Sexual assault survivors share empowering art at Dayton exhibit

Every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. One in three girls and one in six boys will be assaulted before they turn 18 years old.

Survivors are often silenced by shame, guilt, fear, doubt and systems of power. An exhibit in Dayton gave survivors of sexual assault a way to take back their power and find community.

Artists and guests gathered April 22 at the Wholly Grounds coffee shop in Dayton to kick off the opening of the exhibit "Art That Empowers."

The exhibit, which ran through April 27, was sponsored by the YWCA Dayton Rape Crisis Center.

“We are marking Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) by bringing awareness to the community about sexual assault, but also creating a safe space in our community for our network of survivors to showcase some of their healing journey,” said Mady DeVivo, manager of the YWCA Dayton Rape Crisis Center.

Sexual Assault Awareness Month was first federally recognized in 2001. DeVivo told the crowd gathered that it was women of color who pioneered this movement - including Black activist Tarana Burke who founded the ‘me too’ movement to support survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color.

Renee Wilde

The #metoo hashtag went viral and survivors across the world came forward about their experiences with sexual assault.

At the opening, survivor and author of "Peeling Away the Facade; The Long Shadow of Child Abuse" Lee Reinecke, spoke of the importance of self-love and acceptance in the healing journey, sharing something important she learned in Alcoholics Anonymous. She said they were told in recovery that they don't have to accept unacceptable behavior.

“A member shared that the one person that the one person that she regularly accepted unacceptable behavior from was herself,” Reinecke recalled. “Blaming herself when things went wrong, calling herself mean names, saying things she would never say to a friend.”

“And she realized that until she treated herself like a valued friend, she would stand in the way of her own recovery. She learned that when she treated herself with love and approval, she would progress in her recovery.”

renee wilde

Reinecke also described a powerful moment in her own recovery process that happened during a four-day Saprea retreat for adult women who were sexually abused as minors.

“Every survivor at that retreat was allowed to select a beautiful bowl from a china cabinet. Then we were told to break it into pieces. We were then taught how to repair it with the Kintsugi method,” Reinecke said. “We put the pieces back together with lacquer resin mixed with gold.”

Kinsugi translates to golden joinery, she said, and reflects the Japanese philosophy that the value of an object isn’t in its beauty, but in its imperfections.

"The imperfections are something to celebrate, not hide," she said.

Survivors celebrated their own recovery process through art and poetry throughout opening reception. This includes performance of the below poem by Shay Raymond.