To hear Suzanne Lacy talk about it, staging Three Weeks in May — her 1977 attempt to tackle issues of sexual violence in L.A. with visual art — was like running a grassroots political campaign. Small groups got together to discuss what couldn't be said in public. Demonstrations and community organizing raised awareness.
For her reconceptualization of the project, now called Three Weeks in January, Lacy, inspired by the Obama campaign, has added another tool: social media. Like the original work, she is hosting demonstrations, classes and public forums around the city and stenciling the word rape on locations reported to LAPD on a map outside its downtown headquarters. But Lacy also is facilitating online forums and updating the map with data from Twitter.
“Over 30 years later, we can no longer say that rape is unspoken, nor that services and policies do not exist,” Lacy says. “But in terms of conversation and awareness, can something like a Twitter feed really compare to going door-to-door, or occupying public space?” Candlelight vigil Jan. 27, 7 p.m.

Fri., Jan. 27, 7 p.m., 2012

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