Earth Justice Week

Naropa and Community Events

About Earth Justice Week

Earth Justice Week is an annual event hosted by Naropa’s Mission, Culture, Inclusive Community division surrounding Earth Day to honor this beautiful place humankind gets to call home.

Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are values we aspire to at Naropa.  We take this reminder to connect and care for our Earth, to also recognize the historical presence and embrace the opportunity to be in right relationship with Tribal Nations who call Colorado home.

Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge the shared historical context of colonialization, including historical trauma and ongoing oppression of tribal nations.  We acknowledge the Hinono’eiteen (Arapaho), Núu-chiu (Ute), Tsêhéstáno (Cheyenne), Oc’eti S’akowin(Sioux), Kiowa, Čariks i Čariks (Pawnee), Sosonih (Shoshone), Ndee (Apache) and Puebloan nations along with the other tribes that have ties to the land of Colorado.

We further acknowledge that marginalized communities are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis and aim to center that awareness in our work.

Coming from Gratitude

So glad you got born! Thank you for being on the earth at this precious and potent time on the world clock. Your gifts are needed. Thank you so much for sharing them! Your presence is needed, but luckily you are not needed everywhere. That’s the beauty of intrinsically being part of a community and waking up out of the lie of individualism and separation.

To know where you are needed, however, your discernment and deep listening are essential. Please listen to your body’s responses to these offerings. Follow the threads that pull you toward your place in the collective movement. Thank you!

Earth Justice Week Schedule April 22-25

Monday April 22nd

The Ancestral New Age Festival | 10:00-6:30 PM

Arapahoe Campus | The Culture Center and Pavilion

Join us for a transformative Lightworkers Festival dedicated to uplifting BIPOC alternative healing businesses. In recognition of the colonial influences within new age culture, this festival marks a pivotal step towards restoring right relationships with our ancestors and reclaiming cultural roots.

Embracing the theme of Afrofuturism, the festival serves as a beacon for decolonial liberatory healing work. By centering BIPOC businesses, we honor diverse healing modalities and pathways to wellness that have often been marginalized or appropriated.

Throughout the day, immerse yourself in rich workshops running from 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM, each facilitated by passionate practitioners bringing forth healing modalities deeply rooted in their cultures. From 12-6:30 pm, enjoy BIPOC vendors as they offer their services. From ancestral healing rituals to herbal medicine traditions, these workshops offer a profound journey into holistic wellness practices that are in alignment with ancestral wisdom.

Together, let us honor our collective journey towards healing and empowerment, as we celebrate the diversity and resilience of BIPOC communities. Join us at the Lightworkers Festival as we co-create a space of healing, liberation, and transformation.

Festival Schedule:

10-11 am – Return to the African Mother Cacao and Sound Healing Ceremony by Mamafaeria

11:30-12:30pm – Somatic Abolitionism through Caribbean Riddims by Niki Mathurā (hybrid)

12:45-1:45pm – Plant spirit Ancestral Medicine workshop by Lulu Mystique

1:45-2:45pm – The Art of Spining Ancestral Rage into Gold by Ngozi’s Alcove (hybrid) 3-4 pm Name your own ability; Reiki Healing Phoenx Ilu (Hybrid)

The Lightworkers will be tabling at the Pavilion from 12- 6:30pm

For questions contact Ayleen.guzman@naropa.edu

Tuesday April 23rd

Permaculture Planting Workshop | 3:30-5:30 PM

Arapahoe Campus | The Food Forest

Must RSVP by emailing spolk@naropa.edu. Only 10 spots available!

Niki Barouxis (they/he), the Food Forest Coordinator at Denver Urban Gardens, blends a deep-rooted passion for permaculture with a commitment to social justice. With a diverse background spanning organic farming, permaculture design, and community organizing, Niki brings a wealth of experience to their role.

Throughout their career, Niki has stood in solidarity with oppressed communities, working extensively with the unhoused population to address both social and material needs. Their journey has also led them to mentor students in restorative justice practices within public schools, fostering a culture of accountability and community building. Outside of work, Niki continues their activism across various platforms, with a particular focus on mutual-aid and indigenous sovereignty, as well as bringing natural building skills to other QTBIPOC folks.

At Denver Urban Gardens, Niki’s focus lies in educating the public about fruit-bearing perennials, advocating for environmental and food justice, and integrating food forests into urban landscapes. They are deeply motivated by the opportunity to combat climate change and recreate the commons with food- and medicine-bearing third spaces.

Niki will lead a workshop on companion planting and establishing a climate-adapted perennial food system at Naropa University’s food forest on Tuesday, April 23rd. They’re eager to work alongside students, exchanging insights on perennial food systems and contributing to the vision of greener, more nourished urban spaces through edible perennials.

Vanessa Tevernetti Workshop

Time and Location TBD

Hosted by Environmental Studies Department!

Wednesday April 24th

KEYNOTE EVENT

The Vow From Hiroshima Film Screening | 12:00 – 1:30 PM

Arapahoe Campus | Performing Arts Center

Please RSVP to Secure Your Spot

“The Vow from Hiroshima” is a poignant documentary that delves into the life of Setsuko Thurlow, a remarkable survivor of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. At just 13 years old when the bomb devastated her city in 1945, Setsuko’s harrowing experience is vividly captured in this intimate portrait. The film chronicles her enduring friendship with second-generation survivor Mitchie Takeuchi, offering a moving narrative of resilience and determination.

Setsuko’s story is one of tragedy and triumph, as she recalls being pulled from a burning building after the bomb’s impact, unable to save her 27 classmates who perished in the flames. This pivotal moment shaped her lifelong commitment to ensuring that no one else would suffer the same horrific fate.

Through decades of tireless activism, Setsuko’s journey culminates in a powerful milestone – the realization of her dream with the establishment of a Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) won Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. Setsuko made the acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway.

Join us for an enlightening afternoon as we explore the legacy of courage and advocacy embodied by Setsuko Thurlow. This event promises to inspire and educate audiences on the importance of peace, resilience, and global cooperation. The film has been picked up nationally by PBS and will begin streaming across the network this summer.

And join us from 2:00 – 3:00 PM for a meet and greet with the film’s director, Mitchie Takeuchi. See below for more details.

The Elm Dance | 1:30 – 2:00 PM

Arapahoe Campus | The Green

A Joanna Macy nuclear guardian practice to honor survivors of nuclear devastation, led by Eco-Chaplain Carly Sinn and Professor Emeritx Sherry Elms.

Meet and Greet with Mitchie Takeuchi | 2:00 – 3:00 PM

Arapahoe Campus | Culture Center

Following the screening of The Vow From Hiroshima from 12:00 – 1:30 PM in the Performing Arts Center, join us for a special opportunity to connect with the film’s director, Mitchie Takeuchi.

Mitchie Takeuchi is originally from Hiroshima and a long-time New York City resident. She has been a social entrepreneur, a writer and a filmmaker. Her grandfather, Dr. Ken Takeuchi was the director of the Red Cross Hospital in Hiroshima when the city was leveled by the first use of an atomic bomb and he and her mother, Takako, survived.

Wanting to share what really happened under the mushroom cloud, Mitchie produced and co-wrote The Vow from Hiroshima, interweaving the life story of Hiroshima survivor and activist Setsuko Thurlow, intergenerational activism, and the historic negotiations of The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. After the film had a successful year-long theatrical run in 19 cities in Japan, Mitchie received the 2021 Japan Film Renaissance Conference Peace Film Award.

All Hands on Earth | 2:00 – 4:00 PM

Arapahoe Campus | The Green

Come sit with the Earth, the sun, and Naropa’s Beautiful Sycamore tree for two hands on workshops with take-home goodies! These workshops will enable you to continue the sacred activism work of relationship with land and speaking up for all beings that have been victim to climate injustice!

Seed Bombs Workshop

Seed Dumpling (otherwise known as seed bombs) workshop led by Salem McGilloway, all materials provided! Get your hands dirty and learn this easy process to bring some guerrilla gardening to your community! Walk away with a dumpling of Native Colorado Wildflower and Pollinator Habitat seeds that are planted simply by throwing onto the Earth.

“Seed bombs are the main weapon guerrilla gardeners can use to spread flowers in bare spots, creating pockets of beauty and habitats for pollinators. Not strictly legal but filed away by the authorities under the category of “What’s not to like.”

Seed bombs are best, and the most fun, when thrown into neglected roundabouts, central reservations, flower beds, and planters; lob a bomb from a bicycle, a car window, or when passing on foot.

Seed bombing is best done in spring and autumn. Or, time your attack to coincide with heavy rainfall.

Targets for seed bombing should not be parks and other people’s gardens. Instead, rescue neglected planters and flower beds as well as civic spaces to which the planting plan has long been lost.

Now is the time to fight the good fight, says Alex Mitchell: “Urbanites the world over are looking at public green spaces around their homes with a new sense of responsibility and pride.”

Source: https://www.gardenista.co

Screen Printing Workshop

Screen Print Shirt workshop led by Madison Cartaya in partnership with Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, all materials provided OR feel free to bring your own fabric that you’d like printed! We will have shirts available to print and take home, or you can use the printing materials to add messages that promote human rights and climate justice to any fabric (make your own flag, liven up some old jeans, add to your patchwork jacket).

“Get creative in this interactive Nonviolent Direct Action Art Training! Join us as we come together to learn creative, fun, and effective ways to use art to promote social and societal change. Art is an essential part of social movements – art creates lasting images that convey our messages in visually and emotionally compelling ways, to win hearts and minds in our calls for change. Come ready to get playful and build community, and be sure to bring clothes you don’t mind getting paint on! We will have interactive screen printing stations set up, so everyone will leave with a DIY piece of social movement art to take home!”

Source: https://www.rmpjc.org/

Thursday April 25th

Geo Sapiens: The Earth-Wise Humans | 1:30 – 2:30 PM

Arapahoe Campus | Culture Center

How do new scientific understandings of Earth as a living system intersect with cultural understandings, ancient and new? In this presentation, Martin Ogle brings a 37-year career as a naturalist, Earth scientist and storyteller to bear in exploring this question and suggesting ways to see ourselves as “Geo sapiens” or Earth-wise humans.

Martin shares amazing new discoveries of Earth system science and discusses their implications for sustainability, especially the need to connect this understanding to ALL Careers of the future in order to create a green economy. He shares examples and stories that promote a healthy balance between human endeavor and Earth’s living systems.

Fracking the System: Colorado’s Oil and Gas Wars | 6:30 – 9:00 PM

CUCC Sanctuary | 2650 Table Mesa Blvd., Boulder, CO

Get Your Tickets

Join us for a screening of the newly-released, award-winning documentary, Fracking the System: Colorado’s Oil and Gas Wars — a political thriller documentary from the front lines of climate justice activism in Colorado, presented by Community United Church of Christ in partnership with First Congregational United Church of Christ, Naropa University’s Joanna Macy Center for Resilience and Regeneration, and GreenFaith Boulder County.

Doors open at 6:30 for networking and nosh. Film starts at 7:00. The 90-minute screening will be followed by a Q&A with Director Brian Hedden and local activists.

All proceeds will go to support the film, the filmmaker and the climate activists on the panel.

More information on this event:https://greenfaithbouldercounty.org/fracking-the-system-film/