Stories of violence inspire artwork
Program brings together survivors, teen artists
The painting looked like stained glass, shapes of rich colors surrounding a solid black heart.
Next to it was a poem titled “Better WE,” which read in part:
Better we / Better us / From mud we came / Ashed and shamed / Beaten and blamed / To bring about the change.
The two pieces are linked as part of Untold Stories, a workshop that pairs creative writing by sexual violence survivors with artwork by Milwaukee high school students.
The project seeks to give voice to those who have survived or witnessed violence from rape, domestic violence, sexual abuse or human trafficking. It has surged in popularity in its six years, with more than 125 people attending the premier exhibition last week at the Northwest Masonic Center in Milwaukee.
This year, the event comes amid the nationwide #MeToo movement in which women are speaking up about sexual harassment and assault in hopes of greater accountability — and as Milwaukee absorbs the realities of sexual abuse and sex trafficking laid out in a recent report.
“I don’t know whether it’s Milwaukee’s moment, whether we’ve finally arrived at a place where people care about the tremendously disturbing news about sexual violence, but this event has allowed people to raise their voices,” said Rachel Monaco-Wilcox, founder of LOTUS Legal Clinic.
LOTUS, which provides legal services for victims of gender-based violence, works with Arts @ Large, Mount Mary University and the Voices and Faces Project to produce Untold Stories.
The artist inspired by “Better WE,” Jillian Mhoon, a junior at Alliance High School in Milwaukee, started with blocks of colors. She said she chose to put a black heart in the center to show the “darkness” in the poem.
“We do have dark places in our lives or in our hearts,” she said. “You keep on living and that part of your life gets lighter and lighter.”
Samantha Collier, who wrote “Better WE,” was momentarily speechless when she saw the teen’s painting next to her poem.
“It’s mind-blowing how beautiful it is,” she said, saying the students had taken it and “turned it into an alive art.”
Collier, 38, is a survivor of sexual abuse as a child and adult and the founder of TeamTeal365 LLC, which works to connect those who have experienced sexual violence with resources, whether it’s counseling or art therapy or other support systems. She also teaches about healthy relationships in local schools.
“I believe a lot of survivors and victims out here feel like they’re alone so they don’t speak up and they don’t report and they don’t have a safe space to talk about those things,” Collier said.
In addition to her poem, Collier also produced a spoken-word piece, “16 and Grown,” about the 1 in 6 men who experience sexual abuse, for Untold Stories.
“We need men whole, just as we need all of us whole,” she said. “We can’t write them out.”
As an alumna of Untold Stories, Collier joins a group of survivors who have gone on to publish books, write plays and poems, participate in documentary films and pursue graduate degrees.
“I’m grateful to be part of this journey,” Collier said. “It’s very empowering.”
Untold Stories will be exhibited at the state Capitol in Madison in honor of Crime Victim’s Rights Week, April 8 to 14.