Vivian McPeak (born 1958) is an American peace,

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...

activist,

cannabis rights Cannabis rights or marijuana rights (sometimes more specifically cannabis consumer rights or stoner rights) are individual civil and human rights that vary by jurisdiction. The rights of people who consume cannabis include the right to be free f ...

activist, and musician. In

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. Mcpeak founded the Peace Heathens in 1988, a Seattle community action group. McPeak and Gary Cooke organized the first

Seattle Hempfest Seattle Hempfest is an annual event in the city of Seattle, Washington (and the world's largest annual gathering) advocating the legalization of cannabis. Vivian McPeak serves as the organization's executive director. Founded in 1991 as the W ...

in 1991, the 2-day event has grown to become the world's largest cannabis policy reform rally. McPeak, who is director of Hempfest, performed with the rock band Stickerbush in the 1980s.

Life

Born in 1958 and raised in Los Angeles, California, McPeak came to

to attend Ballard High for his sophomore year of high school in 1974. He lived in California, but returned to Seattle in 1986 after his California rock group broke up. In 1988 he founded the 'Seattle Peace Heathens Community Action Group' which started off with "just a piece of paper that was our creed, our kind of statement to the world." The Peace Heathens group organized a

Gas Works Park Gas Works Park is a park located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is a public park on the site of the former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant, located on the north shore of Lake Union at the south end of the Wallingford nei ...

peace vigil in 1990, protesting the Gulf War. The protesters sang, meditated and one day invited a speaker from a marijuana law reform group, who didn't show up. As a response to that disappointment Gary Cooke suggested to McPeak that they organize a pot rally together. The "protestival" started in the spring of 1991 as the 'Washington Hemp Expo', with about 500 people in Volunteer Park. The following year, with the attendance quadrupling, it was renamed and continues to be known as the '

Appearances

McPeak is the recipient of the ''

High Times ''High Times'' is an American monthly magazine (and cannabis brand) that advocates the legalization of cannabis as well as other counterculture ideas. The magazine was founded in 1974 by Tom Forcade.Danko, Danny"Norml Founder Retires – Exha ...

'' 2001 Freedom Fighter of the Year Award, as well as the 2012 High Times Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award, the ''Dope Magazine'' Emery Award for lifetime achievement in the cannabis industry, and was listed by ''Seattle Magazine'' as one of the 50 Most Influential People of 2016. McPeak has also appeared on numerous network and cable news outlets including

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, FOX, and

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

. In 2015, McPeak was the opening keynote speaker at the inaugural Washington Cannabis Summit at the

Crowne Plaza Crowne Plaza is a British multinational chain of full service, upscale hotels headquartered in the United Kingdom. It caters to business travelers and the meetings and conventions market. It forms part of the InterContinental Hotels Group family ...

in Seatac, Washington.

Publications

McPeak is the author of the book ''Protestival: A Twenty Year Retrospective of Seattle HEMPFEST''. He has a weekly radio podcast at cannabisradio.com called Hempresent. McPeak is a guest blogger for the SeattlePI.com, he has also been published in the "social-political-religious criticism and satire" magazine

the Realist ''The Realist'' was a Humor magazine, magazine of "social-political-religious criticism and satire", intended as a hybrid of a grown-ups version of Mad (magazine), ''Mad'' and Lyle Stuart's anti-censorship monthly ''The Independent.'' Edited and ...

Paul Krassner Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American author, journalist, and comedian. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key ...

. Krassner in turn wrote a piece about McPeak for

, called 'The Trial of Vivian McPeak'.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McPeak, Vivian 1958 births Living people American cannabis activists American rock musicians American podcasters Cannabis in Washington (state)