Justice and Human Rights United States Project #35814

Help Moms of Slain Youth Tell Their Stories

by Unsilence

Project Report | Jul 9, 2019
Unsilence & The Sisterhood: UPDATE on what's next...

By Dr. Danny M. Cohen | Unsilence Founder & Interim Executive Director

Thanks to your generous support, we are close to completing the "photography phase" of our project with The Sisterhood -- a collective of mothers, all women of color, whose children have been killed by senseless violence. Will you contribute today to help our project cross the finish line?

This spring, renowned Chicago artist Cecil McDonald Jr. has been working with the women to create artworks that tell the story of each mother and their children. This summer, Unsilence is integrating the testimonies and photographic artworks to create a new online exhibition and learning experience for schools and communities. Your donation today will help us build the exhibition and develop Unsilence educator guides.

Our project goals: (1) To unsilence the personal and collective grief, trauma, activism, and healing of mothers of color. (2) To humanize their murdered children who are so often portrayed in a negative light in the media. (3) To help communities across Chicago talk about systemic violence. (4) To connect Chicagoland communities, because we’re in this crisis together and we can only solve it together.

We are so grateful for your support. We cannot unsilence injustice without you.

All my best,

Danny M. Cohen

Founder & Interim Executive Director of Unsilence

www.unsilence.org

Unsilence is working to amplify the voices ofThe Sisterhood, a collective of Chicago mothers, all women of color, each of whom has lost a child to gun violence.

Links:

Unsilence Voices: The Sisterhood

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Apr 9, 2019
UPDATE: THE SISTERHOOD TESTIMONIES COLLECTED

By Dr. Danny M. Cohen | Unsilence Founder & Interim Executive Director

Jan 8, 2019
Unsilence Voices: The Sisterhood official launch!

By Kayla Lane Freeman | Programs Manager

The Sisterhood at November's Sounds of Unsilence

We have had a busy and eventful end of 2018! In November, Unsilence hosted a benefit concert, Sounds of Unsilence, featuring the music, storytelling and poetry of Chicago artists who are allied with our goal to shed light on marginalized voices. During this event, we also issued our official announcement to the public of the partnership with The Sisterhood for 2019. The announcement was preceded by an introduction of The Sisterhood by Founder, Gwendolyn Baxter, and a musical tribute by the Bournee Family Singers to celebrate the youth lives lost to gun violence in Chicago. The event was a fundraising success, and we are excited to continue laying the development foundation to sustain our project throughout 2019.

Additionally, within the last month, Unsilence Voices: The Sisterhood has secured the participation of a licensed clinicial social worker. Erin Matthews, LCSW, will be volunteering her time to conduct the interviews of The Sisterhood mothers to source the material for their photo shoots with artist photographer, Cecil McDonald. It is important to all of us at Unsilence that their stories be handled with grace and care, so we knew we needed to bring in trauma-informed professionals to ensure we conducted these interviews in the safest and most respectful manner possible. We are extemely grateful for her professional expertise and contributions.

We are also excited to enlist the help of Andrene Wright, a PhD student at Northwestern and TA of Dr. Danny Cohen. Andrene is currently conducting research regarding black women's civic participation, and she will be volunteering as on-site coordinatorfor our intervews and photo shoots with The Sisterhood.

Scheduling for the interviews and photo shoots are underway. We plan to conduct interviews in February and begin photography in March. The ReBuild Foundation has generously allowed us access to their space to use for our interviews.

We are humbled and grateful for all of the support we have recieved to ensure Unsilence Voices: The Sisterhood is a success. I look forward to sharing these strong women's stories with you.

Links:

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