Baker Artist Portfolios

FORCE, the recipient of the 2016 Sondheim Prize, was founded in 2010 by and for survivors as an art and activist collective dedicated to constructing a culture of consent. FORCE is an intersectional, LGBTQ focused, multicultural, pro-black and anti-white supremacist collective, who has done our deepest organizing work in Baltimore and Mexico City, and has planted seeds globally. With a focus on local organizing in our home bases, we strive for our visual imagery, language, resources, and organizing strategies to have a global impact in our efforts to end sexual and intimate partner violence by changing social attitudes and connecting these shifts to policy change.

FORCE’s highly visible, large-scale projects involve the efforts of many people, including survivors and their allies, from across the country. FORCE first emerged into the national sphere with a Victoria Secret “panty prank”, announcing the launch of consent themed underwear supposedly sponsored by Victoria’s Secret. Since then, FORCE has launched several large scale national programs designed to engage community members in healing and critical conversations about rape culture . Our work would not be possible without the belief and investment of thousands of survivors and allies across the country. We ground our work in the practice of relationship building - our projects are designed to build deeper connections and relationships between survivors, friends and loved ones.

FORCE is most well known for the Monument Quilt - a collection of 3,000 survivor stories stitched onto red fabric. At the heart of our work is a commitment to fostering survivor led movement building that centers art as a vehicle for healing, understanding, resistance and social change.

FORCE was founded in 2010 by Hannah Brancato and Rebecca Nagle, and is currently led collectively by Charnell Covert, Tyde-Courtney Edwards, Shanti Flagg, Mora Fernández and Maya Owen. Our work has been covered by CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, The Huffington Post, Fast Company and Refinery29 to name a few.

In 2017, Chief Operating Officer Saida Agostini was named one of 21 leaders to participate in the fourth cycle of Move to End Violence, a program of the NoVo Foundation. In 2015, FORCE's co-founder Hannah Brancato was named as a OSI-Baltimore Community Fellow. FORCE has received funding and support through foundations that include Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Art Matters Foundations, the Krieger Fund, and Baltimore Community Foundation.