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Header photo credit Mistress Fae
Before Anna Delvey, before the Tinder Swindler, there was Kari Ferrell. Adopted at a young age by a Mormon family in Utah, Kari struggled with questions of self-worth and identity as one of the few Asian Americans in her insulated community, leading her to run with the “bad crowd” in an effort to fit in. Fast forward to petty theft and eventually Utah’s most wanted list. She was crowned: the Hipster Grifter.
Kari's memoir sets the record straight on the facts versus fabrication. YOU’LL NEVER BELIEVE ME: A Life of Lies, Second Tries, and Other Things I Should Only Tell My Therapist tells the story of a bad girl gone good. Now the Korean-American multi-hypenate’s work is centered around incarceration, the justice system, mental health, transracial / transnational adoption, human rights, and other issues she feels passionately about.
Kari’s production company, Without Wax, is dedicated to uplifting and telling other WOC’s stories, across a variety of mediums. Every project that she works on is done with the mission of moving the needle toward a more compassionate society. She enjoys the work she does with Second Chance Studios, Books Through Bars, Black & Pink, and other advocacy/mutual aid groups.
Cafe con Libros in Crown Heights as a part of our SASS Summer Popsicle Popup series. RSVP + Buy Her Book.
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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. Watch a part of our interview.
WA = Weed Auntie
KF = Kari Ferrell
WA: Tell us your name, preferred pronouns, and what you do for work/passion.
KF: My name is Kari Ferrell, pronouns are she/her/hers, and I am a writer, producer, and activist.
WA: What did your family say about weed?
KF: I grew up in a very oppressive religious environment and so cannabis was seen as more than a gateway drug. It was seen as just straight up a drug so I didn’t have a lot of experience with it until my young adult years. I was honestly frankly a bit scared of it, the stigma that was attached to it, and all of the propaganda, it definitely stuck with me. So I am beyond grateful that I saw the light, the actual light. The skies, the heavens parted but it wasn’t Jesus that was coming down (laughs).
WA: Has anyone ever judged you or labeled you for consuming weed whether in your family or professionally?
KF: Definitely but I’m lucky because now all of my friends and my chosen family, if they don’t partake, which is rare, they’re very accepting of it. I’m a big believer in using cannabis to cultivate and promote creativity and so I love subverting a lot of things, but especially the lazy stoner myth. I consume every single day and I would not be able to have the creative output that I do without it. And that’s not considering the physical benefits. I’m getting old, and I’m Asian (cracks up) so I could be 19 or 100 [years old], you wouldn’t know! But I have a lot of joint issues and aches and pains. Without my daily regimen, I wouldn’t be able to exist the way that I do and how I want to or need to.
WA: Does consuming cannabis affect or aid in your creative process? If so, how do you integrate it into your hyper busy multi-hyphante professional life?
KF: Absolutely enhances my creative process, and there are countless reasons for that–some of which include: getting the juices flowing (mentally…and physically), allowing exploration of topics through a different lens, and recovery, because thinking takes A LOT out of you. I do have to be mindful of the strains that I’m consuming to make sure they align with what I’m trying to accomplish.
I’m lucky, because I can basically consume whenever I want, which is one of the only perks of being an adult.
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WA: You are extremely vocal about a number of social justice and human rights issues, where does cannabis land within your activism today?
KF: Cannabis and my work around prison abolition are directly tied. Black people are 3.6x more likely to be arrested for cannabis than white people. Black people make up 41% of the prison/jail population, yet only 14% of U.S. residents. There’s something very amiss here (always has been), and you better believe that a select few are making a grip of cash off of every single prisoner.
WA: What is your favorite way to consume cannabis?
KF: My favorite way to consume honestly is taking a big fat joint to the dome but recently I have found myself imbibing in more edibles because they are now produced in a way where it’s reliable. For so long, I avoided them because the production wasn't reliable but now I love them.
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WA: Let’s dig in a little bit there, thinking about dosage and inconsistency… With regulations, what are the products that you tend to go towards? Do you prefer low or a high dose? Why and how are you consuming edibles?
KF: I love that there’s a variety of products. Sometimes I want a brain banger to take me off of this planet, I’m getting NASA. But there are other times where I just want something that helps me to relax and calm down and I find myself very fortunate to live in a world, in a city, in an area where there is that selection.
WA: Awesome! Do you feel like there’s a lack of authentic representation in the way cannabis users are depicted in media and in the brands that are really popular or in pop culture?
KF: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as a queer individual, as a woman of color, as someone who identifies with a lot of marginalized and minority groups, though I have an issue with that term because we are NOT the minority, we are very much the greater majority, but yeah I think that in media [cannabis] is not portrayed as a tool or as plant medicine. It’s very much this person just wants to disassociate, forget the world, etc.
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WA: Who would you like to deliberately dose? Who out there are you like “they need some edibles, they need to get in the cypher” and you want to just help them because they are in desperate need of becoming balanced.
KF: Yes! There are so many people, we do not have time for me to name all of them both personally and just figuratively but I think what’s really important is to know that there are a lot of different products out there and there’s the right one for each person and so it’s amazing that we have people who are there educating the masses on what will be best for that particular person. So there are a lot of people who need to get on board for sure.
WA: Who would be in your dream sweet sesh? Queer icons, people who are living, deceased, whoever.
KF: My dream sweet sesh would include Margaret Cho, George Takei, and Marsha P. Johnson. I think that’s a long list so I’ll stop there. I’m so lucky because I feel like my dream cyphers have come true. There are a lot of people that are just my friends, my family. They’re the people I want to be consuming with and I’m so lucky that I get to do that everyday.
WA: As a bad girl gone (kinda) good, your book ‘You’ll Never Believe Me’ is both funny and fearless in your account of your own personal journey. Sharing a version of an Asian American transracial adoptee just trying to fit into American culture. Now secure in yourself and your values, what next in the liberation of Kari?
KF: What an incredible question, and thank you so much for your kind words. I’m truly so honored that anyone would spend time with something I created.
Liberation to me is forward momentum; it’s being fulfilled, it’s building a better world with the people you love.
Alexandra Jamieson is an artivist (artist + activist), creator of Fascism Tarot, Abortion Trading Cards, The Grift Deck and five books.
Follow her: Instagram | website
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity by Solonje Burnett, Weed Auntie. Watch the teaser.
WA = Weed Auntie
AJ = Alex Jamieson
WA: Can you tell us your name, preferred pronouns, and what you do for work/passion.
AJ: I'm Alex Jamison. I am she/her, and I am an artist of all stripes. Can't stop me from making things.
WA: Where did you grow up and how did your upbringing inform your thoughts around plant medicine and cannabis usage?
AJ: I grew up outside of Portland, Oregon on an old organic farm. My mom had an organic gardening radio show so I grew up knowing how to grow things in the ground. My mom was a hippie slash artist slash activist so I got all of that from her. We just always grew plants and used plants to help us with colds, coughs, compresses, all kinds of things. My whole life, I've always known that plants are medicine. So I never had any other belief than that cannabis was a plant that could be used for a variety of healing purposes.
WA: Has anyone ever judged you or labeled you for consuming weed whether in your family or professionally?
AJ: I've never received any judgment one way or the other for cannabis or weed. I'm very lucky, I mean, I grew up hippie central. So no, no judgment.
WA: You built a big portion of your life around being vegan. Writing multiple books on the subject and co-creating the film Super Size Me. Can you share a bit about the shift from veganism? How did it affect your identity?
AJ: You know, I actually became vegan because of health issues, and then I had to start eating animal products again because of health issues. The food and the plants that worked for me when I was 25 no longer worked for me when I was 35.
Along with that physical evolution, sadly, a lot of judgment came from the vegan community when I started eating meat again. I was ostracized. I was, I'll say, canceled. I was the subject of a lot of podcasts and articles saying what a terrible person I was. I got death threat emails when I started eating meat again because I was seen as a traitor, a murderer, et cetera. It was a really intense experience.
WA: How did you handle your removal from that community?
AJ: I had two good things going for me when I kind of came out as no longer vegan. One is that my family never judged me when I became vegan. They were just curious and supportive and when I started eating meat again they were curious and supportive. So incredible family AND I always had non-vegan friends. I had friends who were like, great, we don't care. And, you know, it's part, when anyone leaves a high demand group, I will say an intense religion or a cult or other high demand groups, it's really important to have people outside of that community who will support you.
WA: What's your favorite thing to cook or consume right now?
AJ: I mean, I love carbs. I love carbs so much. I was a vegan chef for several years and the first professional job that I got out of culinary school was as a vegan pastry chef so I've always loved baked goods. I love making pastries and cakes and it's just my favorite. I've never stopped loving making a good cupcake, a good brownie. I love dessert so much!
WA: I love that you are pastry or were a pastry chef specifically. Have you ever made infused treats?
AJ: Yes, I used to make myself batches of vegan cannabis butter. With Earth Balance, I think that's what that stuff is called. So it was basically margarine or butter with a bunch of chopped up cannabis, slowly heated on the stove. And I just kept it in the freezer. And when I needed to chill out, I would just make myself some toast, spread on some vegan cannabis butter, jam. Delightful.
WA: You’ve had a colorful career from holistic health counselor, gourmet natural foods and pastry chef, multibook author, watercolor and multimedia artist to activist – your evolution to me mirrors that of womanhood. How are you working with life's transitions?
AJ: Yeah, you could definitely see the undiagnosed Gen X ADHD creative just raw-dogging it through life! With that creative, supportive family came the confidence to try new things. But it has been very difficult to be a perimenopausal woman in this current reality. I’m very stressed out. My nervous system is shot. Dealing with serious hormonal issues, chronic migraines, a decade of insomnia. I do not use the word blessed lightly. But to have friends in cannabis has been a freaking goddess send at this time because I'm needing all the medicine to get through this.
WA: How did your relationship with your family and cannabis evolve?
AJ: My hippy mom was such a lightweight her entire life. Any substance had to be minuscule. She told this story about being an art student in fascist Spain in the 60s. And she accidentally ate a bunch of hash brownies because she didn't know they were filled with hash. She woke up two days later and so her only warning to me was be careful because you don't want to consume too much. And then when she was battling cancer in the last year of her life, I just brought her every tool I could find. My friend who made sauerkraut brought her sauerkraut. My friend who had organic weed brought that. So her fridge was filled with any kind of natural healing we could think of, including all her medicines.
WA: How was your relationship to cannabis and/or plant medicine shifted or evolved? What are your go to’s for relief and relaxation now?
AJ: I first started enjoying cannabis at the end of high school, and in college it was just pure party funsies with friends. And then I think I didn't have any for like a decade in the middle there. But these days I prefer gummies or tinctures because I can really control the dosage. I've become very sensitive in my later years. So I need just the right amount of the exact right formulation. So it's just, it's very, very demure.
I mainly enjoy a very, very low THC, high CBD gummy before bed. And loving a bath bomb with THC in it before bed to calm my body and anxiety before sleep which is so horrific that I have anxiety about going to sleep in case I have a bad night.
WA: I remember awhile back I intro’d you to the folks at Atmos to talk about the intersections of Cannabis and teenagers’ usage. How did you manage that relationship with your son? Any advice for other parents?
AJ: Yeah, I smelled my son consuming cannabis in his room at a very young age, you know, 14, 15 and discovered gummies in his room. I felt a lot of contradiction within myself, but he was very, very young. And the gummies I found were an insanely high dose. I was like, dude, this would put me in a coma. I've tried to be just very honest about the ‘here's the reality of these substances. And here's the reality of our family, our mental health history. And I want you to have all the knowledge, all the information. This is not a bad thing and you are not a bad person. And you need to be aware of how these substances affect different people. So let's do these things responsibly and let's keep communication open about it.’
Like not reverting to punishment, but instead like conversation. Though I’m sure the conversations with him felt like a punishment! However, he's doing great. He's a young adult now. And we do continue to have these conversations.
WA: Tell us a bit about what inspires your work today both online and in the physical form? Do you ever use plants to elevate your practice?
AJ: So much of the work I do now is anti-fascist activist art. It is pro-abortion. It is Antifa. Let's be real. Call me out.
Here I am! Where's the meeting? I'll bring vegan cookies!
I paint very angry headlines that I post on IG and Bluesky and apparently they make other people angry too. I encourage people to stand up and speak their voice and get in the street and also be activists. Like, that's most of why I do the art that I do online. I'm trying to encourage people to also stand up and not be afraid or be afraid and do it anyway.
And physically, I make a lot of art card decks. I made the Abortion Trading Cards, which actually includes a lot of plants and abortifacient herbs, some of which I grow on my roof. It’s a way to talk about the history of abortion, the facts of abortion.
My Fascism Tarot is about the warning signs of fascism, and the Grift Deck is about cult tactics and con artists in American society. I love making these series of cards using paint and found materials and collage. These decks give me a chance to kind of bring out a little bit of my gallows humor into my art.
I don't use any cannabis or plants when I'm making art. It's more of a soothing thing for me. It's not a creative thing for me. I know it is for a lot of people, but it's not that way for me. Seriously, I’ve tried it, but I'll just start 10 things and not finish anything.
WA: Speaking of popping edibles and getting NASA, who would be in your dream sweet sesh? Queer icons, people who are living, deceased, whoever.
AJ: Yes! I'm glad you didn't say one person because it can't just be one. So, it's a whole tea party. Jinx Monsoon, Bob the Drag Queen, Monet X Change, and Dolly Parton. Wouldn't that just be the best? That'd be so fun.
WA: That's such a key, oh my god, of course Dolly's in there. I mean. You gotta bring Dolly in.
AJ: Yes. Dolly is an inspiration for us all. All. Everybody. Everybody.
WA: Yes. That was a list, I love it. You came prepared.
AJ: That was the one question that I could remember. Yeah. And I was like, oh, I know exactly.
I know the answer to this. So good.
WA: What’s your favorite thing to do high?
AJ: I love to clean! I love to clean my house. I'm so good at it. I'm so good at cleaning when I'm high.
WA: Going back to your activism, gathering community and inspiring them, are there any groups or individuals who you think are doing the work that we should follow?
AJ: I'm gonna have to shout out Brigid Alliance, which is the organization that sales of the Abortion Trading Cards helps to fund.
They help people travel to get abortion care if they live in a ban state, and they do incredible work. They help so many people. What they do is not only important, but it's very tricky. I'm just so impressed with the work that they do.
WA: Can you tell us a bit more about the Brigid Alliance? Are they national? How does that work?
AJ: Brigid Alliance is a national organization named after Saint Brigid, an Irish saint whose miracle was an abortion. She waved her magic wand over a pregnant lady and boop, it went away.
WA: Oh, wow.
AJ: Most Irish people don't know that!
WA: No way.
AJ: Yes.
WA: No way.
AJ: Yeah.
WA: I have to look that up immediately.
AJ: Look her up.
WA: That's crazy.
AJ: I know, right?
WA: Okay, give it up for Brigid.
AJ: Give it up for Brigid.
WA: So do you have anything coming up that you want to share with community, any workshops or events? And if not, what are ways folks support you?
AJ: I am currently working on my next deck of cards, hopefully to be out by the end of the year, called Propaganda Poker, which teaches media literacy in the age of all this nonsense. But really, people can check out the Abortion Trading Cards or check out my other artwork support at my website, alexandrajameson.art, or following me at deliciousalex on Instagram. Get yourself some abortion trading cards. I give 10% of profits to help fund the Bridget Alliance. And it's a very cool, very weird, very Gen X, very goth girl deck of art cards.
WA: Thank you so much Alex!
