I collaborated with a number of GSU faculty, departments, and student groups to bring Tatyana Fazlalizadeh and her public art project Stop Telling Women to Smile (STWTS) to GSU and the Atlanta area April 3-5, 2014. STWTS addresses gender-based street harassment by wheat pasting drawn portraits of women paired with phrases that speak back to offenders in urban spaces. I helped obtain funding for this project from GSU’s Department of English, Department of Communication, Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design, Faces of Feminism, the Art Student Union, the Graduate English Association, and Sigma Tau Delta, as well as sponsorship in name from the Institute of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Fazlalizadeh’s Public Lecture at GSU

Approximately 150 GSU students, faculty, staff, as well as Atlanta community members, attended the standing-room-only public lecture at 100 Auburn Ave. on Wed., Apr. 3rd. I also helped coordinate Fazlalizadeh’s visit with two GSU courses: a women in media course and a textiles studio course.

Wheat Pasting in Downtown Atlanta

GSU students and faculty, as well as local community members, participated in a wheat pasting event at Eyedrum (a local art and music collective) and Krog Street Tunnel.

Media Coverage of STWTS + GSU

Within one week of the visit, two articles were published about STWTS and both mentioned Fazlalizadeh’s visit to GSU:

• “An Artist Demands Civility on the Street With Grit and Buckets of Paste: Tatyana Fazlalizadeh Takes Her Public Art Project to Georgia,” by Felicia R. Lee (The New York Times, April 9, 2014)
• “Street Art Project Wants You to ‘Stop Telling Women to Smile’,” by Emanuella Grinberg (CNN, April 8, 2014)

STWTS Installation at Eyedrum

 

Image Credit: All photos on this page were taken by Ashley Holmes.