our projects

SERVING LIFE: ReVisioning Justice

SERVING LIFE is a community call and response between public audiences and the most hidden members of our society. Since 2013, Hidden Voices has collaborated with men on death rows across the country to envision a multi-arts project able to generate the civic will to revision justice. By challenging our assumptions about guilt and innocence and by providing a vehicle for the public to connect with the actual lives hidden within an impenetrable system, we reinvigorate some fundamental questions. Who is innocent? Who is harmed? How do we heal centuries of oppression? What needs to change for our criminal justice system to reflect a community dedicated to equity and inclusion?

we%2525252Bare%2525252Bhere%2525252Bthumb.jpg — we are here

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WE ARE HERE

#WeAreHere campaign is the first in a series of student-led initiatives by Hidden Voices to end sexual violence on campus. 1 in 4 women will suffer from sexual victimization during their college years. 1 in 7 men will experience severe intimate partner violence. We believe that victims deserve a strong support system from their peers and their administrators. We believe that everyone deserves to be heard and feel safe on their campus. We want to end sexual and domestic victimization. We support the victims.

AT EASE: Bridging the Military-Civilian Divide

At Ease, our project with military service members and their families. Over the past few years, we've had the privilege and pleasure of working with several hundred folks, sharing conversation, creating "care packages" to share something they care about others understanding, letters based on these words: "You have no idea," and portraits. For the portraits, we asked women veterans what part of their bodies they most associated with their service and then recorded their responses through photography and audio. This is a photo of a Navy seabee, who spoke about her feet and her identity as a Laotian woman. This care package was addressed To: Combat Female Veterans From: The One Now Visible. And the letter, well, just read it.

NONE OF THE ABOVE: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline

None of the Above is a 3-year interdisciplinary, multimedia collaboration examining the intersection of race, poverty, education, and incarceration known as the “school-to-prison pipeline.” This community-based project investigates the school-to-prison pipeline from the multiple viewpoints of those caught in its pathway: students, teachers, administrators, school police officers, attorneys, juvenile justice officials, inmates and others.

PAST PROJECTS

TO BUY THE SUN

The challenge of Pauli Murray

2010-2013) The challenge of Pauli Murray. Fifteen years before Rosa Parks refused to stand, Pauli Murray refused to sit in the back of the bus; 20 years before the Greensboro sit-ins, she organized restaurant sit-downs in the nation's capital. Pauli Murray not only lived on the edge of history, she seemingly "pulled it along with her." One hundred twenty-three years after her enslaved grandmother was baptized at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, Pauli Murray returned as America's first female African-American Episcopal priest to celebrate her groundbreaking Eucharist there. A lifelong champion for human rights, Pauli Murray's struggles and insights resonate powerfully in our times.

Home Is Not One Story

Exploring the Heart of Homelessness

Because We’re Still Here

(2007-2010) Mapping a world of Black History in our own backyard. Local teens and residents bring to stage the stories, histories, maps, images, and music of local, historically African-American communities. Black History happened here, and it wasn’t just a month. This community-based project explores the dynamic relationship between local African-American communities, the oldest state University in the country, and the inevitable development that is altering it all. With a walking map, text message tour, a traveling exhibit of archival and contemporary photos, and a stage performance that enlivens 150 years of history.

REWIND

(2006-2007) Using projections, narrative, voiceover, and fractured time/space elements, REWIND collages the experiences that led an enthusiastic cheerleader and ballerina to life as prison inmate 0423358 and the tensions that erupt with her release.

Speaking Without Tongues

explores violence and survival in the actual lives of women from diverse ethnic backgrounds across North Carolina.

We celebrate these women, their courage, and the power of community to strengthen and heal.

Not Yo Mama’s Home Cookin’

The Changing Face of Rural North Carolina (2006) Recipes, music, dance, and photographs document the rural life and identity politics of Latino, Black, and White teens colliding in a world their parents could never have envisioned. A book features conversations, writing, and photography developed through their explorations.

RESPECT

Has Seven Letters: Voices of the Newly Literate (2006). With reggae music, visual writing, and dialogue, adult learners express the struggle to survive in a literate world as they explore the social dynamics of literacy and power and their personal challenges as newly literate members of this contemporary world.

La Vida Local

(2005-2006) The view from Hispanic young adults who find themselves straddling two cultures, two languages, and one unexpected life in the U.S. Using traditional music, break dancing, and original rap within the play, the show speaks to the dreams and realities of our newest neighbors.

Breaking Free

(2004) Using narrative, dance, dialogue, and original gospel, survivors of domestic violence reach deep to share personal stories and reflections on power, abuse, and their ongoing struggle for freedom.