Clothing line created to protest sexual aggression


clothesline
Courtesy Photo | Emma Tuthill Central Michigan University students decorated t-shirts in support of victims of sexual aggression. The shirts were put on display Monday night at The Art Reach of Mid Michigan.

Multiple groups in the Mount Pleasant community are coming together to stand against domestic violence for the first time starting this month.

Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates, Women’s Aid Service, Inc., and Nami Migizi Nangwiihgan Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking Services are combining their  efforts into a national initiative. 

The endeavor is titled "The Clothesline Project," which aims to educate members of the community about the ravages of domestic violence. Student and community members alike were invited to visit the project’s unveiling from 6-8 p.m. at Art Reach of Mid-Michigan in downtown Mount Pleasant.

“It’s really powerful when you can collaborate,” said Rebecca Conway, prevention educator for Women’s Aid Service, Inc. “We had talked about how all three of our agencies were doing the Clothesline project and how much more powerful that could be if we combined all of that manpower.”

Shirts on display in Art Reach were provided by both Women’s Aid Service, Inc. and Nami Migizi Nangwiihgan, and shared messages of survival and support for those affected by all forms of domestic violence.

Conway said collaboration with the student group and the tribal program made sense since all three entities were already addressing a common issue.

“The Tribe might be far out there and campus might feel untouchable and the community might feel like something students aren’t a part of, but all three of us are saying that this is the exact same problem,” Conway said. “We’re all experiencing and seeing it in our community and it’s really a community problem. It’s not a CMU problem, it’s not a tribe problem and it’s not a Mount Pleasant problem. It’s community-wide.”

Women’s Aid Service held a workshop in September to generate new shirts for the project. The shirts from Monday night’s display will be moved to seven other local businesses for the duration of October. Max and Emily’s Eatery, Curt’s Service Center, Inc., the Book Shelf, The Pines Golf Course, The Malt Shop, Pizza King and Dog Central will display varying numbers of shirts in their establishments, and Art Reach will keep a few shirts as well.

Conway said the community reception of putting the shirts into businesses was surprisingly positive, something she attributes partly to the event’s proximity to the Ray Rice scandal and the NFL’s reaction to it.

“People are having a large-scale conversation about domestic violence,” she said. “About 50 percent of the businesses we reached out to said 'yes' immediately without much question, so that felt pretty good to us. It can be intimidating to have this kind of stuff out in a business.”

To help prepare for the project’s unveiling, SAPA hosted two workshops last week during which students created new shirts sporting messages of support, personal stories and quotes. Emma Tuthill, co-coordinator of the workshops, said they helped create 53 new shirts to be added to SAPA’s supply.

They will be added to the group’s existing shirts in the on-campus Clothesline Project, which will be displayed outside the Bovee University Center from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Following the campus display, SAPA’s shirts will be moved into the extended study room in the Charles V. Park Library as a permanent art display for the month of October.

Tuthill said information about SAPA and the Central Michigan University Counseling Center will be available at the display, and shirts inside the library will be selected carefully in order to reduce triggers for those who use the extended study room.

Another SAPA-sponsored art display called "Spoken" will be available for viewing on the library’s third floor. The display will feature paintings of survivors. 

Tuthill said they will be somewhat distorted to protect survivors’ privacy but will essentially show visitors the face of survivors of domestic abuse.

“It’s basically going to tie the exhibits together with a theme of sharing survivor’s stories,” Tuthill said.

Brooke Huber is a graduate student at CMU studying professional counseling and is the sexual assault response team coordinator for Nami Migizi Nangwiihgan. She said the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, which has participated in the Clothesline Project for more than seven years, hosts workshops twice a year to generate more shirts for the cause.

“When we each do our own individual things, we’re all targeting specific populations, but when we get together we can reach them all,” Huber said.

The program’s shirts will be displayed in the Tribe’s Behavioral Health Program lobby, 2800 S. Shepard Road, Monday, Oct. 6.

On campus, Tuthill said SAPA members will be available to talk to survivors who may feel triggered by the messages displayed by the shirts. She said she feels encouraged by the number of volunteers excited to work the Clothesline Project and hopes SAPA’s collaboration with the tribe and Women’s Aid Service, Inc. can continue in the future.

“It’s a community problem. It’s a societal problem,” Tuthill said. “And having those divides that I think just naturally happen between a campus and a community, and being able to break those and show that the community is united in trying to solve this problem, is really important.”

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