Red Emma’s

This interactive presentation, part talk, part training, will center on what we can do to build a culture of support for survivors of rape and abuse in our own communities.  Building off the project The Monument Quilt, the training will give attendees ideas and tools for creating safe space for survivors, how to use art and activism for healing, and how to use the quilt to transform local community response to rape.   The Monument Quilt is a crowd-sourced collection of stories from survivors of sexual abuse. By stitching our stories together, we are creating and demanding public space to heal. The Monument Quilt is a platform to not only tell our stories but work together to change how communities respond to rape. The quilt is creating a new culture where survivors are publicly supported, rather than publicly shamed.   Each individual square is made of red fabric with hand-written testimonials created by survivors and allies. Almost 300 quilts were displayed in 13 US cities in August 2014 (read more on CNN and MSNBC), and we will continue to display the quilt via quilt-making workshops, in public displays across the country, until a final, historic display in Washington DC.  Blanketing the National Mall, 6,000 fabric squares will ultimately be stitched together to spell “Not Alone.”   Force: Upsetting Rape Culture is an art and activist effort to upset the culture of rape and to promote a culture of consent. To achieve those goals, the group creates public art actions that grab public attention, generate media coverage, and get millions of people talking.  Force is most widely known for their viral panty prank where they pretended to be Victoria's Secret promoting a line of consent-themed underwear and thongs.  More recently, Force fooled the internet into thinking that Playboy had released a guide to consensual sex for undergrads.  They are also known for projecting "RAPE IS RAPE" onto the US capitol building and floating a poem written by a survivor in the reflecting pool of the National Mall.