Tokeativity, a cannabis events series for women based in Portland, Oregon, is the brainchild of Lisa Caperello-Snyder and nurtures a safe space for women to create, learn and connect. Whether you are a first timer or daily consumer, all women are welcome to join the community for helpful workshops, classes, music, guest artists and speakers, as well as workshop leaders, networking, and films. Inspired by the warm vibe of Tokeativity’s events, CANNABIS TOURS reached out to Caperello-Snyder to learn more about her welcome contribution to the cannabis community.
What inspired you create an event series focusing on women and cannabis?
I’m insanely passionate about lifting women up and have been creating women-only feminist events for over a decade. Women-only spaces are extremely hard to come by and it is an absolute pleasure for me to help create that. Cannabis brings people together from all race, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It also has an incredible healing power that we’re just now starting to unravel. Both of my parents died of cancer when I was in my 20s, and I often wonder what their lives would have been like had they been able to access cannabis. I’ve felt deeply called to combine the healing powers of cannabis with the healing powers of women and have been blessed to have an art school background where I learned to have a process to seeing creative projects come to fruition. Plus, I’ve maintained a full time web design business for 11 years. All of this has brought me to give birth to Tokeativity, which has absolutely taken on a life of it’s own.
Why did you choose Prism House’s Samantha Montanaro as a partner in this endeavor?
I met Samantha Montanaro at a Women Grow event back in 2015. After learning she was an event planner as well and had access to a sweet space, I placed her business card in my office, energetically waiting to find out when the right time would be to push the go button on a new cannabis project, perhaps even an events series. Her business card moved around my office for about a year. After attending an Oregon Cannabis Business Meetup at Prism House and volunteering in November 2016 at one of the last Women Grow events in Portland, I saw Sam out of the corner of my eye and felt intuitively called to contact her afterwards. I sent an email to her, wondering to myself if she’d even write back. After pitching my idea, she enthusiastically opened up her space to host the first Tokeativity gatherings and since then, we’ve teamed up on curating some seriously awesome events for women.
Photo by Briana Cerezo
What’s the vibe of a Tokeativity event?
We’ve had creative and career building workshops, ranging from creating vision boards to how to get a job in the cannabis industry to the defining ethical landscapes of women in the cannabis workplace with the Ethical Cannabis Alliance. We’ve hosted socials, which is our once a month gathering where we invite women-owned businesses to share their knowledge, products, and services with one another. Each social is catered and consumption friendly with a creative element. We’ve had creative stations such as Valentine making, beading, and flower crowns making; which can be seen in the May women’s issue of Stoner Magazine.
Women love getting stoned and being creative. It’s one of the things we play with at the socials. Smoking + activities = Tokeativity. You’ll see women who’ve never met each other of all ages and races passing a joint around a circle, making plans for their kids to meet or wo-manifesting a business venture. We’ve had between 50 to 75 women gathering at the socials.
You and Sam are advocating for SB 307 (Provides for regulation by Oregon Liquor Control Commission of consumption and sale of marijuana items at temporary events, including licensure of premises on which temporary events are held). Why is it so important for the community to have consumption friendly events?
Consumption friendly space is still limited to private homes. Many people can’t access a safe space to consume for many reasons. Being a renter, living in public housing, having children and not wanting to consume at home are just a few reasons why having a safe place to consume is important. I’m going to go with positive thinking here, but when SB 307 passes, the way we consume will open up. We’ll have access to something we haven’t had ever: a public place to consume. We’ve all been smoking cannabis together for a long time. It brings strangers and friends alike together into one vibration. When women consume together no matter what their background, everyone feels connected and when we feel connected, we can get a lot of shit done!
Who are some people / companies you’ve featured at past events?
Stemless, Ethical Cannabis Alliance, HiFi Farms, Wandering Spirits PDX, Hailey Katering, Splimm, Stonedware, Reiki Realms, Prismatic Paradigm, Sweet Face By Rocío, Prismatic Paradigm, Jayne Jobs
Colleen Shea (Massage Therapist), Natessa Leanna, Reiki Master Kat Arentz, Goldin Leaf Apothecary, Cascadia Herbals, Messina Bitters, DJ Caryn, Stoner Magazine, Cat Caperello & The Joyride Podcast, Van der Pop, Best Nails Club, Mary Jane Fonda, The Way Witch, The Feminist Sticker Club
What’s next?
Sat July 29, 2-5pm – Cannabis Science Class with Emma Chasen (http://tokeativity.com/july29)
Coming Soon: The Canna-Curious Series– Exploring women’s issues with periods, menopause and the products that support them, info sessions on correlating cannabis tools as well as micro dosing how-tos. Plus, we’re developing the Learn to Grow at Home program.
For every event, you donate a portion of the proceeds to a cause. Which causes do you support?
We’ve donated a portion of our proceeds to these woman-supportive non profits: Planned Parenthood of Oregon, ACLU of Oregon, Dress for Success Oregon, Rahab’s Sisters and Ethical Cannabis Alliance.
What are the different ways women can get involved in Tokeativity?
The best way is to come to any of our events, especially one of the socials. If you aren’t in the Portland area, we’re going to be taking the Social on the road to the cannabis feminist communities in Seattle and LA. If any women in other legal cities want to connect with us about having a Tokeativity event in their city, they should contact us!
What are your thoughts about women in the cannabis industry?
I think we have an incredible, once in a lifetime opportunity in this industry to gain some real traction on equality. When prohibition ended, it set us up to finally have access to an industry at the same entry level as men, leaving it an open field for exploration and with the ability to move up the career ladder pretty quickly. Eight months ago, I wanted to transition my web design business and event planning skills into something more and was trying to figure out what to do next with my life. I started to circle back to my desire to work in cannabis and everywhere I showed up, there was an opportunity to sit at the table. I now have this awesome women’s community around me, started working for a woman and minority owned cannabis tech company (Stemless.co), have been asked to be a contributor to both Stoner Magazine and Push Magazine and have been asked to speak at PDX Hempfest. All you have to do is have a vision for how you want something to unfold and show up where those opportunities might just do that.
Care to share any reflections on the Oregon cannabis community?
I am in love with it. The Portland community especially feels like a family to me. The women here help lift each other up.
Where can people connect with you online?
You can find us in all the fun places:
Website
Mailing List Sign Up
Meetup
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter