Curating Council
To vet our museum exhibits and information, Core has formed a Curating Council to harness the perspective and expertise of thought leaders in the area of social justice in the cannabis industry.
Kaia Stern
Kaia is the cofounder and director of the Prison Studies Project at Harvard University, the first Practitioner in Residence at the Radcliffe Institute, and a Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she collaborates to lead the Transformative Justice Initiative. From Sing Sing prison to The White House, Kaia’s work has been grounded in reimagining justice. She has taught extensively on topics such as liberation theology, ethics, punishment, race, eye contact and transformative justice. Author of Voices from American Prisons: Faith, Education, and Healing (Routledge, 2014), Kaia received her master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School and her PhD from Emory University. She is ordained as an interfaith minister and has been learning/teaching in and about U.S. prisons for 25 years.
Kaya Williams
Kaya is a Post-Doctoral College Fellow and an Assistant Professor at Harvard University. Kaya’s areas of research include ethnographic methods, race, incarceration, mental health, municipal governance, law enforcement, and U.S.-based ethnography.
Kaya also recently received a Spark Grant for a project that will engage students enrolled in her course in an ethnographically driven podcast. The goal is to use ethnography as a tool to spark conversation through the combination of collaboration, convening, and audio content production.
Michelle Dupuis
Michelle is a skilled manager and educator with 10+ year’s experience in educational programming, museum curation, fundraising and community engagement. Michelle has significant background in Social Justice education through her work as an Editorial Assistant at Local Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, a refereed journal written by and for researchers, activists, non-governmental organizations, students, teachers, policy makers and practitioners.
Niambe Tosh
Niambe is the daughter of Reggae legend and cannabis advocate, Peter Tosh. Niambe serves many roles including the Head of the Peter Tosh Estate and Brand, Managing Member of Tosh Holdings LLC (IP), Board Chair for the Peter Tosh Foundation Ltd., and the President of PT Capital LLC (Cannabis).
Niambe’s personal motivation to fight for Social Justice in the cannabis industry stems from the tragic story of her brother Jawara McIntosh. On February 21st, 2017 McIntosh, a musician and marijuana activist, sustained a traumatic brain injury. It happened during an attack at the hands of a fellow prisoner at the Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey, where McIntosh, 37, was serving the final six months of a one-year sentence for the possession of marijuana.
Rahsaan Hall
Rahsaan is the Director of the Racial Justice Program for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. In this role Rahsaan helps develop the ACLU of Massachusetts’ integrated advocacy approach to address racial justice issues. Through legislative advocacy, litigation and community engagement, the program works on issues that deeply impact communities of color and historically disenfranchised communities.
Prior to joining the ACLU of Massachusetts, Rahsaan was the Deputy Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice where his work included policy and legislative advocacy, community outreach, and maintaining a litigation caseload of voting rights, police misconduct and public accommodations cases. Rahsaan headed up the Voting Rights Project that included the coordination of the statewide Election Protection initiatives, voting rights litigation and his prior involvement in community coalitions on redistricting after the last decennial census.
Rahsaan is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University (B.A.), Northeastern University School of Law (J.D.) and Andover Newton Theological School (M.Div.).
Additionally, Rahsaan D. Hall, director of the Racial Justice Program for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, recently addressed Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots during a virtual meeting discussing topics such as the death of George Floyd, the ensuing demonstrations and social unrest, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
(Paraphrased from 6/12/2020, Boston Globe article by Jim McBride, Globe Staff.)
Photo Credit: Betsy Schneider