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SASS DIGITAL ZINE

Interview with Benjy Bradshaw

Solonje Burnett
August 11, 2025

Described as a “creative chameleon,” Benjy Bradshaw is the epitome of a DIY musician… and in our humble opinion he’s an all around artiste! His multi-ethnic background (Native American, Portuguese, English, Irish) and private Catholic school education ultimately contributed to his constant exploration of self through visual and creative transformations. Although he is primarily inspired by dance, house, and new wave music, Benjy also loves to "art direct his life" -- experimenting with photography, makeup, fashion, and design. 
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Meet + Create with Benjy on Saturday, August 16th from 1-4pm at From Here to Sunday in Gowanus as a part of our SASS Summer Popsicle Popup series. RSVP. 
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This is a full transcript from our Keep Pride Alive campaign interviews. It has been edited and condensed for clarity by Solonje Burnett, Weed Auntie. Photos by Benjy Bradshaw. Watch a part of our interview.

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WA = Weed Auntie

BB = Benjy Bradshaw 

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WA: Please tell us your name, preferred pronouns, and career/passions.

BB: My name is Benjy Bradshaw, my pronouns are he/him/his. My passion is music and I’m an independent recording artist here in New York City.

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WA: Give it up for the artists! So what did your family say about weed growing up? 

BB: Growing up, weed was not seen as a good thing. It was a very taboo topic, and we basically thought of it as something that was associated with hippies. There just wasn’t a good light on it. It was for only one type of person and definitely not something we were encouraged to do.

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WA: How does cannabis affect or enhance your creative process whether it’s making a zine, music, or designing a magical piece to adorn your body?

BB: Cannabis opens my eyes. My life is very busy. I am essentially working 6 days a week, from sunrise until bedtime, on all the creative tasks that allow me to be my creative self – music, fashion, makeup, design, etc. Saving a day where I can take cannabis and enjoy life, has become one of my new favorite things, along with SASS gummies and chocolates of course! Even just one day a week without technology, opening my eyes and heart to the world allows me to jump back into my work with more excitement, creative ideas, and joy.

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WA: What does visibility mean to you?

BB: When someone or something is visible, it means it is recognized – whether or not it is also understood. Many of us have lived our lives in the shadows. We have had to tip toe around our identities to please the status quo. By living our true selves, we are opening doors for acknowledgement. By living authentically, we plant seeds in the minds of those who may not understand (and reaffirm growth for those who identify with us). Most importantly, by being visible, we give hope for a kinder world of understanding.

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WA: Has anyone ever judged or labeled you for being a consumer of cannabis?

BB: Luckily I’ve had really supportive friends who have been there and haven’t seen it as a problem. I have that community around now, but it took a while to get there. 

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WA: Do you feel like there’s a lack of authentic representation in the way cannabis users are depicted by brands, media and general pop culture?‍

BB: Yes, I think there’s a huge underrepresentation. I don’t see people like me or like my friends. There’s one type of vision of what it means to be a cannabis consumer. It’s not inclusive and very one-sided.

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WA: What are some ways that we can create a more inclusive and accepting society for cannabis users?

BB: I think to create a more inclusive society, we need to be more mindful and open to the beautiful spectrum of people. There are people everywhere who love cannabis in all different types of forms. We need to have a space that’s about positivity. Giving everyone the freedom and ability to partake with no judgement. No matter how you look. If you’re wearing a little tutu or not. You can consume and enjoy life through the ways that feel like you.

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WA: Love that! What is your favorite way to consume cannabis?

BB: I love edibles. Funny story, I can’t inhale. My freshman year in college, my friend tried to get me high and she gave me (brings his finger to his lips, motioning like he’s puffing on a joint) - I don’t even know what it’s called - and I couldn’t inhale. We were trying to watch Mean Girls and I was laughing so hard. She was like “you’re high” and I was like “no, it’s just a funny movie.” So anyway, it just never worked for me until like 10 years later my friend had an edible and it changed my life!

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WA: Who do you think needs to be deliberately dosed?

BB: Oh! Well – tons of people. I think the bus I took to get here should be dosed because it would be a really fun ride. I would’ve been enjoying life for thirty minutes more before I came here!

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WA: Who is included in your dream sweet sesh of queer icons? Who would you invite to indulge in some SASS with you?

BB: If I had to have someone here having SASS with me, we all know that Lady Gaga would be right here and I’d be like “Here Queen, here you go.” And then who’s the sassiest person I know? Um, a bunch of my drag queen friends and I would be like “Here everybody! Party time!” And we would just have a giant dance party. So Gaga, and all my friends.

Keep Pride Alive Campaign photo credit Cindy Trinh
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Find his music: Traxsource | Beatport | Spotify | Apple Music

Stay in touch: Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

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Solonje Burnett
September 15, 2026

20 Latine Creatives + Founders You Should Know

‍Today marks the beginning of Latine Heritage Month which runs from September 15 to October 15. As a brand whose founder has roots in Mexico and Puerto Rico, we’re proud to highlight the culture and contributions of others throughout the diaspora.
Solonje Burnett
September 15, 2026

20 Latine Creatives + Founders You Should Know

‍Today marks the beginning of Latine Heritage Month which runs from September 15 to October 15. As a brand whose founder has roots in Mexico and Puerto Rico, we’re proud to highlight the culture and contributions of others throughout the diaspora.
Solonje Burnett
September 15, 2026

20 Latine Creatives + Founders You Should Know

‍Today marks the beginning of Latine Heritage Month which runs from September 15 to October 15. As a brand whose founder has roots in Mexico and Puerto Rico, we’re proud to highlight the culture and contributions of others throughout the diaspora.


‍Today marks the beginning of Latine Heritage Month which runs from September 15 to October 15.  As a brand whose founder has roots in Mexico and Puerto Rico, we’re proud to highlight the culture and contributions of others throughout the diaspora.

‍Whether in the Bay, Brooklyn or beyond, they’re bringing the sabor to the people. From restauranteurs, healers and comedians, to plant medicine providers, activists, artists, and editors, they’re proudly celebrating by centering the culture and community.

‍Give them a follow and support their work!
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Mary Rosado 🇲🇽🇵🇷
Co-Founder | SASS

SASS is a Brooklyn-based functional adaptogenic and low dose hemp confectionery and wellness brand creating premium infused chocolates, gummies, drinks, and sensory activations rooted in pleasure and community. Our expertly dosed fine products are vegan, gluten-free, made exclusively with the freshest ingredients and locally sourced botanicals. Founded, led and staffed by queer folx, women, and the global majority. We started SASS to celebrate the unique allure of plant medicine by handcrafting treats that work with their flavors and effects instead of against them.

Location: Brooklyn, NY
@cultivate.sass | sassbk.com
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Lynsey Ayala Rinaldi 🇵🇷🗽
Founder | Yabisi Centro

Yabisi Centro is a modern botanica and school rooted in ancestral plant medicine, ritual and the healing traditions of the  African and Caribbean diaspora. Our apothecary offers handcrafted herbal medicines and ritual tools—from Smoke or Steep blends and flower essences to tinctures, ritual oils, microdoses and altar goods—created to support protection, embodiment, remembrance and connection. Through our medicines, classes and School of Remembrance, Yabisi bridges ancestral wisdom with practices for tending the body, spirit and everyday life.

Location: Bronx, NY
@yabisi_centr0 | yabisi.co 
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Riobamba 🇪🇨🇱🇹
DJ & Death Doula

‍Riobamba is an Ecuadorian-Lithuanian sound artist, death doula, and cultural activist. Her interdisciplinary practice is grounded in ancestral veneration, bone-deep listening, and presence with seen and unseen worlds. As a DJ, Riobamba’s rowdy, bass-heavy live sets reflect back queer diasporic nightlife’s power as a site of joy and resistance, amplifying connective tissues between YouTube clips, bodega soundtracks, and noise hyperreality.

Location: Austin, Aquí, Allá
@riobambaaa | riobamba-dj.net
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Cait Camelia 🇲🇽
Co-Founder | Hot Girls Organize

‍Hot Girls Organize (formerly known as Hot Girls for Zohran) is a women-led nonprofit empowering young people to participate in political organizing both locally and nationally. HGO leads with community, meeting young people where they are most comfortable and cultivating a safe space that allows them to develop as both individuals and organizers. Through engaging events, accessible content, and meaningful partnerships, HGO seeks not to bring culture into politics but to shift culture itself towards action + inclusivity. 

Location: Brooklyn, NY
@hotgirlsorganize | hotgirlsorganize.com
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Ranch Guerra 🇲🇽
CEO | The Other Magazine

‍The Other Magazine is New York's leading lifestyle & culture publication covering cannabis culture, psychedelics, wellness, music, art, and travel across NYC, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley. Launched to be a definitive voice for the regional cannabis community, it is distributed across licensed dispensaries throughout the area and publishes seasonal print issues alongside daily digital commentary. 

Location: Brooklyn, NY
@theothermagazines | theothermagazines.com
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Yesenia Ramdass 🇩🇴
Founder, Owner & Chef | HAAM

‍HAAM Caribbean Plant Cuisine (Healthy As A Motha) is a Brooklyn based restaurant founded by Dominican-American Chef Yesenia Ramdass, born and raised in Washington Heights. Rooted in her Dominican heritage and influenced by the Trinidadian culture she has embraced through her husband and children. HAAM reimagines Caribbean dishes, spices, and nostalgia through a modern culinary lens. HAAM is a celebration of culture, flavor, and the stories passed down through food. Created for us, by us.

Location: 234 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
@healthyasamotha | healthyasamotha.com

Jessie Diaz-Herrera 🇩🇴 & Maddy Jones 🇵🇷
Co-Founders | Power Plus Wellness

‍Power Plus Wellness is building a bold, body-affirming wellness space where bodies are celebrated, not fixed. We are a Latina-owned boutique event company that curates life-enhancing movement and immersive wellness experiences for the plus size community to jiggle freely, fly with silks, unlearn diet culture, and joyfully exist together. Our offerings free minds, bodies, and hearts from perceived limitations. 

Location: NYC
@powerpluswellness | powerpluswellness.com
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Sue Carlton Surabian 🇲🇽
Owner & Farmer | Ranchera Familia

‍Ranchera Familia is a Latina-owned, USDA-licensed industrial hemp farm rooted in California’s Central Valley, founded by cultivator, breeder, and educator Sue “Ranchera Mami” Carlton. With more than a decade of cultivation experience, Sue combines regenerative farming, genetics, education, and community-focused agriculture to create a farm that goes beyond the field. Ranchera Familia is dedicated to preserving agricultural knowledge, creating hands-on educational opportunities, and increasing representation for women and Latinas in cultivation.

Location: Fresno County, CA
@rancheramami | rancherafamilia.com
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Ari Serrano 🇵🇷
Co-Founder | The Weedcyclers

‍The Weedcyclers is a recycling waste removal and upcycle service. They provide cannabis businesses with donation box receptacles to collect and provide correct disposal of cannabis waste. They then turn more than 50% of our waste into Up-Cycled sustainable items such as belts, wallets, tote bags, hand bags, backpacks and more! Started in the South Bronx in 2025 and have been featured on the New York Times and more. Our Co-Founders consist of Ari Serrano - Puerto Rican Fashion Designer/Manufacturer living in the BX. and Jonathan Cooling. Found in dispos like Flynnstoned, Misha’s, Astoria Bud Boutique, A&P Dispensary, Flower Power Dispensers, CONBUD Bronx Yankee Stadium, and Devils Lettuce.

Location: Bronx, NY
@weedcyclers 
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Favianna Rodriguez 🇵🇪
Artist & Activist | Favianna Art Studios 

‍Favianna Art Studios creates original works, limited-edition prints, and large-scale commissions. Her colorful and poignant pieces are available in her online shop. Her art examines the most urgent issues of our time through unapologetically feral femme self-expression. Founded and led by Latina interdisciplinary artist Favianna Rodriguez, the studio produces fine art, mixed-media pieces, and public art projects rooted in joy and healing. Favianna’s art has been commissioned by Google, the City of San Francisco, and Presidio National Park. Deeply engaged in social movements around the world, her art is both a reflection of and a catalyst for those movements.

Location: Oakland, CA
@Favianna1
| shop.favianna.com
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Maria Margolies 🇨🇴
Mother, Teacher + Founder | The Holixtic Method 

‍Maria Margolies is the founder of The Holixtic Method, a movement devoted to reclaiming women's bodies, pleasure, and power. For over 25 years as a yoga teacher, dancer and certified holistic coach, she has made it her mission to normalize the conversations around pelvic health, sex, and the female body that shame has kept silent, guiding women back to the truth of their bodies. Healing pelvic floor dysfunctions, postpartum wounds, and buried desire along the way. Through women's retreats, in-person events, and online programs, she teaches women to remember their power and feel whole, at home in their bodies and unstoppable in their own skin. Through Holixtic, an online community of 970K+ Maria is building a generation of women who talk about their bodies out loud, take up space and lead with them instead of apologizing for them.

Location: Asia/Colombia
@holixtic | holixtic.com
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Rosemary “Black Rose” Severino 🇩🇴
Comedian, Actress, Producer, Host, & Digital Creator

Black Rose brings bold energy, authentic storytelling, and culture-driven entertainment to every platform. Born and raised in Harlem with Dominican roots, Black Rose has performed at top comedy venues including Comedy In Harlem, Broadway Comedy Club, Caroline’s, and the New York Comedy Festival. Her acting credits include West Side Story (Steven Spielberg), In the Heights (Jon M. Chu), Chained, and Human Graffiti. With over 100K social media followers, Black Rose continues to expand her influence, including co-hosting Hot 97 Mornings with Mero, while producing “Say Sumptin Comedy” Ana impactful comedy show  and lets not forget her creative content.

Location: Washington Heights, NY
@iamblackrosenyc | 
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Cris Sosa 🇵🇷🇲🇽🇩🇴
Comedian, Actor & Writer

‍Cris Sosa's viral comedy and electric stage presence took him all the way to the Top 3 Quarterfinals of Season 21 of America’s Got Talent. His AGT run introduced Cris to millions of viewers, more than doubled his social media following, and earned high praise from the judges. Before AGT, Cris had already built a loyal audience through stand-up and viral sketches, earning the attention of Issa Rae, Mike Epps, and Steve Harvey and millions of views through his work with All Def. He has shared stages with Epps, Harvey, and KevOnStage and produced comedy shows featuring some of today’s most exciting comedic talent. With a rapidly growing audience and a voice shaped by his Houston upbringing, Latino culture, and life in New York City, Cris Sosa is bringing that momentum to stages across the country — and he’s just getting started.

Location: NYC
@cristinososa | crissosa.com 
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Yara Travieso 🇨🇺🇻🇪
Artist & Director

‍Yara Travieso is a Brooklyn-based Cuban-Venezuelan artist and director working across performance, theater, film, and ritual, whose practice treats the body as both archive and ecosystem. Drawing on the absurd, the matrilineal, and deeply felt experience, she creates hybrid spectacles that explore survival within violent systems. She is the recipient of the prestigious 2026 Doris Duke Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, the inaugural Jacki Apple Award, Open Interval Fellowship, among many others; she is also on faculty at The Juilliard School where she received the John Erskine Faculty Prize. Her productions and films have been presented at Park Avenue Armory, Lincoln Center, Performance Space New York, The Chelsea Factory, The Knockdown Center, Opéra National de Lorraine in France, New World Symphony Center, EMPAC, El Museo del Barrio, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, SXSW, PBS, and the Museum of the Moving Image, among many others.

Location: Brooklyn, NY
@yaratravieso | yaratravieso.com
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Viva Ruiz 🇪🇨
Initiator & Co-organizer | Thank God for Abortion 

‍Viva Ruiz (shethey) is a community/family/nightlife/sex work educated artist, progeny of factory working Ecuadorian migrants born and raised in Jamaica Queens. Proud to also be the “daughter” of beloved Chloe Dzubilo,  punk rock trans femme activist. Ruiz has been building power and birthing pro-abortion aesthetics since 2015 with the #thankgodforabortion experiment, not an organization but a wild and worldwide organism. Viva is a 2022 Creative Capital grantee and 2022 Art Matters fellow. They are intentional about time bending, intentional about ecstasy and rage, intentional about calling more beautiful worlds into being with and in service to the spirits that walk with them.

Location: Brooklyn, NY | Portoviejo, Ecuador
@thankgodforabortion @viva_lalaruiz | www.thankgodforabortion.com
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Yara Herrera 🇲🇽
Chef & Partner | Hellbender

‍Yara Herrera is the chef/partner at Mexican-American restaurant Hellbender in Ridgewood, Queens. Born and raised in Los Angeles as a first-generation Mexican-American, Yara launched her culinary journey at 20 years old. Yara moved to New York in 2019 and continued to work through some of New York’s best restaurants including Momofuku Ko and Sobre Masa. Yara’s first solo project, Hellbender, was quickly established as a standout dining destination.  The restaurant was named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants for 2024 and granted a two-star review in The New York Times. Hellbender was also named in The New York Times’ list of 100 Best Restaurants in New York City for the second consecutive year in 2026. Yara was also named one of StarChefs Rising Stars in 2025 and has appeared as a guest judge on Beat Bobby Flay.

Location: 68-22 Forest Ave, Ridgewood, NY 11385
@hellbendernyc | hellbendernyc.com
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Javier Hasse + Natalia Kesselman 🇦🇷
Editors | High Times & Co-Founders | El Planteo

‍Javier Hasse and Natalia Kesselman co-founded El Planteo, an independent publication covering cannabis, psychedelics, music, gender, ecology, economics and more. Javier has spent over a decade covering cannabis and psychedelics in both languages and wrote two books on the subject. He's a senior contributor at Forbes, a co-founder of IgniteIt, and has been named Journalist of the Year by both the Business of Cannabis Awards and the Emjays. Natalia is El Planteo's COO and Deputy Editor at High Times.

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina | Florida, USA
@el.planteo | @hightimesmagazine | elplanteo.com
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Sharisse Francisco 🇵🇷
Vocal Artist & Healer

‍Sharisse Francisco (she/her)  is a Queer, Puerto Rican Afro-Latina Vocal Artist, Sound Healer, Breathwork Facilitator, and Ceremonial Cacao Guide. Blending her theater background and years as a professional singer with her studies in holistic healing modalities and intuitive wisdom, she creates transformative experiences that nurture healing, self-discovery, authentic expression and foster meaningful connection.

Location: Westchester, NY | Brooklyn, NY
@iamsharissefrancisco | www.thevoiceembodied.life

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