Jenna Bacon, Campus Carrier asst. arts and living editor
The Berry Reducing Assault and Violence through Education (BRAVE) project has partnered with the Peer Educators to put on a Sexual Assault Arts and Letters Showcase this Thursday. The showcase aims to raise awareness about the impact of sexual assault on individuals, emphasize community efforts to prevent such incidents and provide support to survivors. In an Instagram post, Berry’s Peer Educators specified they were seeking “works of art created by people in our community who have been impacted by sexual assault.” The showcase accepted many artistic mediums including paintings, sculptures, drawings, letters and short stories. The art pieces will be anonymously displayed unless an individual requests to have their name associated with their artwork.
Berry juniors Molly Martin, Lila McConkey and Addison Cook were responsible for planning, promoting and setting up the event. Martin serves as a peer educator at Berry, McConkey is the project coordinator for the BRAVE project and Cook is a student worker in the Department of Student Involvement. McConkey contributed to the event’s planning by putting up flyers around campus and coordinating with representatives from the Sexual Assault Center of North Georgia (SACNG) to secure a speaker for the event. Martin promoted the event via social media, collected student submissions and helped submit the CE credit application. Cook shares what part she played in making this event happen. “I work to reserve everything,” Cook said. “So, I handled all the reservations for the CE credit, and I contacted scheduling. I’m helping to make sure that everything is set up in the way it needs to be for our speakers and everyone involved.”
On April 5, the Peer Educators, the BRAVE project and Berry College Volunteer Services collaborated to host a T-shirt making event. There, students decorated and wrote on T-shirts to express support for victims of sexual assault. These T-shirts will be displayed at the art showcase. The idea to showcase T-shirts was inspired by the Clothesline Project which is a visual display that raises awareness about violence against women, survivors and their stories by hanging T-shirts with messages and artwork. McConkey shares why she’s looking forward to seeing the T-shirts displayed.
“We got about 10 or 12 T-shirts made on Friday,” McConkey said. “I’m really excited for the people who made the T-shirts’ stories to be heard, and I’m just excited in general for people to learn more about consent.”
Tia Wheelus, the outreach coordinator and administrative assistant for SACNG will be speaking at the art showcase. Sam Warner, outreach educator and marketing assistant for SACNG will also be joining Wheelus. They will cover the topics of sexual assault awareness and the importance of community support; they will be taking questions after their talk. Warner shared why community support is such an important thing to discuss.
“We feel that sexual assault is not an individual issue,” Warner said. “It’s not an issue that is going to be solved by individuals’ solutions. This is a community issue and it’s going to require community action to create safer communities and to create ultimately a world where sexual assault doesn’t happen.”
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center reports that 81% of women and 43% of men in the U.S. have experienced some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. Moreover, approximately one in three women and one in six men in the United States are acquainted with someone who has been sexually assaulted. Associate Dean of Students Lindsey Norman shared some ways that people can support friends or family that have been affected by sexual assault or harassment.
“Being a good listener, being empathetic and respecting what the person who’s telling you that information wants are some ways to be supportive,” Norman said. “It’s important to ask them what they need and then help them get that. You should not take over or shame them if they don’t want to do something you think they should do. I think that’s really important.”
If you are a victim of sexual assault or interpersonal violence, please consider reaching out to the following sources for support: Berry College’s Title IX Coordinator Lindsey Norman, B.R.A.V.E Project Coordinator Ashley Demonbreun-Chapman, 911 or the Sexual Assault Center of Northwest Georgia at 706-802-0580.