Phoenix Rising Is Bringing Psychedelic Culture to Nashville

This November gathering will bring psychedelic education into conversation with music, visual art, comedy, philosophy, and the culture surrounding altered states.

Nashville has never had trouble bringing music, art, and a little rebellion into the same room. Psychedelics, however, remain a less public part of the conversation.

Phoenix Rising Psychedelic Speakeasy wants to change that. Set for November 5 at Analog at Hutton Hotel, the event will bring together artists, musicians, psychedelic educators, and figures working across science, spirituality, and culture for an evening built around something broader than the standard conference-panel approach.

For organizer Edward Crowe, a music business executive and psychedelic guide, Nashville is interesting precisely because it isn’t an obvious center of the contemporary psychedelic movement.

“The community here in Nashville is severely curious, but equally misinformed,” Crowe told High Times. “When you mention mushrooms in Nashville, the understanding usually stops at chocolate bars and micro-dosing—but there’s so much more to the psychedelic experience.”

Psychedelics Outside the Conference Room

Phoenix Rising is leaning heavily into the cultural side of psychedelics. The lineup includes author and philosopher P.D. Newman, artists Rime MSK and Dr. Dax, Eleusis co-founder Charles Patti, ceremonial guide Andy Sudbrock, comedy from Dennis Walker, live painting by Chris Dyer, a sound bath from Demi Greider, and music from Nutritious. Crowe will also participate.

The event is sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which marks its 40th anniversary this year. Organizers say the night is intended for education, culture, and entertainment, and no psychedelic substances will be provided, sold, or consumed at the event.

That mixture of disciplines is intentional. Rather than separating psychedelics into medical, spiritual, scientific, or cultural camps, Crowe said he wants those perspectives bumping into one another.

“I’m excited to have all these perspectives in one room, because where one drops off, another picks up,” Crowe said. “But when I sit with a mycologist, a doctor, or a scientist, the conversation gets so much more interesting.”

Music will be part of that conversation rather than simply entertainment between speakers. Nutritious, who is scheduled to perform, said the event’s open-ended premise fits his improvisational approach.

“Phoenix Rising makes curiosity part of the invitation,” he told High Times. “That’s exciting to play into. We can arrive somewhere neither of us could have imagined alone.”

Bringing the Conversation to Music City

Phoenix Rising arrives as psychedelics increasingly occupy overlapping worlds of research, policy, wellness, underground practice, and popular culture. The Nashville event isn’t trying to collapse those distinctions so much as put people who approach psychedelics differently into the same room.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. on November 5, with programming beginning at 7:30 p.m. The event will also be livestreamed globally through Volume.com.

For Crowe, bringing that conversation to Nashville is part of the point.

“We named it the Phoenix Rising Psychedelic Speakeasy because we’re still living through prohibition—one that requires us to move quietly and speak easily,” he said.

Tickets are available at PRPS369.com/event.

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Images courtesy of Phoenix Rising Psychedelic Speakeasy.

Content Disclaimer: High Times is a media partner of Phoenix Rising Psychedelic Speakeasy. Event details, lineup information, participating organizations, and programming information were provided by the event producers. 

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