It was an honor to host Makoto Fujimura in my garden for tea. As we talked around the wrought iron table, a yellow leaf fell. Mako picked up the leaf and artfully arranged it on the table near his tea cup. It was a beautiful image—watching Mako embrace beauty. I’m very grateful for Mako’s willingness…
Many ArtPrize 2014 visitors commented on how meaningful the audio collage was in The Scarlet Cord installation. It features real voices of law enforcement and human trafficking survivors. The Scarlet Cord Audio Collage Crossing religious and social economic borders. Confronting child sex enslavement. Calling for compassionate action. Interview with rescued victims by Shared Hope International.…
Gracious and dedicated Women at Risk volunteers showed up every day at The Scarlet Cord installation to tie red string bracelets on ArtPrize visitors. By last Friday evening, with another two days of ArtPrize 2014 yet to go, all 30,000 available bracelets had been given out! People kept asking for them because they wanted to…
A young woman returned to The Scarlet Cord looking for me. She gave me a hug and thanked me for the work. As I listen to people’s stories during ArtPrize, I try not to be shocked. But this story rocked me. With tear-filled eyes, the young woman said, “As a small child, I was sex…
A young woman sat on the curb—crying—after viewing The Scarlet Cord. A young man sat next to her with his arm tight around her. Five minutes later, they were still sitting on the curb, and she was still crying. So I decided to approach them. Kneeling down, I asked the young woman, “Are you okay?”…
A woman questioned one of the statistics in my story about Jenny. She said, “You’re exaggerating about the part in the story where it says that ‘her door swings thirty times a night,’ right?” I responded, “Some handlers, or pimps, demand that the children under their control serve thirty clients a night, others demand twenty.…