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Category Archives: Uncategorized

Louisa’s Story

Posted on April 14, 2015 by witness1

Louisa_ManceyLouisa Mancey
When I heard about the campaign I was happy for the opportunity to express my strong dissatisfaction with not only the act of harassment that has become common place, but also for persons attitude toward it. The most memorable experience for me with harassment is on one occasion walking downtown with my sister. A man made a rude comment about the appearance of my crotch and what he would like to do to me. This was not altogether uncommon. We promptly let him know that this was very disgusting comment and not acceptable. What was very surprising though, was that another passer-by, a man, promptly stepped in to defend him and his behavior. This was a shock to me, that persons really don’t get it! It’s not cool! They actually think they are doing us a favor by letting us know that we are desirable. I think it’s time to let them know that we don’t need every Tom, Dick and Harry on the road watching us up and down lusting… Every man that does that immediately loses my respect.

Do you have a story to tell? Submit Your Story Here.

Posted in Street Harassment, Uncategorized | Tags: it's not a compliment, street harassment | Leave a comment |

Venus’s Story

Posted on April 14, 2015 by witness1

Venus_PersaudVenus Persaud
Countless times I’ve walked down the streets of my home town, of the capital and other parts of Guyana and felt unsafe. Why do I feel unsafe, this is my home. Street harassment is a revolting act that has become the norm for an alarming percentage of men of our society. I always think to myself, do these guys actually think that this is what it means to charm a woman, to shout cat calls and insulting comments when I don’t respond to them, what was wrong with their upbringing to make them feel like this is okay? IT IS NOT OKAY. We are not your prey, we are not objects, we are disgusted by this behavior and we won’t tolerate it. It has to stop, NO TOLERANCE, WE DO NOT LIKE IT, IT IS NOT OKAY.

Do you have a story to tell? Submit Your Story Here.

Posted in Street Harassment, Uncategorized | Tags: it's not a compliment, street harassment | Leave a comment |

Akilah’s Story

Posted on April 14, 2015 by witness1

Akilah_ManceyAkilah Mancey
My name is Akilah. In my 26 years of life my experience with street harassment has been a troubling one. I’ve seen others subjected to this and I have been a recipient of this unwanted sexual harassment. I will not repeat all the vile and offensive things spat at me by various men but I would like to express my utter disgust and revulsion. It makes me sick and angry that men feel somehow they have the right and permission to just say what they please to women as we go about our days trying to make the best of life just like everyone else. Not only do we have other inequalities to face but we also have to be told abhorrent sexual things as we too struggle with life. It’s not fair. I have taken to wearing head phones or just not walking about as I would like to deal in order to avoid street harassment. There are no words I can use to express just how much I hate street harassment. It is NOT attractive and NOT wanted. STOP street harassment. It is just not OK.

Do you have a story to tell? Submit Your Story Here.

Posted in Street Harassment, Uncategorized | Tags: it's not a compliment, street harassment | 1 Comment |

Verney’s Story

Posted on April 14, 2015 by witness1

Verney_HenryVerney Henry

Have you ever been so angry that you felt like hurting someone – in the worst way possible? This is how I feel about street harassment when random people tell you unwanted things then insult you when you do not respond.

This act is sickening and disgusting! How can some men/boys be so inconsiderate and heartless? They can change a person’s mood in so many ways. Here are a  few experience that I’ve had: Imagine that you and your mom have just had a conflict and you come out on the road to get some fresh air. The first thing you hear is, “Hey sexy, you looking thick!”

I recall another time where I was hanging out with some friends and a group of men looked at me and said. “I’m watching you, you are shaping up just fine.”  These comments not only upset me but scare me. As a young lady, I do not want to walk to go anywhere. I am scared. Will these acts of street harassment ever stop? Will ever feel safe walking from my home to a nearby shop?

Do you have a story to tell? Submit Your Story Here.

Posted in Street Harassment, Uncategorized | Tags: it's not a compliment, street harassment | Leave a comment |

Anisa’s Story

Posted on April 14, 2015 by witness1

Anisa_ManceyAnisa Mancey
Sometimes I would like to walk down the street and get my errands done without some random stranger calling out to me just to harass me. It doesn’t make me feel nice and it often just annoys me. It doesn’t make me want to get to know these guys at all if that’s how they call out to women. It doesn’t make them look cool or interesting; it really makes me feel like I need to get far away.

Do you have a story to tell? Submit Your Story Here.

Posted in Street Harassment, Uncategorized | Tags: it's not a compliment, street harassment | Leave a comment |

Come Alive Network Screening of Rebecca’s Story

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Teriq Mohammed
CANI screening

CANI Screening

‎A beautiful afternoon well spent with the members of Come Alive Network, where the screening of our award wining short film was done. The members were welcoming and open to new ideas of spreading our message and building awareness in using the arts. As noted, the film has a kit of questions it comes with, thus this is where the good part began. After the screening, we indulged in discussions relating to what it meant being a Witness; for one of the member stated:

‘We are all witnesses to something but it’s inspiring to see how a child can play a part in helping someone else whom is suffering’ – CANI Member

Further, I asked them about some of the messages that the film addressed and it was great that all the messages that we the creators of the film intended for the audience to get, was clearly understood. For a member stated:

‘One major thing I enjoyed about this film is that it speaks about real issues that are facing everybody everyday and you don’t have to be an adult to understand these issues, the film portrayed it well’ – CANI Member

Another member stated:’

It was a genuine film, genuine in that it was totally a Guyanese film‎, it wasn’t cliché but it was well made and I enjoyed it’- CANI Member

All in all, sharing out film and spreading our ideals with the members of Come Alive Network was ‎a memorable event for I know that networks were build and it enforced the plight of reducing this plague of Domestic and Child Directed Violence that our society has been faced with.

Posted in Uncategorized |

WITNESS Project Presents at Ridgefield CT Library, Oct 5th

Posted on October 4, 2014 by witness1

WITNESS Project Sunday October 5, 2014 2:00 PM until 4:00 PM

WITNESS Project International will present a talk/screening focusing on our youth’s massive, public space photography project in partnership with French Urban Artist JR’s Inside Out Global Arts Project. Our project generated social awareness and change through the arts, and was followed by other creative public works that used writing, storytelling, and an award winning short film by the WITNESS youth.

Anyone near Ridgefield Conn U.S. tomorrow, Oct 5th, stop by the Ridgefield Library @ 2:00pm to hear about our collaboration with JR/Inside Out  – and see our award winning short film ‘Rebecca’s Story’ – here’s a link to the trailer.
For more information & directions to the Library go HERE.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Art for Social Change, Award winning film, Conn, Conneticut, Film, Guyana SA, Inside Out, InsideOut, JR, Margaret Clemons Foundation, Nancy Stevenson, Photography, Rebecca's Story, Ridgefield, Ridgefield CT, Ridgefield Library, Short Film, WITNESS Project, WITNESS Project International |

Final Day of our Summer Project

Posted on August 14, 2014 by witness1

final dayToday was my final day with the WITNESS Project youth, and we switched gears from stenciling walls to talking about our next poster project. Over the past few months, our group of young artists have been working on a series of public service announcements to address the problem of street harassment. They have written and filmed the PSA’s and are now getting ready to edit them. We wanted to coordinate the launching of these announcements with another poster campaign that would address the same issue. So today we worked on that project.

We spent the morning talking about how marketing can effect society both for good and for bad. We saw some examples of ad campaigns that subtly reinforced the notion that street harassment was somehow acceptable behavior. Looking at these ads got the group thinking about how powerful advertising really is and how they can use the same techniques to get their message across.

We divided into groups and answered questions about who we should direct our message to, what we want them to think, how we want them to feel, and how we want them to behave. We also talked about positive vs negative messaging.

The groups came up with some great ideas for the poster campaign and then presented or pitched their idea to the rest of the group. All the ideas were very good, so I know as they continue to refine their ideas in the next few months, I am confident that they will put together an effective campaign. It should be a great project and I am eager to see what they come up with.

We ended our time with ice-cream and good-bye hugs. It’s been a great week and I look forward to working together on our next project.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment |

Day 3 of the Magnificent Witness Stencil Project

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Rainy Day Worzella

on the wall
Today we were all smiles as we gathered at the seawall to finish stenciling at that location. We started earlier in the morning which really helped us from getting wilty. The crew stenciled vigorously and with a renewed precision which made the stencils look great.
witness wall
As we reached the end of our painted white section, we found that we had some space left. A couple of our guys suggested that I paint the word WITNESS on that section, and then we could all initial it. It was great to have everyone leave his or her artist mark on the masterpiece they created together.
nations wall
It was good that they were energized by the successful early part of the morning because we had more work to do. The next wall to stencil was the wall of School of the Nations.
nations finished
We were given permission to paint one set of eyes so, we chose the location and went to work. The sun rose higher in in the sky, but our group now had this process down to a fine science. Fortunately, this wall was smoother and flatter that the seawall, we were able to complete it just in time for lunch.
sleeping Raj
Again we were tired, but our chicken and rice gave us the strength to go on to our final location, Help and Shelter. As we were painting at School of the Nations, a couple of our creative thinkers headed out to buy a can of spray paint to see if that may work better for the stencils. They tried it out, and determined that we should try it here at Help and Shelter. The spray paint worked well, but we found that one can does not quite cover an entire stencil, so our final work of art became a mixed media piece.
spray paint
I think our stencil project was a success, and tomorrow will be my last day with the group. They now have the materials and the technique to continue covering Georgetown in stencils, reminding their community that what we see changes who we are.
help shelter finished

Posted in Uncategorized |

Day 2 of the Amazing Stencil Project

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Rainy Day Worzella

stencil
After a good night’s rest, our crew was ready to stencil. We headed back out to the sea wall and unrolled the 12 foot stencils. It’s a good thing we all like each other, because it was going to take a lot of cooperation to make this happen. We needed half our group to hold the stencil in place while the other half painted.
painting first stencil

We worked closely, side by side, to paint the first set of eyes on to the wall, and it was well worth the effort. When we peeled the stencil off the wall, it was pretty cool to see. All the hard work we did the day before paid off. The stencil looked great. We took a moment to look at it and admire it.
firststencil

Now, it was up to us to continue paint stencils, alternating a stencil of eyes with a stencil of our tagline “What we see changes who we are” – JR  on the sea wall until we reached the end of our white wall. Enthusiastically we went on. However, the sun shone extremely bright today and the heat was cooking us as we painted.
hot sun

As our painters painted, some of our crew handed out fliers to folks diving by letting them know what WITNESS Project was about. Most people seemed happy to slow their cars and grab our little brochures.
fliers

A few hours went by, and as lunch time approached, we took a break to evaluate our work and noticed that as the sun beat down on us, our energy level and attention to detail began to wane a bit. We noticed that the most recent stencils have taken on a more abstract look, and that if we had continued without breaking, would eventually end up looking like a bizarre Rorschach ink blot test. Yay for lunch!
yay lunch

We hypothesized that now that we have eaten, perhaps the energy that the sun dried up, had once again returned. We decided that since I was the resident painter, I should repair the last eye stencil the best I could and the rest of the team would continue down the wall. Sadly, the sun had done it’s work. As the team finished the next set of eyes, they called to me saying, “You’ll probably have to fix this one too.”

Because projects such as these can have unexpected challenges, we planned for some flexibility. So, we decided that we will finish the stencils tomorrow. We will start earlier and we will succeed! 
eyes-panorama

Posted in Uncategorized |
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Instagram

#Repost @thenublk with @repostapp.
???
late night walks on the side streets of LES where we spotted a 'Stop Telling Women to Smile' mural by @tlynnfaz to be black, a woman
and not be hunted
and not to hold your head down and not have to quiver when you 
pass a man
police
or professional
yet still knowing
at any given moment
you are a target
- Nikki Giovanni 
#STWTS #streetart
@bevtgooden on the creation of the #whyistayed HT and the powerful community of support that developed from it #domesticviolence
@feministajones explains how the black American #streetharassment HT #youoksis came to be. Sparked a movement in which people approached the woman being harassed to see if she was indeed ok during the harassment. A powerful movement
#itsnotacompliment #stopstreetharassment #youthinaction #guyana Repost @jaevionn with @repostapp.
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If it's unwanted, it's harassment. #DCMetroMessages #EndGBV #respectourwomen #respectjamaica #saynotoviolence
Well said! Awesome conversations are happening on our FB page re: #streetharassment in #guyana. Join us!
Opening up the conversation on #streetharassment w/ some is not easy & often frustrating. But we will not stop in our efforts to educate & change this behavior. #itsnotacompliment #guyana #youthinaction
There's a great discussion happening on our FB page re: #streetharassment in #guyana. Like the page and join the conversation! #itsnotacompliment #youthinaction #letstalkaboutit #whatsyourstory
Why do guys do this? You don't know what I'm going through. I'm not here to brighten your day. You may think it's fun & flirtatious but really it's presumptuous & annoying. Stop. #itsnotacompliment #repost @davinaleefilms with @repostapp.
???
#really? #smile?  #whatever #meangirl #notReally happens all the time.  Didnt realize i #frown so much.
Team member Kaesia explains why she is a part of Witness project
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