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Uncovering Fertile Grounds
Naropa Students Host Reproductive Issues Event

BOULDER, Colo. (December 4, 2008) – Part of a social action research project begun in Elaina Verveer’s Civic Engagement class, a community-wide dialogue on reproductive justice will be hosted by Naropa University students on February 1. Bringing together local community members, non-profit organizations and healthcare providers, “Fertile Grounds” seeks to raise awareness of underrepresented reproductive justice issues and the challenges faced by those advocating for reproductive rights. Community members will direct an interactive discussion, as well as tell their own stories through performances. “Fertile Grounds” will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Naropa University’s Performing Arts Center (2130 Arapahoe Avenue.)

"’Fertile Grounds’ is about recognizing that the personal is political, that behind each statistic there is a story,” says Fioré Grey, a Naropa student who helped conceive the event.  "We feel that by telling these stories people will connect and realize that they share common ground.  We want to plant the seeds for social action, and that action needs to be rooted in the personal experiences that make up the larger political picture."

After researching birthing rights, abortion rights, and the rights of pregnant women in prison, Naropa students were astonished to find a great deal of interconnectivity between seemingly isolated issues. 

“Incarcerated women,” says student Emily Keef, “face incredibly inhumane conditions—receiving an extra bag of potato chips to meet their increased nutrition needs, being shackled and restrained during labor, having unnecessary C-sections forced upon them—but these issues are really part of a bigger problem; it's socio-economic, it's the attitudes of our society. It's all interrelated."  

Blair Young, Youth Services Director at Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center, explains that reproductive issues go beyond the dualistic arguments that grab headlines. “I am grateful to Elaina’s students for staging this event. Reproductive justice embodies a complex spectrum of issues that impact the community at-large. Hopefully this will help to expand the partisan “Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice” debate into meaningful dialogue. …”

Admission is free and open to the public with a requested donation of healthcare equipment to International Midwife Assistance, which seeks supplies such as blood pressure cuffs, aprons, dopplers and visual aids for reproductive health education.  Collected items will be distributed to foreign countries in need of reproductive healthcare and resources. 

Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution dedicated to advancing contemplative education.  This approach to learning integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.