Clothesline Project Paints Downtown

White for murder, red for rape, beige for battery-these are only a few of the color codes for T-shirts that will be placed on an extensive clothesline. Bulked side by side, scrawled with messages and oozing with emotion, each T-shirt will be an important and valuable piece of the University's Clothesline Project, according to V-Week 2006 organizer Ashley Marinaccio.

The Clothesline Project, organized by the Women's Action Network (WAN), will be a week of activities to raise awareness of violence against women starting on Feb. 14. V-Week will occur the week of the Women and Gender Studies Department's production of the Vagina Monologues.

According to Marinaccio, the Clothesline Project will allow students to express their feelings toward violence against women by designing a shirt and hanging it on a clothesline, which will be displayed in the kiosk.

The project, first organized in 1990, caught the attention of Assistant Political Science Professor Meghana Nayak, who encountered one of the striking clotheslines while attending college.

"I just remember seeing this huge symbol of violence against women, and it was overwhelming," Nayak said.

Nayak, who is also one of the advisors of WAN, suggested the idea to Marinaccio. "I'd seen it done at Pace, but not in about two-and-a-half years," Nayak said.

Marinaccio, realizing the intensity of the clothesline, was immediately enthusiastic about the idea. "You're airing out the dirty laundry of sexual abuse and domestic violence for people to see," she said. "I'm hoping people who see it will be inspired and want to get involved in these social issues."

Having a colorful clothesline stretched out across the kiosk will jolt hearts because of the frequency of violence against women in the area, Marinaccio said. "This is an issue at Pace, in New York, in the world-we need to put women's issues out there."

Nayak also stressed the disturbing regularity of female violence but activities like the Clothesline Project are merely first steps in addressing such a daunting problem. "This is a beginning, rudimentary phase. So much more needs to happen, but first we need to make people aware," she said.

In addition to enforcing awareness, junior theatre major Lauren McCullough, assistant organizer of V-Week 2006, said she hopes the Clothesline Project will leave a lasting impression on students who see it.

"By having this on display at school, it should affect people-even if it's only for a minute before they walk away," McCullough said.

Students who wish to design a shirt should contact Marinaccio at thawrah85@yahoo.com no later than Feb. 9.