In My Shoes: Our Reproductive Healthcare Journey immersive art experience took place on Monday, Nov. 13 and Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, at the Otero Room of the Corbett Center.
The exhibit showcases work from people of color and minorities. The goal of the project is to demonstrate the intersectionality of these different identities and ultimately find ways to expand the visibility and accessibility of reproductive healthcare.
“[T]his exhibit aims to shed light on the diverse and often untold stories surrounding reproductive health care for our Black, Indigenous, Latine, people of color and LGBTQ+ communities,” Bold Futures stated on their website.
A series of different artists’ work was featured in the exhibit. Artists such as David J. Carbajal, QT: Queer and Trans Circle, Black Leader’s Circle, Davetta Wells, Lauryn Mills-Bohannon, Charlas and Uriel Martinez composed elaborated art pieces.
The exhibition consisted of tabling of different art scenarios that helped tell the story of the trepidation these people have faced.
As soon as you walked into Otero Room, an artistic production represented by different shoes greeted you at the entrance signaling the “walk in my shoes” element. This was a motif repeated throughout the show.
Interpreters are also provided for accessibility to the deaf and hard of hearing community through Bold Future’s exhibitions.
“Accessibility to all, all days, assisting with caption and sign assisted media,” said Sequoia Rae- Zuniga, a community interpreter.
The project centered not only on the diversity of untold stories from a health perspective but also from an emotional and trauma-related aspect.
The ultimate objective of the exhibit, the artists’ and organizer’s work was to create empathy for the situations encountered by people that are in search of a better quality of life.
“I personally know the artists and family members seen through the artwork, they come from trauma and seeing them heal and feeling represented touches their hearts and brings them a bit of healing,” said Janeth Jones, program and event coordinator.
The show was put together by Bold Future’s Reproductive Healthcare Success Project. This team oversees the mapping of the project that highlights the creative elements that are composed by both visual and emotional projections.
The underrepresentation of POC is an issue that creates risks and barriers on both a personal and community level.
According to the National Library of Medicine, the disproportionate risk for women of color for reproductive health access and outcomes expand beyond individual-level risks and include social and structural factors, such as fewer neighborhood health services, less insurance coverage, decreased access to educational and economic attainment, and even practitioner-level factors such as racial bias and stereotyping.
Bold Futures NM is an organization that works to create policy change and reproductive access and justice in New Mexico for women and people of color, to combat and defy the current statistics surrounding these groups of individuals.
Their mission is to build communities that celebrate their different identities and to unite for decision-making to gain body autonomy and essentially make determinations that bring positive outcomes.
For information on their research, policy changes, donations and volunteer opportunities, visit Bold Futures NM website.
