Manny’s: SF Music Week presents – House Music, Psychedelics & Modern Ritual

Join us for this fascinating talk on how music, psychedelics and ritual shape our modern consciousness.

Stephanie Karzon Abrams– neuropharmacologist and co-founder of Public Secret Records — kicks off SF Music Week with a visually rich presentation tracing the hidden history of house music and psychedelics. From Chicago basements to Ibiza sunrises, from MDMA to the myth of the rave, she maps the dance floor as one of our last living temples, a place where neurochemistry, culture, and communion converge.

From there, she is joined by Modern Psychedelics author Joe Dolce for a conversation about psychedelics as far more than tools for healing. They explore how these molecules have long served as catalysts for creativity, psychological transformation, and the restoration of ritual in contemporary life.

This talk is part of SF Music Week at Manny’s which brings the city’s music community together for a set of intimate conversations about where music is right now, and where it’s headed. From the lived experience of going to shows, to the urgent question of whether artists can still afford to call San Francisco home, to the deeply personal songs that shape a life in music, this three-part series centers the voices, stories, and realities behind the sound.