I engage myself directly with survivors of sexual assault to help them reclaim power loss, as a part of a healing process. By talking about my own real life experience, I can personally connect with others instead of adopting a situation or issue to create art. Them, 2017 was created for sexual assault and rape victims. It’s an ongoing project that started when I began to openly talk about the sexual abuse I experienced throughout my childhood. When peers began to open up to talk about their assaults to share their struggles, I wanted to create a platform to give the survivors a voice, to help them reclaim their power. My process involved using black and white polaroid photography as a vehicle to document and to advocate against sexual violence. During the times the survivors and I conversed, we did so in a bedroom setting. I found this part of the process to be vital because a bedroom is usually seen as a private, intimate and a sacred, safe space. Yet for the majority of these victims, we found the bed to be a complicated space to find comfort because it was place where power was stripped from us. By talking about the events that had occurred and the struggles we had endured, or continue to battle with, we had a chance to reclaim power in bed by releasing these “secrets” that had silenced us. The images present expressions of traumas and emotions in this gray scaled world where there should be no gray scale in rape. It should just be black and white, like the answer of yes or no. Due to how our society has shaped our culture, yes or no is clouded by layers of judgment and assumptions. Questions prompted by our culture to sexual assault victims typically consists of asking what they were wearing, if they were under the influence and if they were alone? These questions and assumptions lead to, they were “asking for it”. This project is meant to raise awareness, to break the stigmas around sexual assault and to build a community that reconnects survivors so others know that they are not alone and they will no longer be silenced. It is valuable to converse about harsh ordeals because this kind of conversation allows survivors to explore and process their emotions around their trauma, to begin their process of healing. By spreading the awareness that it is okay to talk about it, I hope that these connections will continue to build so other victims of sexual violence can start to feel comfortable in their skin again.