The Women on the Line event will take place at Stuart's Opera House, and will showcase artwork based on poetry.
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Over the past four years, a group of graphic designers and poets have come together to combat domestic violence through art.
This year’s Women on the Line event will take place Friday at Stuart’s Opera House in Nelsonville. There will be nearly 30 pieces of art showcased in order to raise awareness and donations for My Sister’s Place, an Athens domestic abuse shelter.
“This is a way for people to see through a window into different perspectives,” said Kate Fox, one of the organizers of the event. “(You can) experience something from someone else’s point of view, things you may not have seen before.”
In 2011, Fox, an organizer of Women on the Line, started thinking about National Poetry Month along with My Sister’s Place. Then, she said she made it her goal to start something locally in order to shed light on the issue of abuse in relationships. The Women on the Line event came together in 2012 when eight female poets organized an annual poetry reading to spread awareness for My Sister’s Place.
Later on, the project grew when Molly Schoenhoff, an assistant professor of graphic design, and her students became involved in the process.
These students started by learning about some of the issues women face today, specifically domestic violence, Schoenhoff said. Then, they chose a poet at random, and after familiarizing themselves with the work they picked a poem to reconstruct into a graphic art piece in the form of a large poster.
This year marks the largest number of artists involved with 27 participants.
“We’re very excited this year,” Fox said. “These are some of the strongest artists we’ve seen come into the program.”
Students involved with Schoenhoff’s graphic design class are enthused about merging the two different art forms.
One artist, Kelsey Hanson, is taking the project to another creative level by making not one but two posters to depict her poem.
“I just really paid attention to what the poem was telling me,” She said. “The goal was to keep it as romantic and flowy as possible. I chose to shape specific texts and paid attention to textures in order to reflect the meaning. It’s been a really fun process.”
Although the event is meant to raise awareness for My Sister’s Place, none of the poems directly have to do with domestic abuse.
Crystal Good, one of the six poets chosen, said she is happy about participating in the event. In writing her collection of poems called Valley Girl, she said she worked closely with a graphic designer in order to add an artistic aspect to her poetry.
“This type of art is really my style,” said Good, who lives in West Virginia. “Having my poem involved in this process is like a Christmas present.”
Fox said, she hopes this event will bring awareness to the topic of domestic abuse, an issue that sometimes is hard to comprehend for people who haven’t gone through it.
“It’s really hard to understand what these women have gone through,” Fox said. “After all, nobody can see from your point of view.”
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