Shirt no. 01
Bayard Rustin
Civil rights strategist and chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Shirts 01 – 02
Shirts that carry banned history
Fashioning Communities Rooted in Access to Free Knowledge.
We Wear The Word is a wearable knowledge project that merges sustainable fashion, digital access, and educational equity to create a walking museum of banned and contested narratives. Grounded in research on public policy, information access, and social justice, our project highlights how legislative efforts to suppress knowledge disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
Near you
A story for where you are
Scan a shirt and the site chooses a story for the city you are in. No shirt? Try it here.
Scan
Each shirt carries a QR code printed on recycled cotton.
Read
The story you get is chosen for the city you scan it in. Try it without a shirt.
Wear
Every scan is a small act against the silence.
The Shirts
All shirts
Shirt no. 02
Urvashi Vaid
Lawyer, organizer, and writer who argued that LGBTQ+ freedom is bound up with every other fight for justice.
Empowering Knowledge
Wearable Stories, Lasting Impact
By screenprinting recycled T-shirts with QR codes that link to expert-driven and community microcontent—ranging from banned books to erased histories, our initiative confronts censorship while promoting intellectual freedom.
Community Engagement
Through geo-mapping data, We Wear The Word also tracks how and where these stories are being worn and read, offering insights into patterns of resistance, readership, and cultural curiosity.
Find Something New
All stories
Reading
March on Washington
How 250,000 people were organized in under three months.
Read
Reading
Talk Is Cheap
At a president's first big speech on AIDS, she stood up with a sign and would not sit down.
Read
Reading
The First Freedom Ride
The first Freedom Ride, a chain gang, and an apology from the bench 75 years later.
ReadAbout the project
This intersectional approach to civic engagement makes visible the power of individual choice, collective memory, and community-driven learning. Ultimately, We Wear The Word transforms everyday clothing into a platform for activism, historical reclamation, and public discourse.