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A clothesline conveys shame, pain, anger
By NEGAR TEKEEI
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- For one year and four months, Sharon Lawson withstood mental, emotional and, toward the end, physical abuse from a boyfriend because she "wanted to make the relationship work." But then he hit her in front of her three children, and she knew it had to stop. With her family's help, she was able to leave her abuser a few years ago, enter a shelter and begin to heal. "It can be done," Lawson said. "I'm not saying that it's easy, but it's worth it if you want a better life for your children." For Lawson, part of beginning this better life was for her and her two daughters, now 12 and 14, to release the memories and anger. At a workshop last year for women and children who have experienced violence, participants were given a chance to transform their feelings into words and pictures that they drew and wrote on T-shirts. Lawson's and her daughters' shirts became part of a collection of shirts bearing phrases and images of pain, anger, relief, sadness and even death. The Clothesline Project displays the shirts in March and October every year in city parks throughout the nation as a symbol of the daily struggle against violence led by many American women and children. On Saturday, more than 1,000 shirts, each depicting a woman's experience with violence, will be hung on a clothesline at Campbell Park, Sixth Avenue and 16th Street S, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The shirts displayed are from volunteer workshops led by the Clothesline Project of Tampa Bay. Counselors and volunteers will be at the park, and T-shirts will be provided for victims of violence who want to share their experiences, said Dale Shade, a volunteer with the Clothesline Project. The project began in Hyannis, Mass., in 1990 when a group of women were outraged at a statistic compiled by the Maryland Men's Anti-Rape Resource Center. The center estimated that, during the 16 years of the Vietnam War, 51,000 women were killed in the United States by their husbands or lovers, while 58,000 American servicemen perished in the war. The servicemen were given a memorial; the women were not. So the Cape Cod Massachusetts Women's Agenda began to build its own tribute. And, as a symbol of the tradition of women sharing their stories over backyard fences while hanging the day's wash, the Clothesline Project began. One showing of 31 shirts in 1990 has grown to displays every year throughout the world. "For years women would not talk about the violence that they went through. They kept it in the closet," Shade said. "This is a way of getting it out to people and showing people that this does exist and there is still a need for a solution." For Lawson, the T-shirt was a way of venting her frustrations and beginning to heal. When she saw her shirt, which had words like "no more," "hitting," "kicking" and "putdowns," displayed for the first time at Crest Lake Park in Clearwater last year, Lawson says she broke into tears. "There is a lot of anger and sadness. I thought I had lost myself, lost the right to have any opinions, suggestions or a mind at all," she said. "When people go to see the display, it's kind of mind-blowing to see it all."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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