We Will Not Be Silent

Art Transforming Rape Culture

Abstract

Featuring artists who form a network of artists and survivors addressing sexual violence, We Will Not Be Silent: Art Transforming Rape Culture (WWNBS) was an exhibition at the Stamp Gallery at University of Maryland from October 30-December 15, 2025. The artists’ sensorial works, made from makeup, salt, clay, wood, fabric, and their own bodies, invited viewers to feel the realities of surviving, and confront the inextricable links between sexual violence, and the institutions that create it. These artists exemplify the ingenuity of resistance. Each artist’s work was displayed alongside their Monument Quilt square, a public art project by and for survivors of sexual violence made in the 2010s. In the spirit of art as activism, newly made banners by UMD students will be on view.

Sensory experience was central to this exhibition, and the “catalogue” reflects this ethos. Instead of an exhibition catalogue, a zine with a digital, accessible version, carries forward the story and experience of WWNBS, as another piece of an activist archive. The zine includes  images of the communal and individual artworks, framing them as remnants of a social movement, and part of each artist's body of work. The zine features original sources from the people who were part of this exhibition, narrating their artworks, processes, and the context in which they were made, including an essay by Dr. Kalima Young about Jdelynn St Dre’s work, an easy by Mora Fernández in conversation with Eva Salazar, and a final interview between this exhibition’s curatorial assistants, Gabriella “G” Warner and Rachel Schmid-James.