With Rastafari Elder FirstMan
📅 September 18, 2026
🕖 7:00–9:00 PM
📍 Museum of Modern Renaissance
115 College Ave, Somerville, MA
Join Rastafari Elder FirstMan for an exploration of Rastafari history, culture, philosophy, and the evolving relationship between indigenous traditions and psychedelic plant medicines. 🌿🍄
Drawing from decades of cultural preservation, community organizing, cannabis advocacy, and traditional Rastafari practice, FirstMan will share the principles at the heart of Rastafari—including our relationship with nature, community, ancestry, spirituality, and plant medicine. 🌎🙏🏿
The workshop will explore the history and philosophy of the Rastafari movement, Jamaica's long relationship with cannabis as a sacramental plant, and FirstMan's work advocating for the protection of traditional knowledge and indigenous cultural expression.
🌱 Rastafari & Psychedelic Plant Medicines
In 2016, FirstMan and the Rastafari Indigenous Village (RIV) were introduced to ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and other sacred plants through exchanges with Mesoamerican and South American medicine practitioners.
RIV subsequently began integrating these plants into its own spiritual framework, combining traditional Rastafari beliefs and practices with new forms of psychedelic exploration—an expression they call Rastadelic™ culture and spirituality. 🍄🔥
🥁 About FirstMan
FirstMan is an original founder of the Rastafari Indigenous Village and a longtime cultural advocate, community organizer, drummer, chanter, singer, songwriter, and orator.
He served as a charter member of the Jamaican Ganja Task Force, Chair of Jamaica's first Ganja Advisory Committee, and co-founder of the Rastafari and Grass Roots Growers Association (RAGGA). 🇯🇲
He has also been certified by the United Nations as an expert in the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
✨ This workshop offers a rare opportunity to learn directly from a Rastafari elder about the intersection of indigenous wisdom, cultural preservation, cannabis, psychedelic plant medicines, and spiritual practice—and what these traditions can teach us about approaching sacred plants with greater respect, intention, and responsibility.
PLEASE BRING SOMETHING THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO SIT COMFORTABLY ON THE FLOOR. A CUSHION, YOGA BLANKET, BOLSTER, BACK REST, ETC...