Suzanne Lacy and Carol Kumata (Pittsburgh, 1993)

Three cars were created with women from the Greater Pittsburgh Women's Center and Shelter and placed in the Three Rivers park during the yearly Arts Festival. This park is the site where two rivers meet, forming a third. An unseen fourth river runs under the city and erupts once in a fountain at the edge of the park. The project was named after this silent river and the history of the Underground railroad, active in Pittsburgh during slavery.

Today’s “underground railroad” is the escape route in the family car, as women run from violent households. After working throughout a year with white and African American women in local organizations, a 180-foot railroad track was installed, leading to a phone booth. A poem describing a woman who went underground to escape violence was inscribed on the railroad ties, readable only by walking them.

Along the tracks, three altered cars each represented different aspects of family violence—the car of interior and exterior monologues with hundreds of keys stuck to its floor; the car of escape plans with “to take” lists flying out of suitcases, and the car of memory, a burnt-out wreck with bronze plaques for 181 victims of family violence who had died in Pennsylvania during the construction of the piece.

At the phone booth there were options to choose: talking to a live person, listening to audiotapes of women who left abusive situations, and an invitation to record your own story. Men and women left messages that consitute the soundtrack of a fifteen minute documentary videotape by Mia Houlberg.