Cohoba

Directions Website Contact the organization

Cohoba We are a BIPOC-led nonprofit of psychedelic positive therapists, body workers, advocates, and artists

CohobaFest III was a success! Thank you Zachary D. Turner WFAE for your coverage. We can’t wait to do it again next year...
08/26/2026

CohobaFest III was a success! Thank you Zachary D. Turner WFAE for your coverage. We can’t wait to do it again next year! Huge thank you to Dérive Health for sponsoring, as well as Salud Cerveceria 🇩🇴🇩🇴 and OMB - The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery. Cheers to our community partners The Pearl Institute Carolinas for Care ☀️ Psychedelıc Society of Asheville (The PSA Collective) Psychedelics in Recovery Psychedelics in Recovery MAPS OBRA Collective Rebeca Carvajal, LCMHC, ATR-BC Shikha Patel - Collaborative InSights, Therapy & Consultation hayley moran AND of course to our talented volunteers/speakers Nilsplif De La Cruz Jonathan F Apgar Claudio Rafael sweat_transfer Brianna Daniels O M G A L C H E M Y Kelly H., Certificated Grief Coach Sequoya Hayes Matthew Withrow oriana ✨🦋💫MDiv🪄 and to EVERYONE who’s been there for us over the years, THANK YOU!!!

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Born in the Dominican Republic and raised amidst the eclectic cultures of Queens, New York...
08/14/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Born in the Dominican Republic and raised amidst the eclectic cultures of Queens, New York, Neal joined the armed services following the events of 9/11, serving honorably from 2002 to 2008. Across two combat deployments, he experienced the horrific realities of war firsthand, returning home with a diagnosis of PTSD. After earning his bachelor’s degree in graphic design in New York, he relocated to Charlotte in 2016. Here began a profound healing journey that catalyzed when he connected with Cohoba community. Neal found tremendous relief in veteran-led retreats centered on nature-based, holistic peer support, successfully mitigating the devastating effects of war on his mind.

To further enhance the restorative benefits of his therapy, Neal took up golf, which has since evolved into a vital pillar of his daily well-being. Today, he channels that transformative healing back into the community by partnering with Adaptive Golf of the Carolinas, assisting other disabled veterans in learning the game and reclaiming their own peace.

🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and schedule.
📸: Nilsplif De La Cruz

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Kelly Howard is a ritualist, somatic bodyworker, coach, and founder of KH Healing Arts. Sh...
08/14/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Kelly Howard is a ritualist, somatic bodyworker, coach, and founder of KH Healing Arts. She guides individuals and communities through experiences that weave together ritual, embodiment, grief work, creativity, and mindfulness. Kelly believes ritual is a deeply human practice that helps us navigate change, cultivate resilience, and reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. Through community circles, retreats, bodywork, and coaching, she hopes to create grounded, transformative spaces where healing and authentic expression can flourish. She has been a true ally to Cohoba in more ways than one, and we are stoked to hear her speak on Saturday 😎
—
🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and schedule.
📸: Kelly H., Certificated Grief Coach

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Julio Montero is the founder of OMG Alchemy, an herbalist, medicinal mushroom educator, an...
08/14/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Julio Montero is the founder of OMG Alchemy, an herbalist, medicinal mushroom educator, and ethnobotanist dedicated to reconnecting people with the intelligence of the natural world. For over a decade, he has explored the intersections of fungi, plant medicine, fermentation, ritual, and community, sharing this work through workshops, lectures, and handcrafted botanical preparations. Julio’s work bridges traditional knowledge with modern practice, inviting people to cultivate deeper relationships with nature, embodiment, and collective healing. He recently joined Cohoba as our in-house DJ and we can’t wait to groove with him!
—
🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and schedule.
📸: O M G A L C H E M Y

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Matthew Withrow is a corporate strategy specialist, entrepreneur, and nonprofit founder ba...
08/11/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Matthew Withrow is a corporate strategy specialist, entrepreneur, and nonprofit founder based in Charlotte, NC. He credits his experience with psychedelics as a keystone in his personal growth, as well as a continuing source of clarity, creativity, and perspective in his professional life. Outside of the office, he is a lifelong nature enthusiast: Matthew founded a nonprofit devoted to neighborhood-scale habitat restoration in Charlotte and has been involved with a range of environmental advocacy and citizen science projects. He is an enthusiastic advocate for what psychedelics can offer at both the personal and societal levels, and he welcomes conversation with anyone curious about that path.
—
🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and schedule.
📸: Matthew Withrow

08/08/2026

Curious about CohobaFest III? Here’s a look back at our 2023 edition - it was wild! Join us this Saturday, 8/15 at VAPA Center | The Visual and Performing Arts Center and be a part of something beautiful! Tickets at link in bio.

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Sequoya D. Hayes, LCSW-A, LSW, RYT-200, is a social practice artist, memory worker, and th...
08/07/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: Sequoya D. Hayes, LCSW-A, LSW, RYT-200, is a social practice artist, memory worker, and therapist weaving Black q***r feminism through African American surrealism, mental health, and land connection. Her work explores belonging, invisibility, resilience, and ancestral veneration through collage, mixed media, and print. Operating between Anchorage, Chicago, and Charlotte, her work is rooted in liberatory and healing justice.

As an interdisciplinary artist, Sequoya creates content on art censorship, local archives, and placemaking, treating research as a creative practice. She is also drawn to local government at the intersections of art and culture. In 2025, Sequoya received a dream research grant from the International Association on the Study of Dreams for a project entitled “Dirt Roads to the Dream World: Embodiment for Black Q***r Practitioners” and was recently selected for the North Carolina Arts and Science Council Regional Artist Directory.
—
🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and schedule.
📸: Sequoya Hayes

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight; BLACKASTHECOSMOS (B/rianna Daniels) is a genre-expansive Afrofuturist and interdisciplinar...
08/06/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight; BLACKASTHECOSMOS (B/rianna Daniels) is a genre-expansive Afrofuturist and interdisciplinary artist. Reiki II practitioner, 500-hour yoga guide, and teaching artist based in Charlotte, NC, and traveling globally. B’s is an expansive quilt of recovered ancestral tech. Tinkering and tooling with sound, soma, spirit, and soil — crafting liberatory sonic experiences that function as both dance floor and altar.
Named QC Nerve’s 2025 Critics’ Choice Best DJ, BLACKASTHECOSMOS blends Black diasporic genres, celestial textures, ancestral memory, and energetic intuition to shift emotion and expand collective awareness. Each set is a ritual. A space for resilience, celebration, sensuality, and unapologetic self-expression.

08/06/2026

“Every step we take on earth brings us to a new world.”
- Federico Garcia Lorca

CohobaFest III is almost here! We’ve been working hard to create a day of connection, education, reflection, and celebration via the psychedelic healing arts. Whether you’re a clinician, an artist, an organizer, or just someone invested in community care, this day is for you.

Massive thank you to Dérive Health for sponsoring. We’re so grateful to partner with people who genuinely support our mission.

Tickets are live. Scan the QR code on the flyer or hit the link in bio to get yours.

August 15, 1pm–6pm at the VAPA Center | The Visual and Performing Arts Center
Afterparty at Petra's Bar with Powered by Raw Substance !

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: oriana (she/her/ella)So hyped to welcome oriana to the CohobaFest lineup. 🌿oriana is a cis...
08/04/2026

CohobaFest Speaker Spotlight: oriana (she/her/ella)
So hyped to welcome oriana to the CohobaFest lineup. 🌿

oriana is a cis-q***r, 1.5-generation (native New Yorker, duh), multilingual, politicized, Virgo sun, Libra rising, Cancer moon (Venus in Leo, duh) woman of color. She is a sister, tía, partner, pal, comrade, friend, daughter, and granddaughter of Colombian and Dominican migrants.

A Master of Divinity, researcher, and trauma-informed, multifaith chaplain, oriana earns a living providing spiritual care to people navigating complicated relationships with drugs. She also works as a harm reduction coach.

Her formal drug policy career began in 2014 with internships at the Drug Policy Alliance and DanceSafe’s national organization. Since then, she has extended her care, scholarship, and presence to harm reduction organizations and communities interested in advancing psychedelic-assisted treatments, particularly for people of color disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

At her core, oriana is committed to the difficult work of repair after relational rupture, while centering joy, pleasure, and play. When she is not engaged in some combination of performance art, direct action, or clowning, you can usually find her lifting, running, or experimenting with Aikido.

Generative Somatics (seven years and counting) and Rabbi Mychal Springer’s CPE tutelage are two of the lineages that have most profoundly shaped her. Her soul resides on the beaches of Miami, the Catskill creeks, and Kaskade’s Redux sets.

—
🎟️ Link in bio for tickets and schedule.
📸: oriana ✨🦋💫MDiv🪄 oriana🏳️‍🌈🇩🇴🇨🇴

Address

66 Asheland Avenue
Asheville, NC
28801

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 4:30pm
Thursday 9am - 4:30pm

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Cohoba posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Cohoba:

Shortcuts

Share

Category