The New School’s Clothesline Project 2012

We are proud to announce The New School’s Clothesline Project 2012. You may have noticed the t-shirts hanging in the Stuyvesant Park Residence Hall Lobby, if not, take a look! The Clothesline, beginning in 1990 in Hyannis, Massachusetts, has become a national awareness campaign about sexual assault and domestic violence. The New School has participated for several years, but this is the first year it is located in our residence halls.

2012 Clothesline Project Display at Stuyvesant Park Residence

By creating The Clothesline Project at The New School we encourage residents to tell their story in their own unique way, using words and/or artwork to decorate the shirt. Once finished, it then hangs on the clothesline. This very action serves many purposes. It acts as an educational tool for those who come to view the Clothesline; it becomes a healing tool for anyone who made a shirt - by hanging the shirt on the line, survivors, friends and family can literally turn their back on some of that pain of their experience and walk away; finally it allows those who are still suffering in silence to understand that they are not alone.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault and/or domestic violence, you are not alone, and help is available. Reaching out for help can be difficult, but it is the most important step in taking care of yourself and beginning the healing process.

As a New School student you may contact any of the following offices:

• Student Health Services, Counseling Services 
- Telephone: 212.229.1671, option 1
• Student Support and Crisis Management - Telephone: 212.229.5900 x3189 or x3710
• Housing - Your RAs, HRs, GHC’s and RHD’s are all prepared to advocate for any resident who has survived violence, and can help you contact other resources on campus.

The city also has resources for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors;

• Safe Horizon: Rape and Sexual Assault Hotline - 212.227.3000

• Safe Horizon: New York City Domestic Violence Hotline - 800.621.4673

• NYC Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project - 212.714.1141

If you would like to make a shirt to add to the project please contact student health services at wellness@newschool.edu.

Please take a moment to notice the t-shirts around campus, educate yourselves on the issues surrounding intimate partner violence, and then help us to continue to be a university that will not tolerate sexual assault or domestic violence.

February's Program of the Month - Now and Then: The History of Black Music

Stuyvesant Park RA Bianca Mills' program "Now and Then: The History of Black Music" was a program about exactly that.

In honor of Black History Month, Bianca thought it would be interesting as well as important to depict how music played a role in African American Culture both in the past and the present. The program was a semi-elaborate way of comparing and contrasting the similarities of today's music with the music from the past. Everything was covered, from old time Jazz to current Hip-Hop, Rap, and R&B.

In order to best capture the essence of what Bianca wanted to portray, she asked Music Professor Richard Harper to come in as a guest speaker to educate residents about the different messages that music sends in Black Culture. Having him as part of the program is one of the things that made it so successful. He is very knowledge on the topic and new exactly how to bring this program full circle.

Another reason this program brought great success is because there was just the right balance of hands on interaction and discussion as well as learning. Since the program covered music from both the present and the past, residents were able to learn a few things as well as relate and participate.

In addition to all of the elements of the program itself, the overall success of the program heightened from the contributions of Dan Spicer, Alex Gleason, and Jacob Hernandez. They were all there to lend a helping hand as well as give their input to make this program possible.