The Office of Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School will host an in-person event on Healing Through Art. This event will be a multidisciplinary discussion on gender-based violence. The speaker Monica Daye is the founder of Stand Up - Speak Out (SUSO), a community outreach program against domestic violence and  sexual assault. Daye will share about why this work is important to our community and her approach to support gender-based violence survivors through arts activism.

The event is part of the Thursdays in Black: Resistance and Resilience Campaign, which grew out of the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women (1988-1998), in which the stories of abuse, violence, rape as a weapon of war, gender injustice, and other tragedies became all the more visible. But what also became visible was women’s resilience, agency, and efforts to resist such violations.

In every country, gender-based violence is a tragic reality. This violence is frequently hidden and victims are often silent, fearing stigma and further violence. Everyone has a responsibility to speak out against violence to ensure that women, men, boys, and girls are safe from rape and violence in all places in society.

• Monica Daye

  Monica Daye is a leader, advocate, poet, and victim advocate. Originally from Durham, Daye reaches audiences around the country with her poetry, stories, and commitment to healing women and communities. She shares her own story of surviving sexual abuse and domestic violence through the gift of spoken word poetry. As the founder of Stand Up - Speak Out (SUSO), Daye's personal mission is to speak out against sexual violence and domestic abuse. Daye organized SUSO's first series of community events in 2004 to promote awareness related to violence against women. In addition to community outreach, SUSO launched its first community-wide collection drive in April 2004, collecting personal hygiene products for women's shelters and rape crisis centers in the state of North Carolina. Since then, the programs and services have expanded from a small outreach program to a locally recognized nonprofit organization.

  Daye obtained her Masters of Science in multidisciplinary human service with a concentration in nonprofit management and leadership and her Bachelors of Science in psychology from the University of Phoenix. In addition, Daye is certified in contemporary theory of mental health counseling. She envisions ways to utilize the arts to assist people in overcoming traumatic experiences. Using her life journey as a model for a therapeutic process, Daye has effectively used poetry, music, journaling, visual arts, drama, and dance as ways to unlock the mystery of pain. As a mental health and human service provider, she currently works with victims of abuse to end the vicious cycle of domestic violence. Daye seeks to show the emotional scars caused by abuse and the continuing process of understanding and contending with the consequences of that abuse. Daye's journey is a celebration of the power of transformative change and she stands up and speaks out to those denied their voice.