The University of Idaho still has several events planned for the concluding week of Sexual Assault Awareness month this April. From Sunday, April 25 to Friday, April 30 in the ISUB, students will be able to view the “Showing Survivors’ Strength” display, the UI’s take on The Clothesline Project, a national program started in 1990 in Cape Cod, Massachusetts to raise awareness of violence against women.
This project, often replicated each year across the country in community and campus spaces, allows for survivors and allies to express their thoughts and feelings towards sexual assault and domestic violence through both words and imagery on t-shirts. These shirts are then displayed for public viewing, often on a clothesline.
“It’s a powerful visual … clothesline projects are on display all over the country, and are a place where people can express their experience,” Emilie McLarnan, the Associate Director of Violence Prevention for the Dean of Students office and a coordinator of UI’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month event schedule, said. “We can also put this out there for people who may not be aware that violence impacts our communities.”
UI has annually presented a Clothesline Project display for around 15 years, having organized a digital display last April due to COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions, according to Mclarnan.
Interested participants were able to download an image of an unmarked t-shirt to decorate with their own digital editing software. These finished images were then submitted by email to Jackie Sedano, the Program Coordinator for UI’s Women’s Center, and posted on social media. To view last year’s display announcement, guidelines and submissions, visit the Women’s Center’s Instagram account.
Participants should be anonymous and should not include any names or locations relating to their experiences for privacy and safety reasons. Expression and freedom in writing and artistic creations on the shirts are encouraged, but decorators should refrain from excessive use of profanity for this display.
The Women’s Center, the Green Dot Bystander Program, RHA and ASUI have collaborated to distribute shirts to students on and off campus.
This time around, ASUI Director of Health, Safety and Wellness Sierra Brantz has taken the task of purchasing, distributing and collecting shirts for students, particularly those involved in Greek life.
“I have a pretty good passion towards Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I just think it’s awesome and wonderful to support, and I reached out to Emilie (McLarnan) and worked with her this entire year,” Brantz said. “This was just one month that I really wanted to make sure ASUI is participating in, because I think this is a topic that our campus should be really passionate about.”
Brantz and her colleague have dropped off multiple bags containing three shirts and instructions to different fraternities, sororities and multicultural houses on and off-campus, allowing for students to complete their shirts and return them to the Dean of Students office until the first day of the display, Sunday, April 25.
“Any survivors in their house could fill out a shirt, and I also encouraged the houses, if they didn’t have as much participation, that they themselves could fill out a shirt and just show support for all of the survivors of sexual assault,” Brantz said.
This year, those interested in decorating a shirt for the display, who have not already, have an upcoming opportunity on campus to do so.
A chance to decorate a shirt will be available on April 27 at the RHA Green Dot Action Event. This event will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the Tower Lawn, allowing students to receive a refresher on the “3 D’s” of Green Dot, as well as practice tie dye skills for their shirts.
Informational fliers will be posted at the display with resources on campus relating to support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.
“Everyone should come in and view this because I think this is an awesome display to just bring about awareness, and to view the full impact of how many people can actually be affected by this and have been affected by this on campus,” Brantz said. “It’s going to be a very personal display,
it’s not some outside group or outside thing, it’s definitely in our realm, it’s definitely something that’s affecting everyone.”
Katarina Hockema can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @kat_hockema