Since 1998, the Tech Pride Room has been the site of the Clothesline Project, a visual display that bears witness to the violence against women. During the public display, a clothesline is hung with shirts, with each shirt decorated to represent a particular woman’s experience, by the survivor herself or by someone who cares about her.

The shirts will be on display Tuesday, April 2, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again from 4-7 p.m.

“It’s a way for the community to understand the extent of interpersonal violence,” said Diana Lalani of Tennessee Tech’s Gretta Stanger Center.  “A lot of people walk out feeling informed and want to do something to end violence.”

The Clothesline Project started with 31 shirts hung in Hyannis, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1990. The purposes of the project are to bear witness to the survivors as well as the victims of the war against women, to help with the healing process for people who have lost a loved one or survivors of this violence, to educate, document and raise society’s awareness of the extent of the problem of violence against women and to provide a nationwide network of support, encouragement and information for other communities starting their own Clothesline Project.

“Anyone can make shirts,” Lalani said. “It’s not limited to women. Men are also victims of this violence as well.”

Some shirts are sad while others are humorous. But they all are expressive and touching, Lalani said.

“I think it’s beautiful that survivors come in to make the shirt and donate it to the Clothesline Project,” Lalani said. “It’s a way of healing.”

Over the years, the Gretta Stanger Center has collected a large number of shirts to display.

“We have probably 350-400 shirts,” Lalani said. “There are so many we can’t put them all up.”

The Monday prior to the Clothesline Project display, Tech’s ROTC sends several cadets over to help string the clothesline all through the Tech Pride Room.

For more information about Tech’s Gretta Stanger Center, visit www.tntech.edu/women.

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