Clothesline Project T-shirts 25-27 (3 shirts), 2002

Power of Women is a Georgia State University student organization affiliated with the Women's Studies Institute. They are committed to making feminism and feminist issues and philosophies visible and relevant to the Georgia State University campus, and to developing a focus on personal awareness and issues affecting female and male students by organizing activities, presenting information, and providing education on gender and human rights issues (Power of Women mission statement). Some of the programs they have sponsored include visiting classrooms, attending the Georgia Women's Assembly (1999), volunteering for the Feminist Women's Health Center, starting "Voices of active Resistance: Power of Women's Sexual Assault Education Campaign" (2000) and "Sexual Assault on Campus Rountable" (April 2003). Power of Women is sponsored by GSU’s Offices of Diversity Education and Health Promotion, Georgia Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Alliance, Campus Civitans, Social Work Club and by the International Student Association Council. The Clothesline Project is a display created by survivors of violence and those in support of survivors. The personal narratives and graphic messages illustrated on the shirts are a testimony to the reality of violence and the strength of the survivors. The shirts are placed on a clothesline and are displayed in public places for viewing. The Clothesline Project started in Cape Cod, MA, in October 1990. Thirty-one t-shirts addressing the issue of violence against women were displayed on the village green in Hyannis as part of the annual "Take Back the Night" rally. The project was the brainchild of a small core of women, many of whom had been affected by domestic violence, who wanted to create a way of expressing the problem in the form of an "in-your-face" educational and healing tool. Inspired by the AIDS quilt, artist Rachel Carey-Harper came up with the idea of using t-shirts hanging on a clothesline: Doing the laundry has traditionally been women's work, and women often communicated with one ...