Boulder stories

Naropa, the Beats & Boulder's Bohemian Streak

Published July 2026 · Updated August 2026

Boulder has always attracted a certain kind of wanderer—someone chasing ideas as much as mountain air. Long before Sundance chose this city as its new home, Boulder had already carved out a reputation as a place where contemplative practice and avant-garde art share a zip code. The thread connecting all of it runs straight through the campus of Naropa University.

A University Unlike Any Other

Naropa University was founded in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and it became the first Buddhist-inspired university in the United States to earn regional accreditation—a milestone that occurred in 1988. Its curriculum weaves together contemplative studies, ecology, psychology, and the arts in ways that more conventional institutions rarely attempt. Classes often begin with a few minutes of meditation. The campus itself is modest and walkable, tucked into a residential stretch just east of downtown—easy to stumble upon, hard to forget.

Where the Beats Found a Home

The same founding year that launched Naropa also saw the birth of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, co-founded by poet Allen Ginsberg and poet-publisher Anne Waldman, with collaborators including Diane di Prima, John Cage, and others. The name alone tells you everything: irreverent, literary, a little mystical. The school drew a remarkable circle of writers—William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and many others passed through, taught, and performed here. That legacy continues today through MFA programs, summer intensives, and a reading series that keeps the Beat flame burning.

What This Means for Sundance Visitors

For anyone coming to Boulder for the festival, Naropa adds a dimension that's easy to miss if you're only focused on screenings and parties. A few things worth knowing:

• The Allen Ginsberg Library on campus holds archives and materials related to the Beat Generation and the school's history—worth a browse if you have a free afternoon. (Note: Naropa is selling this campus, with the sale expected to finalize around early 2027, so confirm the library's location and hours before visiting.)
• Public readings and talks happen on and around the Naropa campus throughout the academic year, and some are free or low-cost. Attending one gives you a window into Boulder's living literary culture.
• The neighborhood around Naropa on and near Arapahoe Avenue has its own quieter, neighborhood-scale character—good coffee shops and bookstores that reward slow exploration.
• The school's Summer Writing Program is a longer-running tradition, but the energy it represents—open inquiry, experimental form, community gathering—is present in Boulder year-round.

The Bigger Picture

Boulder's countercultural streak isn't nostalgia. It's active. You'll notice it in the number of independent bookstores still thriving, in the meditation centers sitting alongside breweries on Pearl Street, in the way residents talk about art as something you participate in rather than consume. Sundance, which has always celebrated independent voices and unconventional stories, is arriving in a city that has been practicing exactly that for decades.

When you're between screenings, consider wandering east of downtown. The Naropa campus won't announce itself loudly. That's rather the point.