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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2014
PAGE 3
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Phoenix Project turns abuse cases into art
KRISTA MONTGOMERY
@KansanNews
"I've had two abusers," her story begins. "The first abuser, I was still in school here in Lawrence, going to KU. I met him about a block away at a little bar right down there." The account continues with graphic descriptions of violence. "He hit me so hard that I went flying on the other side of the bed," the woman goes on, listing the abuses committed by her boyfriend, Bear, during the course of their relationship.
This narrative is one of the many nameless, but not faceless, biographies posted on the Willow Domestic Violence Center Blog that recounts relational and physical domestic abuse. The number of survivor testimonies collected by staff at the Willow Domestic Violence Center in Lawrence is growing in light of a new artistic and collaborative endeavor: The Phoenix Project.
The project encourages artists to take the stories posted on the blog and to turn them into artistic work to be presented at a public engagement event next year.
The center is seeking both survivor stories and artists who are willing to create representational pieces of the stories. Chelsea Ren Morton, work program manager for the Willow, said the idea for the event is to encapsulate all art media: video, performance, slam
poetry, music, oil painting, chalk painting, photography, poetry, short stories and cartooning. By using all forms of media, Morton said, the event can engage the public on all learning levels, with the main focus being on the transformation from the stories.
Dailey Tasker, a volunteer advocate for the center since January, said the project is looking for any type of artist to contribute work.
"I believe no one deserves to be afraid of their partner... no one deserves to feel bad or be put in a dangerous situation on a daily basis."
DAILEY TASKER
Volunteer advocate
"Anything that can portray the stories in an interesting manner," said Tasker, a junior from Wichita majoring in visual arts and design. "It's a collaboration, it doesn't have to be classical art. Anything's art."
The project theme is "breaking the silence on relational violence," emphasizing that it takes a community to address and heal the trauma of violence.
Maddison Lynn, project facilitator for Phoenix, says the project is all about empowerment.
"We really want to expand our base, reach a lot of people
and get some open discussion about something that is so isolating and not really talked about in the community," Lynn said.
The problem of domestic violence is underreported, Lynn said.
"It's a problem in this community as well as communities all over. Just think about the amount of women the Willow serves on a yearly basis," Lynn said.
The Willow has more than 1,600 crisis calls and houses approximately 300 women and children annually. The center also offers support services and public education for those experiencing, or supporting someone who is experiencing domestic violence.
Lynn says the center is hoping to empower others to speak up about domestic violence, seek the help they need and help survivors feel as if they are not alone in their situation.
"As a women's studies major, I studied a lot of social change that happened because somebody somewhere gathered a lot of stories in one place," Morton said. "And it moved legislation. It moved communities to healing. It changed the face of the culture."
Morton's motivation behind starting the archive is to not only show people what is happening, but also show the support and healing that can occur when everyone pulls together as a team.
"I'm under the opinion that if
The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence is estimated at $727.8 million with over 7.9 million paid workdays lost per year.
www.caepv.org
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE FACTS
Black females experienced intimate partner violence at a rate 35 percent higher than that of white females, and about 22 times the rate of women of other races. Black males experienced intimate partner violence at a rate about 62 percent higher than that of white males and about 22 times the rate of men of other races.
www.americanbar.org
Nearly 1 in 4 American women between the ages of 18 and 65 has experienced domestic violence.
www.thecenteronline.org
Females ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 generally experienced the highest rates of intimate partner violence.
Nearly half of all women and men in the United States have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime (48.4 percent and 48.8 percent, respectively).
From 1994 to 2010, about 4 in 5 victims of intimate partner violence were female. www.thehotline.org
Morton said staff and volunteers who had experienced domestic violence were generally enthusiastic about submitting their stories, especially with the idea that it could encourage others to seek help.
you believe in something, you should act on it," Tasker said. "I believe no one deserves to be afraid of their partner ... no one deserves to feel bad or be put in a dangerous situation on a daily basis."
"Or it could help people realize that this is a problem in our community and we can't ignore it any longer," Morton
said. "This is why people need to support social services and to address these problems ... that no one is necessarily talking about."
Over the next three months, the Phoenix team will be recruiting people to submit stories, artwork and narratives. Morton hopes this will produce a sizeable database for people to access.
"Those inspired by what they see in the database can contact the team and contribute a piece," Morton said.
Edited by Rob Pyatt
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