In light of all the pain and confusion that can come with periods, Rediscovered Books is hosting a “Period Party” in celebration of the release of Ali Terese’s new book “FREE PERIOD.” Consider this your formal invitation to the event at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 30.
The purpose of the event is to celebrate your body, learn about periods, play games and pack period products for donation. Event collaborators including the Boise Period Project, Saalt and Foothills School Student Council seek to inform the community about alternative period products, spread period advocacy in the community and donate products to fight period poverty.
Rebecca Leber-Gottberg, Co-Owner and Events Coordinator for Rediscovered Books is hopeful that this event will shine light on period equity.
“Period equity is a real thing at schools and in public. Additionally, access to period products is often difficult for people,” Leber-Gottberg said. “So partnering with organizations to raise awareness and provide resources seemed like a great idea.”
The ‘FREE PERIOD’ story
The event celebrates the release of Terese’s new book “FREE PERIOD.” Terese said that the inspiration to write the book came from her own experience with periods as a child and a parent.
“I experienced so much shame and physical pain about periods as a child that I didn’t know how I would talk about them in a positive way as a parent,” Terese said. “‘FREE PERIOD’ is the story that emerged when I explored the issue as a writer. I kept coming back to friendship and laughter.”
“FREE PERIOD” follows the story of two middle school girls, Helen and Gracie, who run into some period struggles and decide to fight — in the name of period equity — for maxi pads to be available in all school bathrooms.
“In real-life this is a student-led movement and an incredible example of children changing how we live in America,” Terese said. “Over the last few years, about half the states in our country have taken some sort of action on this issue as a direct result of students standing up for their rights. That is a monumental shift in how we think about periods — to bring them out of the shadows, show they’re part of our daily lives, and that pads should be treated the same as other bathroom necessities like toilet paper and soap.”
Leber-Gottberg said that although reproductive care and women’s health is something people face daily, open conversations are not yet normalized. Books are a great tool to use to open up these conversations.
“If we can use books to bring people into social change and expand conversation around all issues, we feel that this is a good thing,” Leber- Gottberg said. “Period poverty is real and not just for people who are houseless. It is an issue for students and employees. Period supplies are expensive. Idaho is among 21 states that actually tax period products (at a standard 6% as for other goods). There is a nationwide push to do away with the ‘tampon tax’. That being said, many women simply have to ‘make due’ with whatever they have and this creates an undue burden in addition to the actual menstruation itself.”
You’re invited
The upcoming “Period Party” is an opportunity to contribute to the positive change and push for menstrual equity. It is also an opportunity to have open conversations about these topics as a community.
“This book is another way to de-stigmatize the conversation around menstruation and to bring people together to make positive change is always good,” Leber- Gottberg said. “Everyone needs to be knowledgeable about the issues that girls and women face. Lack of understanding about menstruation, female reproduction, and women's health issues are only too obvious in our political conversations at this time. Knowledge is POWER!!”
While the ‘Period Party’ is essentially a book release party and more, the author will not be able to attend. However, in lieu of Terese’s physical presence at the event, she is sending along crocheted uteruses and stickers as gifts for attending the book release.
“We hope that this event will bring new people and donations to the Boise Period Project, who have done wonderful work in the community with this issue,” Leber- Gottberg said. “We also feel that engaging young people, boys and girls, in community centric activity helps to build stronger, more empathetic people and communities.”
