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The Clothesline Project
The Clothesline Project is a visual display of shirts with written messages and illustrations that graphically demonstrate the impact of violence.
October 1-5th At the UND Memorial Union
Monday through Thursday 8am-8pm Friday 8am-Noon
Take Back the Night Rally October 4th, 7:00pm at the UND Memorial Union.
Speaking at Take Back the Night Rally is Deirdre Keys.
These shirts are designed by survivors of violence, their families and/or friends. The purpose is to educate the public, to mourn those who have died as a result of this violence, and finally to bear witness to the courage to survive and heal.
The Clothesline Project honors survivors who have been affected by intimate violence. A survivor is anyone who has experienced personal violence and has lived to tell about it. The term victim is reserved for those who did not survive. Any one who has experienced violence, at any time in their life, is encouraged to come forward and design a shirt. Victim's families and friends are also invited to participate.
The original international project started with thirty-one shirts hung in Hyannis, MA in the Fall of 1990 as part of the annual Take Back The Night rally and march.
After a small article appeared in a magazine entitled Off Our Backs and was picked up by MS magazine, everything changed for the project. All of a sudden organizers were traveling up and down the East Coast displaying it in colleges, statehouses, churches, museums, and shopping malls. Since then the Clothesline Project has grown nationally and internationally to an estimated 40,000 shirts.
North Dakota's Clothesline Project had its first public display February 28 and March 1, 1995 in the Great Hall of the Capitol Building during the legislative session. There were 114 shirts on display at that time. The Women's Center has hosted this project each October since 1995.
If you or someone you know would like to decorate a shirt to be added to the ND Clothesline Project -please call the Women's Center for more information.
