What is the Clothesline?

The Clothesline Project is a visual display that bears witness to the violence against women.  During the public display, a clothesline is hung with shirts.  Each shirt is decorated to represent a particular woman's experience, by the survivor herself or by someone who care about her.

The Project was started with thirty-one shirts hung in Hyannis, Massachusetts in the Fall of 1990.  Since that time, projects have begun in communities all across the country and in other countries as well.

The Baltimore NOW Clothesline was first displayed at the Rally for Women's Lives in April of 1995 in Washington, DC as part of more than 6,000 t-shirts from around the nation.  The Baltimore Clothesline is displayed locally at a variety of community events and activities.  We currently have more than 125 t-shirts as part of the Baltimore line.  Contact Baltimore NOW to find out when the next display is scheduled or to schedule an appearance of the Clothesline in your community.

History of the Clothesline

In the Spring of 1990, the Cape Cod Massachusetts Women's Agenda was searching for a way to communicate to the public the horrific extent of the violence perpetrated against women in the United States. The group was outraged by a statistic compiled by the Maryland Men's Anti-Rape Resource Center which estimated that during the 16 years of the Vietnam War, 51,000 women were murdered in the United States by their husbands or lovers, while 58,000 American soldiers perished in the war. Later, during a visit to a moving Vietnam Memorial, the group asked itself, "Where is our wall?" The answer was painful. "Nowhere. And our war has not yet ended."

One member of the group, an artist named Rachel Carey-Harper, answered that question with a powerfully simple concept: a clothesline on which women could air out society's insidiously silent "dirty laundry." Using the deceptively simple medium of the t-shirt, survivors were able to create stunningly poignant and moving personal accounts of their feelings, their struggles, and their efforts to heal from the violence they had experienced. Finally, on October 8, 1990, the Cape Cod Women's Agenda hung a clothesline on the town green in Hyannis. Thirty-one shirts blowing in the sea breeze proclaimed that violence against women could be found everywhere, even in a vacation mecca, and in every stratum of society.

Word of the potent display spread rapidly. The Cape Cod Clothesline traveled the northeast coast, arriving in Washington, DC in March 1991 for a display in a Congressional committee room, the first time members of the House of Representatives and Senate were exposed to the project. A display at the 1991 National Congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, spread the Clothesline to California, Washington, Texas, Virginia, and Illinois. A brief article in Ms. Magazine prompted calls from all over the country. By the end of 1991, over 40 local Clothesline Projects were being displayed around the United States.

The project continued to grow at an incredible rate. A Northeast conference was held in Worcester, MA in 1991, the largest gathering of local projects, displaying over 750 shirts. Pictures and words about the Clothesline were carried to Santa Cruz, Bolivia to the 1992 International Congress of WILPP and delegates from 110 countries took the idea home with them, initiating projects in Tanzania, Costa Rica, England, Canada, Israel, the Philippines, and Cuba. The Monterey Peninsula California project traveled to Geneva, Switzerland as testimony at the United Nations Human Rights Conference in 1993, and in 1994, the project went to Beijing as part of the U.N.'s International Conference on Women. Today, the Clothesline Project is displayed by over 500 chapters continuously throughout the nation and the world.

The true power of the Clothesline lies in its grassroots approach, which allows individuals and local organizations alike to break the silence to their neighbors about the violence happening in their own communities. For, though the problem of violence against women is pervasive nationally and even globally, it will not cease without inspired and ongoing work at the local level. Indeed, just as the shirts hang shoulder to shoulder, so must the public, the legislators and law enforcement agencies combine forces to effect real change.

The Clothesline Project has allowed thousands of women to put their own, inexorable faces to the numbing statistics on violence against women. Our hope is that, with strength and courage, our society will work together to help all survivors hang up their shirts and say "No More."

What is the Purpose of the Clothesline?

1.      To bear witness to the survivors as well as the victims of the war against women.

2.      To help with the healing process for people who have lost a loved one or are survivors of this violence.

3.      To educate, document, and raise society's awareness of the extent of the problem of violence against women.

4.      To provide a nationwide network of support, encouragement and information for other communities starting their own Clothesline Projects.

What Goes on the Clothesline?

We ask women to send shirts, blouses or t-shorts of durable material preferably with the following color code:

·  WHITE for women who have died of violence;

·  YELLOW or BEIGE for women who have been battered or assaulted;

·  RED, PINK, or ORANGE for women who have been raped or sexually assaulted;

·  BLUE or GREEN for women survivors of incest or child sexual abuse;

·  PURPLE or LAVENDER for women attacked because of their sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation;

·  GREY for women who have been victims of sexual harassment.

Creating a Shirt

We would like each shirt to reflect the woman's personal experience.  You may include a name, date, and memorabilia such as tools of a trade or symbol of interest.  Some suggestions for enduring durability:

·         Use natural fabric

·         Sew rather than using glue

·         Photocopy photographs onto iron-ons

·         Use acrylic or textile paint, color-fast dye or indelible ink

At each display, shirts and materials will be available for people who wish to design a shirt at that time.

For Women Killed

You may want to submit a shirt that belonged to her.  Please show on the shirt the woman's name, date of birth and death and hometown.  When the shirt is complete you may wish to take the time to write a description of the person you have memorialized.

Please include information you wish to share about her death.  Tell us what this person meant to you and how you think she should be remembered.  Enclose a photograph of the person if you have on that you are willing to part with.  We cannot be responsible for returning photographs or mementoes.

For Survivors

Because making a shirt is part of the healing process, shirts should be submitted by the survivor.  If not possible, a shirt for a survivor should be submitted with her written permission.  We ask that you respect her anonymity by not using their name.  Last name or hometown are not required.  We would appreciate whatever information you or she would like to share.  We will respect requests for confidentiality.

Names

Naming the perpetrator is an important part of the healing process.  But, for legal reasons, we cannot display shirts with full names of the perpetrators.  We ask that shirt makers use first names or initials if they wish to name their violator.

To Participate

Shirts may be brought to a display, made at a display or mailed to:

Baltimore Chapter
National Organization for Women
P.O. Box 253
Timonium, MD 21094

**Please note: all materials submitted become the sole property of the Clothesline Project and cannot be reclaimed by the sender. 

Displays in the Baltimore Area

The next display of the Baltimore NOW Clothesline and shirt making workshops will be:

• April 17, 2008 Take Back the Night Rally
  

If you would like more information about the Clothesline Project, contact Baltimore NOW.