By Aylin Aarhus

University of Maryland students and staff met in the LGBTQ+ Equity Center on Monday, Sept. 29, for the “Weaving New Worlds” workshop. Participants made banners to protest rape culture and social injustice. The banners will be featured in a Stamp Gallery exhibition, titled “We Will Not Be Silent: Art Transforming Rape Culture.”

Hannah Brancato, the exhibition’s curator and a doctoral student in the Department of American Studies, organized the workshop. She is also the co-founder of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an organization devoted to using art to help end sexual violence.

FORCE’s largest project was the Monument Quilt, a memorial featuring the stories of more than 3,000 survivors of sexual violence, which was displayed on the National Mall in 2019.

Participants in the workshop were encouraged to think about the connections between marginalization and sexual violence.

“Rape culture is a system of control. It’s a way of controlling people’s bodies, controlling their sexuality, controlling their relationships,” Brancato said.

“The way that survivors experience sexual violence, but also the aftermath – whether or not there’s support, whether or not people recognize their experience and are able to name their experience because they’ve heard people’s stories that sound like theirs – really depends on our identities.”

Jadelynn St Dre, one of the four artists featured in the exhibition, also facilitated the workshop. St Dre is a performance artist and therapist, specializing in emotional trauma and the LGBTQ+ community.

St Dre brought dried marigolds from her garden in North Carolina. She showed participants how each flower contained dozens of seeds, and invited them to take some home.

St Dre explained how she sees the marigold as a symbol of opportunity and change.

“Such a small thing can provide so many jumping off points for us to have growth and transformation,” she said.

Vivien Barnett, the David C. Driskell Center’s art registrar, heard about the workshop through the Rainbow Report, the LGBTQ+ Equity Center’s newsletter.

Barnett’s banner read, “I was the one that needed forgiving,” a lyric from the Kesha song “CATHEDRAL.”

“The whole song is about her healing from her sexual assault and learning to love and care about herself again, through taking care of her body and through spirituality,” Barnett said.

“It just really resonated with me as a survivor of sexual assault, and I wanted to share that message that we need to forgive ourselves.”

A reception to mark the opening of “We Will Not Be Silent” will be held in the Stamp Gallery on Nov. 5 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Featured Image: Vivien Barnett irons letters onto her banner in the LGBTQ+ Equity Center, Sept. 29, 2025. Photo by Aylin Aarhus.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect that Hannah Brancato is a doctoral student, not a doctoral candidate. Previous version: “Hannah Brancato, the exhibition’s curator, organized the workshop. Brancato is a doctoral candidate studying American Studies at UMD.” Current version: “Hannah Brancato, the exhibition’s curator and a doctoral student in the Department of American Studies, organized the workshop.”