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Signs in Berkshire County fight sexual harassment using words of women who have been harassed

The Elizabeth Freeman Center is using posters displayed outside this month in Pittsfield and Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to call attention to the impact of sexual harassment in public spaces.

The drawings of women who have been harassed can be seen in Park Square in downtown Pittsfield and in front of Monument Mountain Regional High School in Great Barrington.

The women depicted on the posters were asked by the New York-based artist, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, what they would have liked to have said to their harassers.

"I should not feel unsafe when I go outside," one poster reads.

Another says, "Women are not outside for your entertainment."

A few are in French and Spanish, including one that says "No me llamo mamacita, chiquita, preciosa, cht cht," referencing common catcalls in Spanish.

Susan Birns, member of the Elizabeth Freeman Center board of directors, said harassment can be threatening.

"Comments on women's looks, how they present, how much they weigh, what their ethnicity is, the size of their chests —none of that is invited and most of it is not welcome," she said. "People often don't understand that. They think if they're saying something nice, that it's a compliment."

The displays also include blue flags to call attention to the 373 people who contacted the center for help last year and who identified as survivors of sexual assault.

Birns says the goal is to build a community where harassment and gender-based violence isn't tolerated.

The Elizabeth Freeman Center is also holding rallies in North Adams and in Pittsfield this month to protest sexual assault. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
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