Massive Monument Quilt Blankets National Mall

Spanning the length of four football fields, thousands of stories were shared as a massive installation of crowd-sourced quilt squares came together to blanket the National Mall last weekend (May 31 – June 1, 2019).

Spelling out NOT ALONE and (in Spanish) NO ESTAS SOLX, more than 100,000 people experienced this public art project and largest ever monument dedicated to survivors of sexual and domestic violence.

The Monument Quilt was organized by FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture in partnership with The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) and brought a space dedicated to survivors’ healing, along with their personal stories, to the national stage.  The entire event, the only time the Monument Quilt will be displayed in its entirety, was the culmination of five years of planning in which more than 3,000 4′ x 4′ quilt squares were shown together.

“Survivors need to see public support in order to counter the public shame, blame, and violence they face when they come forward with abuse,” said Lorena Kourousias, FORCE. “The Monument Quilt creates a meaningful opportunity for our culture to honor those whose traumas are the threads of our nation’s fabric, and whose stories deserve to be heard.”

The Quilt’s growing collection of stories has been displayed 49 times in 33 cities across the U.S. and in Mexico. After this exhibition on the Mall, individual squares of the Monument Quilt will be distributed to libraries, school, cultural institutions and anti-violence organizations to be housed in permanent collections and displays, as a living archive of the project.