The Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan is hosting a Clothesline Project display during October at the Charlevoix Public Library located at 220 West Clinton Street. The display coincides with National Domestic Abuse Awareness Month and will be available for public viewing and reflection through October 29.

The visual display consists of more than 40 t-shirts designed by local survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. The shirts are a creative way for survivors to explore the power of their unique voices, tell their stories and for the community to bear witness to this extraordinary, enlightening and empowering process.

The Clothesline Project began in 1990 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to focus attention on the pervasive issue of violence against women and has since become a worldwide campaign with an estimated 500 projects nationally and internationally involving about 50,000 to 60,000 t-shirts.

“The shirts represented in this local Clothesline Project display represent each person’s personal experience with violence,” said Chris Krajewski, domestic abuse and sexual assault program director at the WRCNM. “The messages are so impactful because they are raw and so brutally honest they take your breath away. The shirts show the pain, fear and anger that survivors experience, as well as hope and healing.”

For more information about the Clothesline Project or programs and services available to survivors of domestic abuse, sexual assault, child abuse or child sexual assault contact the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan at (231) 347-0067. A 24-hour crisis and information line is also available at (231) 347-0082 or (800) 275-1995 for long distance callers.