WombWork Productions works with several sites to make art that complements their educational theatre focused on prevention of HIV infection and prevention of dating violence. Ongoing projects serve as set design in the shows.

Tierice enjoyed working on her piece of the Use Hands For Peace Quilt. Tierice is a student at Lombard Middle School in south-east Baltimore. Along with twenty of her fellow seventh grade classmates, she participated in a program dedicated to Dating Violence prevention.

We at WombWork Productions led the group of students through discussions of gender roles, violent behaviors, and violence going on in their lives, and positive leadership and action. Based on the discussions and different exercises in learning about each other and the topic, a script was put together for a performance in front of their peers. The students also created artwork for display on the stage to compliment the theater production. The embroidery experience was part of a backdrop with a theme of dating violence prevention. The twenty young ladies each stitched the outline of their hands onto fabric and embroidered their own designs and messages inside them. They knew that the hands would be put together in a quilt with the title Use Hands for Peace and used as a backdrop. The time spent together building the surface and design with the threads created a space for the building of close relationships between the young ladies who were becoming leaders in their school. This exercise created beautiful colorful designs as well as a time for meditation and talk about the social problem of dating violence present in our life.

The embroidered hands quilt now travels with WombWork Productions as a vivacious manifestation of our collective strength.