Our Voices

Our new president has committed to limiting access to legal abortions, and explicitly said on the campaign trail that there “has to be some form of punishment” for woman who seek them illegally. Vice President Mike Pence, who signed a bill in his home state of Indiana that would require aborted fetuses be given funerals through burial or cremation, has promised to send Roe v. Wade “to the ash heap of history.” And they both, like many in power, are looking to overturn the Affordable Care Act, which demands that pregnancy and maternity be covered as essential health benefit categories and prohibits charging women more for care and denying coverage on preexisting conditions.

Once again, it’s a tempestuous moment for the UMass Students for Reproductive Justice (USRJ) to stage their annual student-written, student-run production of Nostras Voces. The show is “composed of monologues, spoken word, poetry, and other performances about identity and life narratives around themes of race, gender, sexuality, and ability,” and features dancers from the Body Project.

USRJ is a chapter of an international organization allied with Planned Parenthood that exists to educate the university community about reproductive health and rights, to translate increased awareness into pro-choice activism on campus, and to serve as a coalition partner to state, national and international reproductive rights efforts.

(Content Warning: Please be aware the content in this show can be triggering for some. There is graphic language, and recounts of assault and abuse in this show.)

Nostras Voces — UMass Students for Reproductive Justice: Feb. 23-25, 7:30 p.m. Ticket sales begin 6:30 p.m. $10 general; $5 students. Bowker Auditorium, 100 Holdsworth Way, UMass Amherst. facebook.com/umassusrj.

— Hunter Styles, hstyles@valleyadvocate.com