At RaceBaitr, it has always been our mission to give platform to those imagining a world without anti-Blackness. We still don’t know fully what that world might look like, but given that anti-Blackness, patriarchy and gendered violence are imbricated, we know it is also a world without rape culture. This is why we have been committed providing space for radical works addressing sexual violence since our founding, but in the wake of Sexual Health and Awareness Month, and a year after the #MeToo movement exploded into the national conversation (after many additional years of groundwork laid by Tarana Burke), we are called to do so now in new ways.
So this month we are joining forces with FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, a national artist collective of survivors working to end rape culture in the US, for a month-long conversation on the theme Rape Can & Must End. We invited artists, organizers, academics and other cultural workers to envision a future without rape. Each Wednesday in October, we will publish one essay from the project below, while hosting a collection of poems and other art addressing this theme throughout the month.
In May 2019, FORCE will blanket the National Mall with the Monument Quilt: a collection of over 3,000 quilt squares made by survivors and allies. Rape Can & Must End Is a necessary and urgent prelude to this event, as we move towards building a space of affirmation, resistance and belief. However, it can’t stop here. Become part of the movement to end rape culture, and find out how you can help take the Monument Quilt to the National Mall by visiting FORCE’s website.
What does a world without rape look like? Help us figure that out by joining us for Rape Can & Must End.
Rape Can & Must End: Poems
“Do we know what a world without rape looks like?: A listicle of musings” by Kalima Young
“Heteronormativity makes us prey: At 15 I believed acting out my crushes was worse than being exploited by strangers” by Phill Branch
“There are no ‘danger signs’ for sexual assault: Lessons from a Hmong survivor” by Kabzuag Vaj