Nerd Nite Hudson Valley #8: Psychedelics, Remote Sensing for Wildlife Conservation & Rehabilitation Through the Arts! September 19th
Three fun-yet-informative visual presentations at The Howland Cultural Center! We hear from Jermaine Archer of RTA, Rehabilitation Through the Arts, a program made famous in the Oscar nominated film Sing Sing, Julia Janson, former conservation biologist and interpretive naturalist with The Association of Zoos & Aquariums and the U.S. Forest Service, giving a talk on remote sensing for wildlife conservation and Galen Ballentine, researcher of psychedelics and neuroscience who did one of the largest studies ever on hallucinogenics and psychedelics.
Special guests Beacon Prison Books Project, a program started by Binnacle Books which now includes a number of Hudson Valley bookstores.
Friday September 19th at 7:30pm at The Howland Cultural Center in Beacon, NY. With fun music, prizes, libations and guaranteed good company: Doors at 7pm. Be there and be square! Tickets: bit.ly/nnhv-sept19
“Reclaiming Self: Rehabilitation Through the Arts” by Jermaine Archer
Jermaine Archer, once a proud science and math major, succumbed to the lure of the glamour and glitz of the street life while in high school. He applied his gifts for numbers and elements to become a practitioner of non-FDA approved pharmaceuticals and ended up in state prison. Using his intellect to survive incarceration, he re-embraced his academic intelligence and exited prison, once again, a self-professed nerd.
Incarcerated for a crime he did not commit, Jermaine earned a Master’s degree, became a certified paralegal and taught himself several languages. Since his release, he’s been a sentence mitigation specialist, joined a national foundation to support organizations working to end the over-criminalization of people from poor communities, and recently was named executive director of Rehabilitation Through the Arts.
“Psychedelic Experiences: Language, Time, and Ineffability” by Galen Ballentine
Psychedelic drugs can trigger various types of experiences and their therapeutic value depends on the subjective qualities of these experiences. This talk will summarize Galen’s research that attempted to answer two crucial questions: 1. What neurobiology accounts for the subjective differences between drug-induced states? 2. How do these mental states unfold through time?
Galen Ballentine is a psychiatrist and researcher focused on novel methods for measuring subjective psychoactive effects of drugs, in particular psychedelic drugs, with an eye to their potential therapeutic uses. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and then the Bronx, and has graduated from College of the Atlantic and Drexel College of Medicine. He is passionate about somatic therapy, gardening, dance, and not taking oneself excessively seriously.
”Zooming in on Wildlife” by Julia Janson
Cell phones, laptops, and satellites have become integral tools in our daily lives. In the twenty-first century, where environmental issues such as climate change, deforestation, and pollution have exacerbated habitat loss, these tools will become crucial for monitoring populations of critically endangered wildlife. Julia will cover some of the basics of remote sensing technology and demonstrate how it can be a powerful tool for supporting wildlife conservation. Using examples from her research, we’ll learn how to directly contribute to science and make a positive impact in our communities.
Julia Janson is a former naturalist and conservation biologist. She has spearheaded several conservation and citizen science projects with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the U.S. Forest Service, during her two years of service in AmeriCorps. She has also written and published natural history articles for ‘The Outside Guide’ in northern Nevada, The Peregrine Fund at The World Center for Birds of Prey, and Elevate Magazine, where she was featured as one of the Top Writers for 2015. In 2020, Julia earned her Master’s Degree in Environmental Education and hopes to pursue a Ph.D. in Wildlife Ecology. When not out saving the world, Julia enjoys hiking, skiing, reading and writing science fiction.