This month, Naropa honors Juneteenth with 13 Fires, a student production written and directed by student Curtis Rogers.
Juneteenth marks not only the formal end of slavery in the United States, but also serves as an ongoing call to remember, reflect, and reckon with the unfinished work of freedom. In this context, 13 Fires, a play written by Curtis Rogers, BA Psych ’28, becomes part of that remembrance, honoring a history that was nearly erased and inviting a deeper inquiry into what liberation truly means today.
The presentation of 13 Fires around Juneteenth carries deep significance. This work finds a natural home within the contemplative and justice-oriented framework of Naropa University and our commitment to compassion and engaged action. By bringing this story to Naropa during Juneteenth, the project bridges past and present, inner reflection and outer action. It invites audiences to remain present with injustice, to feel, question, and examine their relationship to the systems that shape our world, while also reckoning with the broader realities of displacement and inequity unfolding locally, nationally, and globally.
What is 13 Fires?
13 Fires is a play to be performed at the Dairy Center for Performing Arts in Boulder on June 24th, 25th, 26th. Centered on the history of Indiana Avenue, a neighborhood nearly buried under the guise of progress, the play examines the lasting impacts of housing policy, redlining, and gentrification. Through this lens, it asks audiences to consider not only what was taken, but who continues to bear the weight of these decisions today.
At its core, 13 Fires is about the human cost of displacement: how the loss of place reshapes daily life, fractures families, and reverberates through communities across generations, and asks the difficult but necessary questions: What does progress really look like? Who gets to define it? And what happens when communities are erased in the name of development?
While gentrification and redlining are often discussed in abstract or economic terms, 13 Fires grounds them in lived experience, revealing how policy decisions reach into the most intimate parts of life—where people sleep, how families stay connected, and whether communities are able to sustain themselves across generations.
Read about the true story of Indiana Avenue HERE.
Read the play synopsis: HERE
More Than a Play
While the play centers the story of Indiana Avenue, the questions it raises extend far beyond a single neighborhood or historical moment. The patterns of displacement, erasure, and redevelopment explored in the work continue to unfold in communities across the country.
To deepen this exploration, the project includes a series of panel discussions titled Displacement by Design. These conversations bring together community members, artists, and advocates to examine displacement both historically and in the present day, beginning with Indianapolis and expanding outward to places like Boulder, Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, and Aurora, where rising costs and redevelopment pressures continue to reshape communities in real time.
At the same time, the discussions invite a broader global lens. Displacement is not only a local or national issue, but a worldwide phenomenon often tied to systems of power, colonization, and, in its most extreme forms, genocide.
By situating Indiana Avenue within this larger context, 13 Fires encourages audiences to recognize the interconnected nature of these struggles and reflect on how they show up in our own communities and lives.
About the play by writer and director
Curtis K. Rogers
“Through the voices of its residents, the play exposes the human impact of displacement and the enduring struggle to preserve community in the face of systemic erasure. Indiana Avenue, for me, is deeply personal. I’m an Indianapolis native, yet the history of Indiana Avenue was never part of my experience growing up. I had no idea that the neighborhood I moved through was once a thriving Black community, built by Black families who migrated from the South in search of safety, opportunity, and the chance to create a joyful, equitable life.
The Indianapolis I knew felt very different. The downtown spaces were dominated by college campuses, where few Black people were present. At Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, only about 10% of the student population is Black. The absence was noticeable, but I didn’t yet have the historical context to understand why.
Encountering the history of Indiana Avenue changed that. What had been invisible suddenly became undeniable. For me, this discovery was not just educational, it was empowering. As someone who spent much of my adult life in Indianapolis experiencing homelessness, learning this history gave me language for my own reality. It helped me understand displacement and housing insecurity not as isolated experiences, but as part of a much larger pattern, one that continues to shape lives, communities, and possibilities today.”
-Curtis Rogers
Cast & Community
One of the most powerful aspects of 13 Fires is the community behind it. The cast is made up of individuals from a wide range of lived experiences, including actors who are currently navigating housing insecurity or have experienced homelessness in recent years.
Read more about the complete cast: HERE
This is not incidental—it is central to the work. The stories being told on stage are not distant or abstract; they are embodied. The actors bring a depth of understanding that cannot be taught, only lived. Their presence transforms the performance into something more than representation—it becomes a form of truth-telling.
In rehearsal, this has created a space grounded in care, accountability, and shared experience. The process is not just about performance, but about connection—about honoring each person’s story while building something collective. In this way, 13 Fires becomes not only a play, but a community in motion.
By centering voices that are so often marginalized, the production challenges traditional boundaries of theater—inviting audiences to witness not just a story, but the people who carry it.
Mark Your Calendar for Juneteenth Events
June 1st, 8th, 22nd: Displacement by Design: Panel Discussion and Community Dialogue
In the weeks leading up to the performances, 13 Fires will host a series of preliminary discussion
s titled 13 Fires: Displacement by Design. These events are designed to deepen engagement with the themes of the play and connect the story of Indiana Avenue to present-day realities in our own communities.
Virtual Panel – June 1st, 6 PM (Zoom https://naropa.zoom.us/j/91989473005 )- In-Person Panel – June 8th, 6 PM at Second Baptist Church
- In-Person Panel – June 22nd, 6 PM at First United Methodist Church
These conversations bring together community members, artists, and policy experts to examine displacement across contexts—from Indianapolis to Boulder and surrounding areas—while also opening dialogue around broader global patterns. The intention is not only to engage in meaningful conversation, but to move toward clear and grounded calls to action around housing insecurity and local displacement.
Following each performance of 13 Fires, audiences are invited to remain for a talkback with the director, cast, and invited policy experts. These post-show dialogues create space to reflect on the performance in real time, ask questions, and further explore the policy implications raised in the work.
By pairing preliminary panels with post-performance talkbacks, 13 Fires creates a continuum of engagement—one that begins with dialogue, is deepened through storytelling, and returns to the community with a shared commitment to awareness, accountability, and action.
June 5th: Juneteenth Naropa BBQ
At Naropa’s Center for Culture Center at the Arapahoe Campus at 5 PM
Celebrate Juneteenth, Freedom Day, with a community BBQ at Naropa’s Culture Center on the Arapahoe Campus on June 5 at 5 p.m. Join us for an evening of music, food, and poetry, and unwind in unity as we celebrate freedom, community, and connection, with Curtis Rogers on the grill and Q Williams on the mic.
EVENT DETAILS: HERE
June 24th, 25th, 26th: 13 Fires Performance Dates
At the Dairy Center for Performing Arts at 6 PM
2590 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO
