, Sutton King
Collectively, the Juneteenth & Black Planning Committee for Psychedelic Science 2025
music, and powerful community.
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Featured Black Liberation Tracks
We are honored to uplift the Black Liberation Tracks featured below. This programming has been curated to to celebrate, center, and affirm Black voices, histories, and futures within the psychedelic movement. For full details & Black Liberation events & activities, please explore our dedicated agenda.
Wednesday, June 18th
Honoring Black Elders: An Intergenerational Circle for Healing and Liberation
Wednesday, Jun 18, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM MDT (3:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT)
BIPOC Chill & Liberation Lounge
This circle is being held with deep intention. It’s a sacred space to uplift and honor the wisdom of our Black Elders in the psychedelic movement. Rather than a formal presentation, it will be a space for storytelling, cultural memory, and truth-telling, with younger generations present to witness, reflect, and receive.
Note: this is a brown bag lunch activity so attendees are encouraged to bring their lunch with them
Facilitators
-Victor Cabral
-Sutton King
Speakers
-Norma Lotsoff
-Mama Ayanna
Thursday, June 19th
We Carry the Light: A Juneteenth Invocation Honoring the Ancestors on the Path to Becoming Good Ancestors
Thursday, Jun 19, 9:30 AM - 9:50 AM MDT (11:30 PM - 11:50 AM EDT)
Main Stage
This opening performance and collective ceremony invites attendees to center and ground themselves in the meaning and purpose of Juneteenth as they move throughout the rest of the conference.
Together, we honor the millions harmed by the transatlantic slave trade, and celebrate the still-to-be-realized promise of freedom that Juneteenth represents.
Speakers:
-Hanifa Nayo Washington
-Pamela Roundtree
Thursday, June 19th
Voices of Black Liberation Fighters: The Black Psychedelic Revolution
Thursday, Jun 19, 9:50 AM - 10:35 AM MDT (11:50 AM - 12:35 PM EDT)
Main Stage
In celebration of Juneteenth, this special opening panel features racial justice activists, criminal and juvenile legal system reform advocates, and visionary leaders in the fight for Black liberation and healing. Panelists will explore socioeconomic and race-based trauma in the US and the role of innovation, Black leadership, and psychedelics in healing that trauma.his opening performance and collective ceremony invites attendees to center and ground themselves in the meaning and purpose of Juneteenth as they move throughout the rest of the conference.
Together, we honor the millions harmed by the transatlantic slave trade, and celebrate the still-to-be-realized promise of freedom that Juneteenth represents.
Speakers:
-Kempis “Ghani” Songster
-Reggie Harris
-Harry Grammer
-Veronza Bowers
Moderator: Sutton King
Thursday, June 19th
Interview with TK and Cipriana Quann
Thursday, Jun 19, 10:35 AM - 11 AM MDT (12:35 PM - 1:00 PM EDT)
Main Stage
Speakers:
-TK Quann
-Cipriana Quann
Thursday, June 19th
Plant Power to the People: Healing Black Minds and Souls
Thursday, Jun 19, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM MDT (4:30 PM - 5:15 PM EDT)
COMMUNITY - 605
The Entheogen Melanin Collective (EMC) is here to talk about all the entheogens—plants, fungi, vines, and cactus vibes—that have been holding us down for generations. These sacred tools have been used by our ancestors for healing, liberation, and spiritual glow-ups long before wellness trends tried to gentrify them. But let’s be real—systemic roadblocks like health disparities, incarceration, and generational trauma have left too many of us disconnected from this magic.This session is a deep (and occasionally hilarious) dive into how entheogens—think mushrooms, ayahuasca, peyote, and even toad medicine—connect to Black and melanated culture, wellness, and policy change. With stories that hit, ideas that resonate, and insights that make you say “damn, that’s deep,” EMC unpacks the rich history of plant medicine, the barriers keeping us from it, and how these sacred tools can help us heal and level up as a community.Plus, we’ll break down how EMC is building spaces that actually get us—culturally competent, harm-reduction-focused, and full of unapologetic Black and melanated joy. This isn’t your typical academic talk; it’s a vibe, a lesson, and a movement. Join us, and let’s reclaim the medicine, dismantle the barriers, and laugh a little along the way—because healing is a whole mood!
Speakers:
-Imani Turnbull Brown
-Julian Fontaine Fox
Thursday, June 19th
Beyond the Clinical Trial: A Culturally Grounded Research Approach to Understanding Black Learners and Our Psychedelic Training Programs
Thursday, Jun 19, 3:15 PM - 5:00 PM MDT (5:15 PM - 7:00 PM EDT)
COMMUNITY - 605
Speakers:
-Dr. Deidre Somerville
-Carsten Fisher
-Courtney Watson
Thursday, June 19th
Black Psychedelia: Reclaiming Cultural Narratives and Expanding the Consciousness Movement
Thursday, Jun 19, 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM MDT (6:30 PM - 7:30 PM EDT)
COMMUNITY - 605
Speakers:
-Darron Smith
-Hanif Akiyema
-Hanifa Washington
-Reuben Blackwell
-Joseph McCowan
Thursday, June 19th
What if We TRULY Valued All Voices? Reimagine the Role of the BIPOC Community in Psychedelic Policy & Practices
Thursday, Jun 19, 5:30 PM - 6:00 PM MDT (7:30 PM - 8:00 PM EDT)
COMMUNITY - 605
Consider this, there are superstar rappers, politicians, billionaires, scientists, pharmaceutical companies, veterans and US military leadership in agreement that psychedelics should be legalized for medicinal use. Furthermore, millions of Americans, and millions more around the globe are eager to learn more about psychedelic medicine and therapy. With this ensemble of contrasting cultures and world views in harmony, we are in the midst of a major political, cultural and economic shift in the US and global community. With all of these disparate groups in agreement that more research into psychedelics and greater access to therapies are needed, a global majority is noticeably absent from this framing – People of Color. While there is a multitude of media on the subject of psychedelics, rarely are the unique experiences or insights of the most marginalized people in our society centered or even considered. Tens of millions of Black, Brown, Indigenous and other Peoples of Color (BIPOC) in the US, and billions around the globe are actively working to heal from centuries of discrimination and harm. Therefore, where are BIPOC voices positioned in the dialogue? Where are they ignored, marginalized and misunderstood? What happens when BIPOC people are centered and empowered to speak our truths? How are BIPOC experiences instrumental to the hope and healing that all people seek? Using poetry, music, film and photography, we will cultivate a courageous conversation about the state of psychedelic policy, research, access and representation from the perspective of BIPOC peoples. Maria Sabina, Indigenous Mexican healer and poet, credited her words and work to the mushroom, not herself. Maria wrote, “Cure yourself with the light of the sun and the rays of the moon. …Jump, dance, sing, so that you live happier. Heal yourself, with beautiful love, and always remember: you are the medicine.”
Speakers:
-Victor Cabral
-Eric Blackerby
-Esteban Serrano
Moderator:
-Shakeh Grady
Location: to be disclosed via word of mouth
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