Free Speech Isn't Always Pretty

One thing I really enjoyed as the coordinator of the local clothesline project was organizing events. Our purpose was to strengthen laws against domestic violence and rape and to give voice to survivors who told their stories on shirts that hung shoulder to shoulder on a line. An intense cause, it grew out of the take back the night movement. We were the second or third satellite group from the main line which was originally designed by Rachel Carey Harper who was active in WILPF ( the women’s international league for peace and freedom) and the Cape Cod Women‘s Agenda. After coordinating 20 or 30 small events for over a year our group decided it was time to have a major three day multi media event with films, musicians, poets, artists and speakers. There were many details to sort out and I won’t get into that because it would take too long to do so here.

We brainstormed... the participants and other details months ahead of time and posted a call for art in addition to the project itself. Some of the artists barely made it under the deadline, but we were a grassroots group and pretty loose about deadlines. A couple of us volunteered to install the art work. One of our most active volunteers a former nun and our treasurer was upset by one women’s work- assemblages with headless, dolls nails, red paint and wanted the work pulled. As the contact person, I had encouraged the artist to come work unseen. When I got to the gallery I could sympathize with the distressed volunteer. Part of our mandate was to give voice to survivors no matter where they were at. The shirts themselves ran the gamut from tortured to hopeful to victorious. Because of ree speech and one of the stated goals of the project, we agreed that there was no way we could take the assemblages out of the show.

I sometimes think that it is important when you speak to power from the heart its okay to let out some or all of the pain no matter how ugly, because when it isn’t invisible it you can scramble over it and beyond it.