Rethink Resources

From the Young Women’s Empowerment Project

Join us Friday, December 14th for Wine and Hors d’ouvers at the Mekhanskhen Gallery 5459 S. Drexel in Chicago from 8pm to 11pm

We will exhibit pottery, wood prints, oil paintings, collage, sculpture, textiles, drawing, graffiti art & embroidery made by 12 different YWEP artists. Art and Prints will be available for Sale.

Our Artist Statement:
We titled this art show “Survival of the Artist…” to show how we are resilient to oppression and how we stand up and fight against it every day. Art is one method of resilience we use to show that we are multi-faceted and that what we do isn’t who we are. We are de-humanized by those that say we are “prostitutes” and “criminals.” YWEP doesn’t believe in these terms. We rebel against them.

We believe all girls are priceless.
We support all girls who do what they have to do to survive.

Dics-We mean law enforcement. Because we are young women of color, because we hang out in certain neighborhoods, because we do what we have to do to survive, cops hassle us, stop us for no reason, and generally reduce our quality of life.

Dicts- The prefix “dict” means to label. We are labeled as certain things just because we are women (like “weak”, “over-sensitive”, etc.). The labeling and pigeonholing increases because we are women with life history in the sex trade. We battle someone else’s value system attempting to define us and tell us how to be. Every day, we battle this oppression from many forms of government or state systems and institutions.

Dicks- We mean surviving in a patriarchal society. We are constantly surviving against misogyny, a strong hatred or prejudice against women.

We Refuse to be Disempowered! Come Celebrate our Resilience!

Tickets $25.00 - to purchase tickets go to our website and follow the instructions
or get them at Women and Children First 5233 N. Clark St. in Chicago.

Please consider making a donation if you can’t make it to Chicago that day. You’ll be supporting the work of youth leadership, youth organizing and youth sharing knowledge - all by youth with life experience in the sex trade. YWEP’s peer outreach provided life saving health resources and support to over 1000 girls and young women (12-23 years old) impacted by the sex trade and street economies this year alone! Your donations make that work more possible.