This event forms part of Arts Catalyt’s Recentring Attention programme that informs the first phase of its relocation to Sheffield. Free, booking is essential.

What do we mean by reproductive rights and reproductive (in)justice? Why and how has knowledge around reproductive health changed through different points in history and across different geographies?

Join this workshop to collectively explore issues around reproduction from social, ecological and historical perspectives. 

Stemming from stories of specific plants and objects connected to reproductive rights and health, the workshop will shed light on hidden, suppressed and exploited knowledges around menstrual regulation, childbirth, contraception, abortion and menopause.

We'll be bringing these histories into dialogue with contemporary experiences of reproductive health and justice, and questions and practices of self-care, community care and diy initiatives. Together we will reflect on the work of several groups including Herbalists Without Borders, a group of herbalists offering first aid, health care access support, preventative medicine and self care support in contexts such as the Calais and Dunkirk refugee camps; or the Catalan collective GynePunk which is developing first aid gynecological tools, for socially disadvantaged women, refugees, sex workers. 

Following on from the discussion, you are invited to join us for a meal made using plants historically used for hormonal health.

This event forms part of Recentring Attention, Arts Catalyst’s new strand of programme that informs the first phase of its relocation to Sheffield.

Building on the knowledge and relationships that we have begun to form within the city, this exploratory journey, initiated in September 2019, encompasses a series of public workshops, deep mapping sessions, talks and informal gatherings across Sheffield with artists, scientists, architects, sociologists and anthropologists. The programme also offers an opportunity to explore what the process of creating an institution can be and to reimagine what the role of the institution can be. A collaborative process of listening and learning from and with the city, Recentring Attention offers a creative, public space for transdisciplinary exchange and conversation within Sheffield and the wider South Yorkshire communities.