Event brings awareness to ongoing problem of violence against women
Azusa Pacific hosted the Clothesline Project this year for students and faculty to participate in. This year’s annual Clothesline project was organized at Seven Palms on East Campus from Oct. 7-11 for Domestic Violence Awareness month.
The project is a testimony to the ongoing problem of violence against women.
Members of the APU community shared their experiences by illustrating them however they wanted on the back of a t-shirt, which they hung up on a clothesline for others to read and learn from.
The Clothesline Project began in the 1990s in Cape Cod, Mass. It represents a time and place where womens’ freedom came from stepping outside and hanging clothes on a line and talking to female friends.
The Office of Women’s Development has continued the tradition at APU by hosting the project on campus for a decade alongside other universities.
The Clothesline Project was open to all visitors 24 hours a day, meaning students were able to come at any time to reflect on their own experiences or read the stories of other anonymous writers.
“[The project is] a way to break the silence and break the stigma around [domestic violence],” said Kennedy Boeve an intern for the (OWD), and a public relations major. “A lot of students maybe aren’t very aware … that we have something like … they’re shocked … they’re very grateful to have this opportunity.”
Boeve said men would come up to the table after they read the shirts and would ask how they could help, to stand up for the issue. The OWD had pledges, which could be signed by any student, representing a promise on how they can help people dealing with trauma from sexual assault or domestic violence around them.
Doma Bowie, a senior social work major, reflected on the Clothesline Project, talking about how she utilized the space to share her own story.
“My healing is playing a role in the healing for others. For people to be able to stand in solidarity with me, and me being able to do the same with them, is really huge for me,” Bowie said.
She said people might not think that domestic violence exists at a Christian school, but it does. People at APU often refrain from uncomfortable topics, and organizations like the OWD are trying to break that standard.
“It’s really great to see a university like APU be so forefront in tackling gender based violence,” said Danny Fernandez, the Counseling Center Outreach Coordinator.
Fernandez feels domestic violence is all too common, and events like the Clothesline Project are important in order to bring awareness to the issue and to break the stigma behind it. He said it is important that students know that there are always people available on campus that can help students process their feelings.
The project has helped students reconcile their experiences, giving them a week of reflection and mindfulness.