Nevada has the highest domestic violence murder rate in the US. Nearly half of the women are victims of sexual assault, more than 25% have been the victims of rape.
LESLIE LABOWITZ
Myths of Rape
BILLBOARD PERFORMANCE + PRESS CONFERENCE
MEDIA COVERAGE
MARGO ST. JAMES
Conference
Institute for Study and Creative Expression of the Problem of Rape and Violence Towards Women in Las Vegas Educational Auditorium, UNLV
Key Speaker Margo St. James, representing the Victoria Woodhull Foundation (a non-profit organization which documents reports of the abuse of women) and founder of the organization COYOTE (which advocates for the decriminalization of prostitution).
Although illegal, 90% of prostitution in Nevada occurs in Las Vegas.
Las Vegas was identified by the FBI as one of 14 cities in the U.S. with high rates of child prostitution. Las Vegas police claimed that "roughly 400 children are picked off the streets from prostitution each year." The U.S. Justice Department has also named Las Vegas among the 17 most likely destinations for human trafficking. Las Vegas is a major hub for child sex trafficking, in part because of the hyper-sexualized entertainment industry, easy access to alcohol and drugs, and 24-hour gambling.
FEMINIST ART WORKERS
CHERI GAULKE + NANCY ANGELO + LAUREL KLICK + VANALYNE GREEN
Traffic in Women
The Feminist Art Workers created Traffic in Women, a bus tour/performance that brought 25 women from the Woman’s Building and the art community in LA to Las Vegas for a weekend of events.
SUZANNE LACY
Voices in the Desert
The individual work by Lacy was a performed installation calling attention to personal experiences of violence in an area surrounded by a vast, silent, and empty desert where women’s bodies were often found. An installation with sand and three lamb carcasses dressed as dancing show-girls was available for a week, during which time women would enter the space in solitude and write their experiences of violence on the wall. During the opening of the exhibition Lacy sat, nude and covered with mud, above the entry to the installation, a silent witness, while a consciousness raising session was held outside.
“I was taken at gunpoint and driven to a place close to an open expanse of desert. I was beaten, stripped, raped, and then almost strangled to death. To this day I’m not sure why they didn’t kill me.”
Entrance
View upon entering
Strip club seeks high school graduates for employment.
New advertisements promote stripping as a way to earn money for college. Las Vegas FOX5 Report, Jun 05, 2015
KATHY KAUFFMAN
Proof/Positive - Portraits/Self Portraits
Eve Pounard, ex-show girl, stripper, and prostitute performer in Proof Positive.
Sex offenders drawn to Nevada.
2,375 registered sex offenders living in Las Vegas as of 2018.
1 in 4 girls are abused before the age of 18.
NANCY BUCHANAN
Deer Dear
LESLIE LABOWITZ
Breaking the Silence
Labowitz, aside from being one of the project producers, created two performances in From Reverence To Rape To Respect. Characteristic of her public performances they are both educational and activist in their presentation. The performers in Vegas were students from UNLV, many being rape survivors, never having performed before. Important to note is the underlying healing and empowerment the participants experience by taking part in these works.
“How do men respond to these idealized versions of sexpots? As it happens, not very well. This attitude drips down to a street level. Catcalling happens everywhere, but there is a huge difference between leering and hollering like a hyena. Every dude who comes here seems to think it’s okay to act like a royal douche to everyone he encounters, women especially. More than once, I’ve been asked, ‘Oh, you’re from Las Vegas? Were you on a stripper scholarship?’ Because so many girls living in this shitty excuse of a city actually strip to pay tuition. As a kid, I remember driving past billboards featuring vacant-eyed, bobble-headed women with advertising copy that read: ‘OUR GIRLS DO IT ALL’ and ‘LOOSEST SLOTS AND SLUTS IN TOWN.’”
Outreach
Self Defense
Conversations
