Announcing Flyway‘s

2012 Notes From the Field:

Creative Non-Fiction Contest

Featuring guest judge, travel and non-fiction writer, Rolf Potts

Notes from the Field is a non-fiction contest celebrating writing about experience—whether that be abroad, on a familiar sidewalk, in one’s line of work, in a field of interest, or in the most unexpected of times and settings. We are open to writing about many kinds of experience, and while we are not strictly looking for essays about solely about place or with an environmental focus, as always, we look for work that keeps the tension of surroundings in mind.  

Submission Deadline
Friday, November 7, 2012

Details
Submit one (1) essay of non-fiction of up to five thousand words. Essay must be author’s own work and previously unpublished. Winning essay and runner-up will be announced December 15^th, 2012, and published in Flyway.

Award
Winner receives publication, $500, two copies of the Flyway 2012 anthology, and a Flyway hat.
Runner-up also receives publication and $50.

Reading Fee: 
Option #1: $12 per entry
Option #2: pay $15 and receive a print back issue of Flyway in the mail. (And really, who doesn’t like mail?)

We will ONLY be accepting entries through our online submission system through Submittable. Your name or any other identifying information must not appear on the manuscript, but please include your name and contact information in your cover letter.

We look forward to reading your work!

 About the Judge:
Rolf Potts has reported from over sixty countries for dozens of major venues including National Geographic, Traveler, The New Yorker, Outside, Slate.com, National Public Radio, and the Travel Channel. His book on independent traveling, Vagabonding, has been through thirteen printings and translated into several foreign languages. You can read a full bio here.

Submissions are now open! Please visit flyway.submishmash.com/submit to send us your work.
*Note that there are two categories — one for a submission with a back issue and one for submission only!

Click the link below to read the work of our 2011 “Notes from the Field” prize winners.
Winner: Cara Stoddard, “Krummholz”
Runner-up: Evelyn Hampton, “Office”
NFTF_Contest2011Winners

5th Annual Fiction Contest

• Our Annual Fiction Contest accepts submissions by mail and online from June 1st through November 15th each year. The judge of the Fifth Annual Fiction Contest is Michael Cunningham, author of the novels A Home at the End of the World, Flesh and Blood, The Hours, and Specimen Days.

  Grand Prize:

  • $1,500
  • Domestic airfare (up to $500) and French Quarter accommodations to attend the next Festival in New Orleans
  • VIP All-Access Festival pass for the next Festival ($500 value)
  • Public reading at a literary panel at the next Festival
  • Publication in Louisiana Literature

  
  Top Ten Finalists Prize

  • Top ten finalists will receive a panel pass ($75 value) to the next Festival.

  
  Eligibility:

  • This contest is open only to writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. Published books include self-published books with ISBN numbers. Those who have published books in other genres besides fiction remain eligible.
  • Only previously unpublished stories will be accepted.
  • Stories that won this contest in previous years are ineligible; their authors remain eligible but must submit new work.
  • Stories submitted to this contest in previous years that did not place are eligible.
  • Stories that have won and/or placed in any other writing contest are ineligible.
  • Stories by United States and international writers are accepted.

  
  Guidelines:

  • A submission is one original short story, written in English, up to 7,000 words.
  • The author’s name should not appear on the manuscript.
  • Please include a separate cover page with story title and word count as well as the author’s name, address, phone, and email.
  • Submissions must be typed; pages must be numbered and single-spaced.
  • Please use standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, or Georgia in 10, 11, or 12 point font size.
  • Simultaneous submissions accepted; please notify the Festival if your story is accepted elsewhere.
  • Unlimited entries per person are allowed. You must complete a separate entry payment and submission form for each entry.
  • Stories can be any theme or genre.
  • Do not include professional resumes or biographies with your entry. Entries are judged anonymously; the judges only consider manuscript quality.
  • Manuscripts will not be returned. Please do not send return envelopes with postage.

  
  Deadline:

  • The deadline for online and mailed submissions is November 15th (postmark).
  • Winner will be announced by March 1st.

  
  Entry Fee:

  • $25 per entry. Unlimited entries per person.
  • Online submissions must be paid below.
  • Submission fees are non-refundable.

  
  To enter online: Online submissions are preferred and must be in .doc, .rtf, or PDF formats. If you are using the latest version of Microsoft Word, please save your submission as .doc and not a .docx file before sending it to us. We accept entry fees via Discover, MasterCard, and Visa only.

  To enter by mail: Send your manuscript and check or money order for [fiction-entryfee] (made out to the: Tennessee Williams Literary Festival) to:
  Fiction Contest Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival
  938 Lafayette Street, Suite 514
  New Orleans, LA 70113

  Do not send submissions by certified mail or signature required delivery.

  Have a question about one of our writing contests? Please send questions to: contests@tennesseewilliams.net

 

2013 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry
Open Competition Awards
$3500 and publication
for two collections of poems
final judge: Rodney Jones

 

Below are the guidelines for the 2013 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition:

All unpublished, original collections of poems written in English by United States citizens and permanent residents are eligible* (individual poems may have been previously published). (*Current or former students, colleagues, and close friends of the final judge, and current and former students and employees of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and authors published by Southern Illinois University Press are not eligible for the Open Competition.) For questions about judging, please visit http://www.CrabOrchardReview.siu.edu/conpo3.html.

Two volumes of poems will be selected from an open competition of manuscripts postmarked October 1 through November 17, 2012. The winners will each receive a publication contract with Southern Illinois University Press. In addition, both winners will be awarded a $2000 prize and $1500 as an honorarium for a reading at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Both readings will follow the publication of the poets’ collections by Southern Illinois University Press.

SUBMISSION PERIOD / DEADLINE: All entries must be postmarked or submitted online between October 1, 2012 and the end of November 17, 2012 (online entries will be accepted until 11:59:59 PM (CDT) on November 17, 2012). (For postal submissions since this is a postmark deadline, there is no need to send Express Mail, Fedex, or UPS. First Class or Priority Mail are preferred.) Please do not send revisions of either postal or online submissions; the winner will be given an opportunity to work with the series editor before the manuscript is delivered to SIU Press.

ENTRY FEE: $25.00 per entry for postal submissions; $28.00 per entry for online submissions through Submittable ($25.00 plus $3.00 online processing fee). Entry fees will not be refunded for manuscripts withdrawn by the author. All entrants will receive a year's subscription to CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW, beginning with the 2013 Summer/Fall CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW.

PAGE LENGTH: Manuscripts are recommended to be a minimum of 50 pages to a recommended maximum of 100 pages of original poetry (12 pt. type preferred). No more than one poem should appear on a page.

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR POSTAL SUBMISSIONS: Manuscripts should be typewritten, single-spaced. Include a Table of Contents. No more than one poem should appear on a page. Submit two title pages for the collection. The author's name, address, and daytime phone number should appear on the first title page only. The author's name should appear nowhere else in the manuscript. An acknowledgments page listing poems previously published in magazines, journals, or anthologies should be placed after the second title page. A clean photocopy is recommended, bound with a spring clip or placed in a plain file folder (no paper clips or staples please). Please do not send your only copy of the manuscript since manuscripts will not be returned, and please do not include illustrations. CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW and Southern Illinois University Press assume no responsibility for damaged or lost manuscripts.

All postal submissions must be accompanied by a $25 entry fee (check or money order). Please make your check out to "Crab Orchard Series in Poetry."

Please address postal submissions to:

Jon Tribble, Series Editor
Open Competition
Dept. of English, Mail Code 4503
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
1000 Faner Drive
Carbondale, IL 62901 

Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for notification of contest results. If you would like confirmation that the manuscript has been received, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard as well.

 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ONLINE SUBMISSIONS: Online entries should be sent through Submittable (there is an additional $3.00 processing fee for online entries, making the entry fee for each online entry $28.00). Payment for online submissions must be made online.

Please submit your file in .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .pdf, .odt, or .wpf. 12-point font, Times New Roman or Times preferred. Manuscripts should be single-spaced. Include a Table of Contents. No more than one poem should appear on a page.

Submit a single title page with only the manuscript title in your file.

The author's name should appear nowhere in your file or in the file name.

In the place of the cover letter or biographical note in the submission process, an acknowledgments page listing poems previously published in magazines, journals, or anthologies can be included, but this SHOULD NOT be included in the manuscript file.

Please name your file the first eight letters of your manuscript title, with no spaces; for example, if your manuscript was titled “A Collection of Poems,” your file would be titled “acollect” or “ACOLLECT” (either lower or upper case is fine). If your manuscript title has fewer than eight letters or uses numerals, use what you have. If you have a symbol or mark of punctuation as your title or as part of your title, spell out what it stands for and use the first eight letters of that; for example, if your manuscript was titled “Poems!,” your file would be titled “poemsexc” for “Poems exclamation point.”

All entrants submitting online through Submittable will be notified of the results via e-mail by May 1, 2013.

 

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSION: Manuscripts may be under consideration elsewhere, but the series editor must be informed immediately if a collection is accepted for publication. Entry fees will not be refunded for manuscripts withdrawn by the author.

Entrants are not to contact the final judge under any circumstances; all questions should be directed to Jon Tribble, Series Editor of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry.

E-MAIL: jtribble@siu.edu (e-mail preferred)
PHONE: 618-453-6833

RBC Focus Reflections with

Michelle Serieux

By Dr. Leanne Haynes

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

 

RBC Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion at the ttff/12, which took place from September 19 to October 2nd. In 2011, RBC Focus was introduced to the festival as part of the bank’s commitment to developing emerging artists in the region. This talent lab returns in 2012 and will engage promising Caribbean filmmakers in an intensive 4-day development programme. They will be exposed to group discussions and exercises on a range of documentary filmmaking techniques geared to enhancing their creative voice.

ARC Magazine is partnering with RBC to present a series of weekly interviews with past and current candidates from the Focus Immersion Filmmakers’ programme. It is our hope that their stories, trajectories and elucidation opens up a way for emerging filmmakers to understand the infrastructure being created to support the film industry across the Caribbean. This week we continue with St. Lucian born Michelle Serieux.

 

Michelle Serieux on set

 

Leanne Haynes: Can you tell me how you heard about the RBC Focus: Filmmakers Immersion project and why you decided to apply for it?

Michelle Serieux: I got wind of the project via the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. Actually, the two facilitators who were listed intrigued me most about the workshop, as they are authorities in their field. It is important to learn from people whose track records prove that they know what’s happening in the field. These kinds of opportunities are very few and far between in the Caribbean, so when I heard about this particular immersion programme I knew it was too great an opportunity to pass up.

LH: What did the workshops involve and was it what you had anticipated? How was the vibe? Was it constructive? Were you excited to participate?

MS: I was excited about participating because I am addicted to learning, I love workshops because they allow for hands on application of practical tools, not abstract theoretical verbiage. The workshop was very engaging and met my expectations. We also got a lot of insider information that many other filmmakers would certainly benefit from so in that sense it was a privilege to be apart of the ten beneficiaries of this knowledge.

LH: What project did you submit?

MS: My project is really about an underdog who decides to revisit a major challenge from his past that he had been unable to overcome. It’s a story about courage, growth and redemption.

LH: You were the winner of the RBC pitch – tell me about the experience. You must have been thrilled!

MS: I was super thrilled about winning. The event and facilitators were both very professional and possess a wealth of knowledge so I trust their judgment. I was nervous, as I always am when it comes to things that mean a lot to me. The stakes are always high, but my passion for the project keeps me motivated. I felt comfortable with the subject matter and I knew my story and AV pitch stood on their own merit. I chose a delivery style I was comfortable with and tried to be as honest as I could with my intentions and delivery.

 

Michelle Serieux on set

 

LH: Had you heard about RBC Focus prior to your own application?

MS: I heard about RBC Royal Bank sponsoring workshops at TIFF and TTFF in 2011, which surprised me. Not many companies are as forward thinking and bold about supporting emerging talent in the creative arts so I was and continue to be impressed by RBC’s progressive thinking. We are very lucky to have this one example of a company demonstrating such wonderful corporate responsibility by investing in Caribbean creativity in this way.

LH: What’s your background, with regards to film?

As it relates to film – I write, direct and produce. I have a BA First-class honours in Media, Drama and Cultural studies from the UWI Mona. I received my MA from Columbia University in the city of New York, and my professional producing certificate at NYU School of Continuing Studies. I also have a background in theatre as I worked with Derek Walcott for a few years prior to becoming a filmmaker. For me, the Audio Visual (AV) is the most powerful form of communication. My vocation has always been in this field, and being a producer/director/writer who also has a background in acting, allows me to merge the different skills that I have acquired over the years and put them all towards one unified purpose. I am also tri-lingual so that has really helped to bridge a lot of gaps that could have otherwise stalled our progress. In addition to, of course, being from a region as multi-lingual as the Caribbean is, all these skills are assets that will eventually help unify us as one people. That is the ultimate goal.  On the surface we may look different, but we’re really all the same. I consider myself really lucky to be able to do this and to have an outlet for my own creativity in this way. I recognize the power of the audio visual as a tool not only to tell important stories, but to change the world we live in. It’s a channel for my generation to voice the things that affect us. It’s very rare to find companies that are dedicated to encouraging young people to pursue careers in the arts so again, I am really impressed that RBC sees the value in what the numerous ‘creatives,’ Trinidad and Tobago Film company and other stakeholders in the TTFF are trying to achieve. The possibilities surrounding Caribbean cinema are endless.

LH: Are there any particular filmmakers that have inspired/informed your own style?

MS: The really honest answer to that question is, I’m still trying to find out what my style is. I haven’t made enough films yet to say that I am of one thing. I do know that I love arthouse films, I adore independent cinema, I love really great documentaries that merge the art of cinematic story telling with the activism that fuels these stories, so I am really looking forward to making as many films as I can and out of that practice I expect a clear Michelle style will eventually emerge. I am certainly looking forward to that.

LH: Have the workshops helped you develop any particular skills – if so, how specifically will this inform future projects

MS: The workshop helped me to get a better understanding of the very specific information I need to communicate to fundraising agencies if I want to have a successful career in the documentary world. Each fundraising tool is its own animal and the workshop really explained the nuances that differentiate each one.

LH: How has St. Lucia informed your work, if at all?

MS: St. Lucia informs everything I do. It’s part of my DNA.  My tiny island has produced two outstanding Nobel Prize winners and continues to produce amazing human beings who apply their knowledge, skills and talent across many spheres. It’s a great incentive to be able to in some way add to that legacy which in itself extends to the entire Caribbean. St Lucia will always inspire me; my family, my childhood, all of the experiences that really make me the person I am today all originated there and everything I do is really in homage to that land I will always call home.

LH: You co-founded New Caribbean Cinema. Can you tell us more about it and why you feel the region needs something like this?

MS: In addition to making documentaries, I am also the co-founder and producer for a film collective called New Caribbean Cinema (NCC). NCC is really a fresh, pioneering approach to film-making in the Caribbean as it’s the first time a group of directors have come together to collaborate in this way. A mixture of ‘First World’ technical skill and business savvy flavored with a distinctly Caribbean world-view, New Caribbean Cinema proposes to present the world with a showcase of creative artistry from the region’s up and coming filmmakers. The productions rely heavily on the creative and technical support of the core NCC team comprised of myself, Storm Saulter, Joel Burke and Nile Saulter and are sustained by the commitment and effort of our production crew, who work for us at greatly reduced costs so that we can create a body of work that represents our capabilities. Tired of waiting on funding that never comes, New Caribbean Cinema exists to challenge old models and to prove that in our region, innovation and ingenuity are key to our artistic expression.  We’ve embraced the limitation inherent in being from the developing world and tried our best despite the lack of resources to start to create a type of cinema that will one day be seen as indigenous to the Caribbean.

LH: What’s next on the horizon? Please share!

MS:  “Ring Di Alarm,” the first series of 7 short films from 6 different directors, myself included, was recently unveiled to packed audiences at the TTFF, and is actually still making the rounds. We’ve screened in London at the BFI to sold out audiences, also in Canada, TnT and in November in New York. The portmanteau film features works that explore powerful, sometimes dark, themes in the vast storybook that makes Jamaica. We are definitely keen on doing a second installation of Ring Di Alarm that includes filmmakers from the wider Caribbean region, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Aruba, Grenada. We always wanted to be all inclusive, hence the name, and like RBC, our goal is to inspire and empower the new breed of Caribbean directors and other filmmaking talent. I am also developing 2 feature length narrative films that will go into production in 2013, one is intended as a co-production between St Lucia and Guadeloupe that will be set on both islands and the other is a feature length indie film with a Jamaican and Trinidadian lead, set in Jamaica, slated for production in the Spring of 2013.

For more information visit:

http://www.newcaribbeancinema.com/
http://vimeo.com/user3785561
https://www.facebook.com/NewCaribbeanCinema

Artist Biography:

Michelle Serieux is a St. Lucian writer, director and producer. She holds a BA in Media, Drama and Cultural studies from the UWI Mona and an MA from Columbia University in the city of New York. Serieux is also the co-founder and producer for a film collective called New Caribbean Cinema (NCC).

++++++++++++++++

Dr. Leanne Haynes

Leanne Haynes has recently finished a PhD at the University of Essex, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research. Her thesis specialises in St. Lucian literature and maps out the island’s rich literary landscape. She also completed her MA (Postcolonial Studies) and BA (Literature) at the University of Essex. Haynes has presented material at conferences in the UK and Europe. She is a keen creative writer and amateur photographer, with publications in the UK and US.

__________________________

<p>Come Ova: Tarrus Riley from New Caribbean Cinema on Vimeo.</p>

EDITORS DIARY:

NEW CARIBBEAN CINEMA 

ArtStew presents:

Is the Contemporary

Caribbean Woman Naked?

By Natalie McGuire

Thursday, October 25th

 

Female Figures in Contemporary Caribbean Photography

The whole issue of looking at ourselves as looked at calls into question how and where we may be thought to possess ourselves, within this fiction of painless consuming of images-as-other” - Mary Ann Caws (1985)

In Feminist art theory, there has been a strong distinction made between a ‘nude’ and a ‘naked’ female figure depicted through art. John Berger described it in 1972: “Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display”.[1] One has connotations of weakness, exploitation. The other has a sense of empowerment, of control over exposure. So is the empowerment of nakedness illustrated in contemporary Caribbean photography, and how does it contribute to understanding the process of being a Caribbean Woman as a subject?

 

Fig 1. The Voyage of Sable Venus from Angola to the West Indies (1793), Thomas Stothard

 

In a historical context, the Caribbean has been a suitable breeding ground to analyze presentations of the ‘nude’ figure, especially on the colonial backdrop of slavery (what symbolizes human exploitation better than bodies being bought and sold?). For example the 1793 etching by Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) The Voyage of Sable Venus from Angola to the West Indies (fig.1). Here, in a re-interpretation of Botticelli’s (c1445-1510) famous work, The Birth of Venus (fig.2) a nude Angolan woman is depicted en route to the West Indies. The idealistic portrait is delusional in its attempt to illustrate the journey to slavery as leisurely and appealing. Perhaps it was intended as a tool to calm any misgivings about the horrific slave conditions. But what is of relevant note here, is the choice of comparison for the portrait. The nude Venus in Botticelli’s work was considered the epitome of ideal beauty for centuries, and still is for some. To depict Venus was to depict a goddess who “[For you] the ocean levels laugh, the sky is calmed and glows with diffused radiance.”[2] This same aesthetic is seemingly applied to Stothard’s work. The same calm sea, the same demure pose, same body shape, the same mannerist elegant neck. Different of course is the skin colour and the hair/ lack of. It is not outlined whether Stothard created this portrait from sight or whether it was through a written description, so it is unclear whether this is a portrait of a specific Angolan woman or a generalized image for all of them. But either way it was the intentionally chosen depiction for soon-to-be enslaved African women, women who would make up part of the new Caribbean population. There can be two parallel readings of this. Firstly, it could be seen as the birth of the ‘exotic’ in art in the Caribbean. A goddess is exotic, as is a woman from a race previously unknown to European men. Artists like Henri Matisse ( 1869-1954) would similarly depict naked women of Tahiti in the new ‘exotic’ later down the line. Secondly, it could be seen as incorporating these new figures into the roles of creating a Creole population in the Caribbean and ultimately women universally at the time: these were objects to be admired for their beauty, but to be owned, for use of presentation and consumption. Because to view an image is to consume it, so therefore can it not be derived that to view an image of a nude woman is to consume her?

 

Fig 2. The Birth of Venus (1486), Sandro Botticelli, Uffizi Gallery

 

Zooming through history, in a contemporary art setting arguably this notion of the ‘nude’ has evolved into presentation of ‘nakedness’ in the subjects and the even the artists subjecting the figures. Photography, for instance, has always had this aura of being anthropological, as though through the lens ‘truth’ is documented. However, over time, it has been noted that the agenda of the photographer is never neutral, the gaze always directed. Perhaps this shift in consciousness around the ‘nude’, especially in photography, is mainly due to the presence of Feminist Theory and analysis of the female’s ‘role’ (does such a thing exist?) in society. But to what extent can nakedness really be applied in the Caribbean context, or are we always to be nude as baptized by Stohard? Let us look at four instances for a sample run down; the works of Renne Cox, Rodell Warner, and Mark King.

 

Fig 3. Yo Mama’s Last Supper (1996), Renee Cox

 

Jamaican Renee Cox (b. 1960) inserts her own unclothed body into the 1996 piece Yo Mama’s Last Supper (fig.3), a re-interpretation of a famous 1498 painting by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), The Last Supper (fig. 4). By placing herself as the central character, it gives the suggestion her body is something that is simultaneously worshipped and sacrificed. The comment on consumption is also strong, as in the story Jesus proclaims the wine and bread which is shared amongst the apostles is his flesh and blood, so too Cox implies that the men beside her eating and drinking are consuming her flesh and blood. The comparison of renaissance with contemporary could be read as an intention to reclaim the Caribbean female body in an artistic space, in the same way which Stothard may have attempted to own it during his portraits of colonization. This direction and somewhat control of how her figure in the image is read, how we are looking and consuming her, suggests that this is not an image of a ‘nude’ in the same way the Sable Venus may be, but is an image of Nakedness.  Other Caribbean photographers have implemented this same theatrical method of reclaiming historical space, such as Marvin Bartley’s 2011 work The Great Rape (fig.5).

 

Fig.4 The Last Supper (1498) Leonardo Da Vinci

 

 

Fig. 5 The Great Rape (2011) Marvin Bartley

 

Similarly, Trinidadian Rodell Warner’s (b. 1986) 2009-2011 works under the title Photobooth, (figs 6-7) utilize the unclothed Caribbean female figure (and male) as naked empowerment. However, this is not done in a direct response to history like Cox or Bartley, but by creating a space of pure sexual liberation. A private booth was set up at Trinidad’s Erotic Art Week and visitors could take images of themselves portraying what was ‘erotic’ to them, which they gave permission to be exhibited the following night. In the words of the artist: “The still-new phenomenon of our intensifying ability to produce and circulate self images has driven an inquiry into one’s ability to capture one’s image and present the self as one wants to be seen.”[3]  So in this instance, instead of having control over how the figures are consumed, both the artist and the figure are giving the images up for consumption freely. So they are Naked in their liberation from being attached to the act of their consumption. They are not considering themselves as being presented, but almost like they are the ones inserting their nakedness into the viewer’s own visual space.

 

Fig. 6 Photobooth (2009-2011), Rodell Warner

 

 

Fig. 7 Photobooth (2009-2011) Rodell Warner

 

Barbadian Mark King’s (b.1983) works by contrast arguably illustrate voyeurism of contemporary Caribbean women. But instead of exerting ownership of the figures, he gives a sense of exploring the implications of looking at ‘the nude’ in a contemporary setting. For example his Simone series (fig 8). Here his subject is personalized through use of her name, yet she remains an object in the image, integrated into the landscape, part of the tropical picturesque. Through this, she does not have control over how her image is consumed, she is posing as a still life and does not even open her eyes lest she confronts the viewer, so they can be comfortable in their consumption.

 

Fig. 8 Simone (c 2010) Mark King

 

King’s consciousness of this process could be seen as detaching himself from owning his nude subjects. He actively addressed the complex nature of presenting the  nude in works he did for a residency at Alice Yard, Trinidad in 2012 (fig. 9). Here women were placed in an enclosed space with a glass front, as exhibit subjects for study and documentation. He was drawing comparisons between the practice of bird watching and women watching in Trinidad. Marsha Pearce, in her analysis, stated that “King’s project lends a powerful, nuanced appreciation of the socio-cultural constructions of gender and the dynamics of the interface between men and women.”[4] Through this presentation and simultaneous acknowledgement of the nude figure, King dissolves the rigid lines of Berger’s Naked/Nude separation. These women are at once nude in their vulnerability to consumption, but also naked in their acknowledgement of it during the process.

 

Fig. 9 Dyana, (2012), Mark King

 

Ultimately no conclusions can be drawn on the title question posed, whether Caribbean women are collectively represented as naked or nude [perhaps we can strive to be depicted as both]. But just acknowledgement that these aspects, where once automatic, are now conscious decisions on the part of the artist, and that no contemporary photography in the Caribbean depicting unclothed women in a space can negate reflection on it.

 

References:

---

- [1] John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1972, BBC

 
- [2] A letter to Venus, an excerpt from On the Nature of Things by Lucretius written in 50 B.C, which Sandro Botticelli is thought to have used as inspiration for The Birth of Venus.

 
- [3] Photobooth, http://rodellwarner.com

 
- [4] Mark King’s Photographic Explorations of Trini Women, Marsha Pearce, July 2012, www.arcthemagazine.com

 

Natalie McGuire

Natalie McGuire is a University of Leicester Art History graduate from Barbados. Through her writings she explores issues of identity and the Caribbean response to art, amongst other things. She has recently completed a 12 month Australian-New Zealand habitation after her final year thesis A Cultivated Identity in Australian Art, and is currently back living in Barbados. See more of Natalie’s thoughts at http://nattielife.tumblr.com

10 Ways

To Talk To Your Kids About

Sexual Abuse

October 26, 2012 | by Sandra Kim

Credit: NY Press

 

(Trigger Warning)

The idea of someone molesting your child is terrifying for any parent (unless the parent is the child molester, which is 37% of the time).

The pain, fear, and trauma they may experience at such a young age are frightening to consider. It’s enough to make any parent freak out and want to never ever think about it again.

And then we hope it will just never happen to our little girl or boy.

Except your daughter has a 1 in 4 chance and your son has a 1 in 6 chance of being molested before the age of 18.

I know you don’t want to hear it or believe it. But it’s true.

And these statistics are too high for any parent to risk staying uninformed about the reality of child sexual abuse and not talking to their child about it.

On top of that, the majority of children never report sexual abuse when it’s happening. They’re often afraid of their parents’ reactions or fear getting into trouble. They don’t know how to explain what happened to them or believe what the abuser told them to keep them quiet.

Now, you can never protect your child fully from ever being molested. But you can do a lot to reduce your child’s vulnerability to sexual abuse and increase the chances they’ll tell you after something happens.

You just need to talk to them directly about it and do it many times.

Why Talking About Sexual Abuse Is Like Talking About Crossing the Street

The idea of talking to your kid about sexual abuse probably seems worse than even talking to them about sex.

You don’t want to scare them (or yourself) in the process. You don’t want to strip away their innocence. You don’t want to introduce them to how much violence and abuse there is in the world.

But given the statistics, your child is much more likely to be molested than to be hit by a car when crossing the street.

So try thinking of these conversations as being just as important (and frankly more important given the statistics) than teaching your child how to cross the road safely.

It’s one of the things you teach your child as a sign of love and care and as a way to keep them safe.

Remember that when you take a deep breath and begin talking to your child about their body.

Ways of Approaching the Conversation

1. Frame the conversation for yourself as a way of loving your child: Starting from a loving place and not a scared place will help create the calm environment for your child. This will help them really listen to the words you’re saying. If you’re frightened and stressed, they will react primarily to that fear and not register what you’re saying as much.

It’s also important to not treat the subject like its taboo or dirty (which is how we often treat anything related to sex). Even when parents try to hide their feelings, children are often very perceptive and pick up on small cues telling them that something is wrong. They then may think talking about someone hurting them might be wrong even if you say it’s not. So speak from a calm, casual, and loving frame of mind when having these conversations.

2. Begin talking to them as young as 2 years old: This may seem very early but children under 12 are most at risk at 4 years old. Even if they can’t speak well, children at this age are busy figuring out the world. And they certainly understand and remember a lot more than adults usually realize.

For example, when giving a bath, tell them where their private parts are and that the parent is seeing and touching them to clean them but that normally nobody should.

3. Teach them the actual names of their private parts: When you begin teaching them parts of their body like ears, eyes, and toes, also teach them the real names of their private parts like “vagina” and “penis” and not their “cute” names. This gives them the right words to use if someone is hurting them and makes sure the person being told understands what’s happening. It’s also important to teach both female and male anatomy because the abuser can be of either gender and they need to know how to describe what happens to them.

In one case, a child told her parent that her stomach was hurting. When they took her to the doctor, he informed them that her vagina showed signs of rape. Their little daughter had been trying to tell them what was happening but she just didn’t know what to call her vagina so she said stomach instead.

4. Share the only instances when their private parts can be seen and touched: An age appropriate concept for a young child to understand is that nobody – including a parent or caregiver – should see or touch their private parts – what a swimming suit covers up – unless they’re keeping them clean, safe, or healthy. But also make sure they know that even in these situations, if someone is hurting them, they can still say, “stop, it hurts” and tell their parent immediately.

Some examples to help them understand what you’re talking about are when you’re giving them a bath or a doctor is seeing them. Ask them if that’s an example of keeping them clean, safe, or healthy as you’re doing it.

5. Teach them their private parts are special: When talking about this topic, it’s important to not create a taboo or dirty feeling around their private parts. Instead parents can teach their child that their private parts are so special that they’re just for them and no one else.

Only when needing to keep their private parts clean, safe, or healthy are other people allowed to see or touch them. This is also an important step to help children develop a healthy sexuality before discussing sex itself with them.

6. Teach them (and respect) their right to control their bodies: This flies in the face of what we often teach our children – that adults have absolute authority over everything and children have to do what they’re told. The problem is that this only teaches them to not speak up when they’re feeling hurt and scared because of what an adult is telling them to do. Instead, teach your child that their body is theirs and no one has the right to hurt their bodies even when a grown up is doing it. For children, it’s very empowering to have permission to say “no” to an adult if they’re uncomfortable with the request.

For example, when you’re at a social event, don’t make your child kiss or hug anyone. Instead let your child know they can give a kiss, hug, handshake, or nothing to people they see and it’s entirely up to them. And when an adult tries to make them give them a hug and they don’t want to, encourage the child to say “no” and support their decision verbally if needed.

7. Explain that no one should physically hurt them, especially in their private parts. 85% of child sexual abuse is perpetrated by someone they know. It may be a parent, relative, family friend, neighbor, teacher, or religious leader. It may be a man, woman, or another child. It can be anyone. No one unfortunately is on the safe list. In fact, children are most vulnerable with the family members and acquaintances. So make sure your child knows that no one can hurt their bodies no matter who they’re with – even when they’re with their mommy or daddy.

It’s also important that they understand you’re talking to them about this because you love them and want them to be safe. Just like you teach them about crossing the road because they might get hit by a car, you’re also teaching them that someone might sexually hurt them. It doesn’t mean it will happen. But in case someone tries to, your child will know they can say “no, stop that” and tell you what happened without you being upset with them.

8. Encourage them to trust their gut around their safety: While parents shouldn’t instill a fear of people in their child, they should support their child in trusting their gut instinct. By trusting their intuition, children will both be more empowered around making their own choices about who’s safe instead of relying on a parent telling them. This is important because a parent won’t always be there with them.

One way is to tell the child before social events that if they ever feel uncomfortable with someone – even if nothing has happened, they should leave the room and tell their parent. Even if it looks “rude,” they should know that they will not be punished for simply leaving the room. Their sense of safety comes before the need to be “polite.”

9. Explain that a secret is still a secret when shared with the parents: Many abusers tell their child victims that what happened was a secret and to not tell anyone, especially their parents. So it’s important to teach them early on that secrets are still kept secret if they tell their mom or dad. Additionally, they should understand anyone who wants them to keep secrets from their parents shouldn’t be trusted and they should definitely tell their parents about it.

10. Tell them that you will believe them if someone is hurting them and they won’t be in trouble: Many abusers tell their victims that no one will believe them and create a sense of shame around what happened. Children in general, usually blame themselves and take responsibility for things that happen in their lives, regardless of who’s actually responsible for it. Given this, children often fear what their parent will do if they tell them, including being punished. Make sure they know without a doubt that you won’t be upset, that they’ve done the right thing, and that you’re proud of them for telling them the truth.

But Here’s the Most Important Thing To Do

If you remember nothing else, remember this – these conversations should be ongoing, open, and casual.

You wouldn’t tell your child just once to not cross the street without looking both ways. You’d tell them several times and probably even quiz them about what they need to do when they want to cross the road.

It’s the same deal for sexual abuse – except you have this conversation from a much earlier age and it changes as your child grows up and becomes a teenager.

While nothing can keep your child 100% safe, if you keep an open, casual dialogue with your child, keep an eye out for signs, and pay attention to how your child responds to people, you’ve significantly reduced the risk of someone sexually abusing your child.

For more resources, please visit:

• List of Organizations Serving Survivors of Sexual Violence per State

• National Sexual Assault Hotlineat 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

• National Sexual Violence Resource Center

• PreventConnect

• DC Rape Crisis Center

This article was written with input from the DC Rape Crisis Center. The DCRCC helps survivors and their families heal from the aftermath of sexual violence through crisis intervention, counseling, and advocacy. Follow them on Facebook.

Sandra Kim is the Founder & Editor of Everyday Feminism. She brings together her personal and professional experience with trauma, personal transformation, and social change and gives it all a feminist twist. Follow her @SandraSKim.

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Secret Survivor:

An Interview with

Amita Swadhin

October 21, 2012

By Bushra Rehman

On the morning of July 16, 2012, I received a letter from Amita Swadhin, an activist and educator who is at the forefront of the movement to end Child Sexual Abuse. Her father Vashisht “Victor” Vaid was put on probation twenty years ago for sexually assaulting her during her childhood. Amita had just discovered Vaid was touting himself as a spiritual leader in New York, New Jersey and online through publishing books on New Age astrology and Hindu spirituality. As part of the New World’s Fair, Vaid was going to be “presenting and unveiling great esoteric secrets to humanity” at the Unisphere behind the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Park.

Over the last twenty years, Amita had learned her father had also sexually assaulted at least seven other women and young girls in her family and community – truths she came to know from the direct disclosures of these other survivors. Amita shared her own story of living through both her father’s violence and the failure of the criminal legal system to hold him accountable, as well as her healing journey, with the world through Secret Survivors, a theater project-turned-documentary she conceived for Ping Chong & Co., a New York City-based performance group.

When Amita discovered the New World’s Fair was showcasing her father as a spiritual leader, she was horrified and outraged. Most of all, she worried her father would use this new platform to shield himself from accountability for all of the violence he had committed, or worse, to gain access to new victims. To prevent her father from continuing to hurt others, Amita reached out to the organizers of the festival and her community of friends, comrades and chosen family in New York City, where she had been an organizer for 13 years.

It was important for Amita and many of us in her community that Vaid not be placed in a position of spiritual leadership. We know from highly publicized cases, such as those involving the Catholic Church that rape within a holy area is considered by many believers to be impossible. This belief gives perpetrators carte blanche and further silences survivors. In fact, the Catholic Church is one the most active lobbyists to curb the statute of limitations, making it impossible for adult survivors of Child Sexual Abuse to prosecute perpetrators who hurt them in their childhoods.

At the same time, there is evidence that those who commit rape without getting caught will go on to sexually assault multiple victims. In a 2002 study Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists, researchers Lisak and Miller found undetected rapists averaged close to six victims each, and were likelier to commit multiple acts of other forms of violence as well. Child Sexual Abuse has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, one out of every four girls and one out of every six boys will be sexually abused by the age of eighteen. If one adds to this the statistic that between 64% and 96% of all rapes are never reported to criminal justice authorities, the numbers skyrocket.

For The Feminist Wire, in follow-up to our recent forum on violence, I wanted to document the events that unfolded after Amita reached out to the New World’s Fair and to her community of supporters. The actions of the New World’s Fair were blatant reminders of how individuals in positions of power uphold the silence that makes Child Sexual Abuse the epidemic it is. At the same time, the support of Amita’s community and the Queens Museum of Art was a testament to how structures of violence can be challenged and will one day, with effort, be dismantled.

BR: How did you find out Vaid was presenting at the New World’s Fair? Could you describe your initial feelings?

AS: This may sound strange, but I periodically “Google” my father to stay abreast of his whereabouts and activities; like most survivors of sexual assault in the US, I have to live with the knowledge that the person who harmed me so deeply (and in my case, repeatedly) is roaming free in the world. For my own safety and the safety of my family, who live in the same state as my father, I keep tabs on him at least once a year (and lately, because of the public nature of Secret Survivors, at least a few times a year).

Not much has come of those Google searches in the past, but on the Sunday before the New World’s Fair, I found him listed, with a bio and photo, on the Fair’s website as a keynote speaker for their event on “human evolution.” It was the first time I learned my father has recently published a series of books online focused on new age “wisdom,” including titles such as “The Radiant Words of Love and Wisdom,” and “The Evolutionary Plan.”

So many emotions ran through me in that moment, including shock and rage at my father’s audacity to present himself to the world as a spiritual healer and leader, even after all the violence he has so unapologetically committed, and disbelief that he has managed to connect with people who support him, even after all of the publicity Secret Survivors has received in the past three years.

I decided to give the organizers of the New World’s Fair the benefit of the doubt, understanding it was unlikely they knew anything about my father’s history of violence, and emailed them right away to let them know this history, requesting to have my father removed from the speakers lineup, have the reason for his removal publicized and have him replaced with a speaker working to end child sexual assault. I sent the following email:

Dear Kevin and Renee:

I am writing to you with shock and concern about the choice you have made to invite Vashisht to be a guest speaker for next weekend’s 2012 New World Fair. I am the eldest child of Vashisht Vaid, and need to inform you that you have been duped by his self-constructed illusion of his “spiritual practice” and of his existence as a person devoted to wellness and justice in any way, shape or form.

I prosecuted my father in 1991, when I was 13 years old, for raping me repeatedly from the ages of 4 to 12. During these years, he also forced me to consume pornography, and physically and emotionally abused and controlled me. He was also sexually, verbally, physically and emotionally abusive to my mother.

Due to prosecutors threatening to also prosecute my mother (who did not sexually abuse me), I was too frightened to move forward with my testimony, and never served as a witness against my father in court. He received five years probation, but no jail time. My mother finally found the courage to divorce him, facing shame and exile imposed on her by my fathers’ friends and “cultural colleagues” in our small South Asian community in New Jersey about a year later, and within months he went on to marry a woman he had known for about three weeks, and had two more children with her. . .

He began his predatory and violent raping of little girls in our family years ago when, as a teenager and young man, he began raping female members of my family. Two of my relatives disclosed their survivorship to me when I was in high school. He also sexually assaulted other women and young girls in my community including one of my childhood friends.

I have shared my story very publicly in a project called Secret Survivors and on my own website and am prepared to take public action to let every supporter of the New World Fair know you have invited a man who rapes his own daughters, nieces, wives and other young women and girls in his community to speak at a fair that is supposedly about wellness and justice. I ask that you recant your invitation to him, and instead issue a statement from me about my father’s violence, so that members in your community, which I assume he is active in, can understand they should protect their children from him and hold him accountable for his violence. …

I attempted to prosecute my father with the whole truth when I was 16 years old, a year after I started therapy and felt safe enough to tell my story, only to learn I could not, due to double jeopardy. I would like nothing more than to see my father unable to ever harm anyone again, so I must resort to reaching out to you to let you know the truth…I await your reply eagerly, and hope you will take action to ensure this man is prevented from doing further harm and is exposed for the violent and unrepentant rapist of children and women he has been for over 40 years.

Sincerely,

Amita Swadhin

BR: After you sent your initial email to Renee and Kevin, what was their response?

AS: Kevin, one of the organizers of the New World’s Fair, was the first to respond to my email. To my surprise, he emphasized my father was doing the New World’s Fair a favor my sharing his quote-unquote esoteric knowledge with them. He also dismissed my concerns as private quote-unquote family issues, and let me know that at the last minute, my father was unable to attend the event anyway (for unstated reasons).  Finally, he emphasized my concerns were a distraction from the main focus of the event – to uplift and enlighten society through culture and community.

BR: I remember when he wrote you had “nothing to be frustrated about” because Vaid was no longer speaking at the event and one of his follow up emails where he asked you not to “threaten our children’s futures” by pursuing the matter. The matter being warning others of a child rapist in their midst!

AS: I should note Kevin is the publisher and graphic designer of my father’s books, and stands to profit off the sale of these books. Even so, I was pretty shocked by Kevin’s blatant dismissal of my email (and my survivorship), and it was clear to me the New World’s Fair would not be informing their audience as to why my father was removed from the list of speakers. I responded with the following message:

Dear Kevin,

I am once again shocked at the carelessness with which you dismiss my truth and the truths of all the women and children that my father has raped, sexually assaulted, psychologically abused and otherwise harmed. Vashisht has a criminal record, after all – an indictment by his own admission of sexually assaulting me when I was a child (which resulted in his probation time). In a time in which we should all be learning from the mistakes of the Penn State administration, who so egregiously colluded with Sandusky and his repeated sexual assault of young boys, it is disappointing to see such patterns continue, and particularly disturbing to see them continue under the guise of “evolution” and in the name of a better world.

To dismiss repeated acts of child sexual assault and intimate partner violence perpetrated by my father (and too many like him) as “family issues” is certainly to collude with the silence, shaming and discrediting of victims that allows this endemic violence to persist. You should know, in case you do not already, that at least 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 6 boys are sexually abused by the age of 18 (this is a US Centers for Disease Control statistic). My vision for an evolved world certainly requires people who rape children to be held accountable for their actions. Does yours?

I remain disappointed you are framing my father’s removal from the speaker’s list for this event as completely disconnected from the violence he has committed, and that you are refusing to publicize this history of violence. This is a missed opportunity to both let people who have learned about Vashisht through your publicizing his bio (and his books) know that he is a danger to children and women, and to call upon all people invested in a better world to work towards ending the epidemic of child sexual abuse.”

I reached out to my colleagues at the Queens Museum of Art. They backed my request to have my father removed from the speakers’ lineup (given the New World’s Fair was taking place just in front of the museum). This led Renee, who had co-organized the New World’s Fair with Kevin, to reach out to me via email as well. She informed me she and Kevin had explained the situation to my father, and that he would not be attending the event. She also emphasized her belief that addressing my requests for the audience to be informed about why my father was removed from the event, or to add a speaker focused on child sexual assault prevention would detract from the event’s platform, focused on quote-unquote health revolution and evolution.

The New World’s Fair had for months been promoting my father (through their website) as a spiritual leader with ‘esoteric’ knowledge. Moreover, Kevin and Renee refused to tell me exactly what they had said to my father, despite my requesting, for safety purposes, to know whether they had mentioned my requests to him. I feared retaliation by my father, and also feared for the safety of anyone within the New World’s Fair community who desires to know my father but does not know his history of violence. I knew something had to be done to bring all of this to light publicly.

BR: I remember being shocked, but also thinking: Big Mistake, Kevin, big mistake. He didn’t know you are a vocal activist in the growing movement to end Child Sexual Abuse and he didn’t realize the Queens Museum is a major ally, a place I consider one of the birthplaces of South Asian arts and activism. After Kevin’s email, your supporters tried to figure out what the next best step could be: a quiet sit in, flyers, writing informational documents which would highlight warning signs that a child is in danger. . . Many of us had concerns about how we would be received walking into a community of Vaid supporters. Real fears came up about being outnumbered, of the police being called. What did you think of the process and the outcome?

AS: First and foremost, it has meant so much to me to have such a supportive community of friends and comrades to call upon in the first place. I feel incredibly privileged, knowing far too many survivors feel they have to live with the impacts of child sexual assault in complete isolation, due to the shame and stigma survivors still face, even in 2012.  Many survivors I know still have to interact with the people who sexually assaulted them, mainly at family and/or community events.  So first of all, I felt and still feel so blessed to have a strong and widespread community of support.

That said, I found out about the New World’s Fair after I had moved away from New York City (for the first time in my adult life). I was living so far away from my friends and family, and it was hard to process everything around the event over email, phone and Skype with friends.

Seeing my friends and comrades begin to step forward even enough to discuss the potential of taking action lifted my spirits and my courage immensely. It was a message that, at the end of the day, I have support to hold my father accountable. It was a moment to reflect on how much work I have done over the past 20 years to share more and more publicly in attempts to hold my father accountable, and how successful I have been in building solidarity and friendship with people who are able to support these efforts.

I also anticipated that, without me on the ground in New York City, it would be challenging for my friends and comrades to lead any meaningful in-person action at the New World’s Fair once my father was removed from the speaker’s lineup. So many of us are trauma survivors, including survivors of child sexual assault – I am acutely conscious of how triggering my requests for support can be (having been on the other side of that feeling many times), and I knew that many people would not feel safe in a potentially confrontational environment.

Moreover, throughout this entire ordeal, I have maintained compassion for Kevin, Renee and other people who have begun to give my father a platform as a spiritual leader. I imagine that, after months of organizing the New World’s Fair, it was shocking to receive my email and learn of my story, especially for Kevin, who has worked closely with my father to create his books. My aim throughout this effort, beyond removing my father from the speaker’s list, was to let people who had learned of him only in a positive light know the larger truth of his actions over the past 40 years, in an effort to prevent him from gaining enough trust with a new community to allow him to rape or otherwise abuse new victims.

In the end, I am glad an online flyer was created publicizing the statistics of child sexual assault in the US, naming my father as someone who has committed repeated acts of rape and other forms of violence, and demanding the New World’s Fair publicly address why my father was removed from the event. It was so heartening to see this flyer be posted and reposted throughout Facebook, tumblr, and beyond. I had no idea it would go “viral” to that extent, but given the number of survivors of child sexual assault in the world, I was not surprised.

AS: I hope other survivors of Child Sexual Assault are encouraged to speak up and speak out after seeing my example. Yet I am also conscious it’s taken me 20 years (the past three of which have been spent publicly performing my survivorship) to gain the personal power, courage, and network of support to feel safe taking this kind of public step. And even now, I struggle with very real anxiety about retaliation from my father against me or other members of my family.

We live in a culture that is quick to blame survivors for speaking out and slow to hold people accountable for acts of interpersonal sexual violence. When the online Facebook flyer began to go viral and was posted multiple times on the New World’s Fair event page, event organizers took the page down rather than address the calls to publicly discuss why my father was removed from the speaker’s lineup. Given the co-organizer Kevin is also one of the leaders behind The Global Movement (a nonprofit growing out of a slice of the Occupy Wall Street movement, that has produced a number of videos documenting the movement), I have been reflecting on the parallels and connections between his attempts to silence me, and the attempts that some members of the Occupy Wall Street community made to silence/shame of women who spoke out for being sexually assaulted within the Occupy Wall Street space, calling them ‘divisive.’ In both cases, comrades committed to transformative justice (a form of justice which holds perpetrators of violence accountable for causing harm without furthering harm by engaging the criminal legal system or shaming the perpetrator of harm) stepped forward to support survivors.

On the flip side, some people within my extended community have shared with me they disapproved of my decision to name my father so publicly, pointing out my actions are veering towards these shaming tactics that are in direct opposition to a transformative justice approach. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot in the past two months, and have concluded that while I remain committed to the politic of transformative justice, and while I do not believe the prison industrial complex will ever result in justice (given it is inherently a tool of oppression), I and many other survivors are left with very real questions about how to function safely in a world in which the people who have harmed us (and often, as in my father’s case, have gone on to harm others) roam free among us.

I know my father was sexually assaulted when he was a child, because he shared that with me, my mother and sister when I first spoke out about his violence, 21 years ago. I believe he deserves to heal. However, I also know he has sexually assaulted at least 7 young women and girls within his community, and continues to have no remorse and no accountability for his actions. He is poised to continue his violence unless we can craft a creative intervention to prevent that from happening, and I feel a great responsibility to do my part in that effort. I also feel there is a collective responsibility to hold him accountable, and know such efforts will ultimately require the communities he is part of to take action.

Finally, something I’ve asked Kevin and Renee to reflect on and I hope we all will take time to think about is how endemic the violence of sexual assault is to our world. We walk among rapists each and every day; they are our colleagues, our neighbors, our spiritual leaders, our teachers, our coaches, our friends and our family members. I do not blame anyone for not knowing the truth about interpersonal acts of violence – these acts are committed in the private sphere, after all. What matters most to me is what people do when a survivor steps forward to speak their truth. I want to see a world in which all survivors can tell the truth, get support, begin to heal, and craft creative and compassionate ways to achieve accountability.

BR: I consider the Secret Survivors project to be a truly creative method to build community and healing. Could you talk a little bit about it?

AS:  Secret Survivors is a project I conceived for the NYC-based performance group Ping Chong & Co. in 2009. I was in graduate school at the time, working towards my Master’s degree in public policy, and beginning to re-immerse myself in the research about sexual violence and child sexual assault for the first time in a decade. I realized in order for policymakers to be able to craft effective and viable intervention and prevention strategies to end child sexual assault, they first needed to understand the scope and reality of this violence. Given the taboos and stigma survivors face, most never tell their story to anyone, let alone publicly. When survivors do speak out, they are often celebrated as exceptional and nearly invincible (ex: Oprah, Maya Angelou, etc.). I wanted to create a platform for survivors to speak out collectively and to be honest about our resilience and our struggles.

Ping Chong & Co. and I worked together to create a live theater performance featuring me and four other survivors: Gabriella Callender, Lucia Leandro Gimeno, RJ Maccani, Diana Sands. Sara Zatz wrote and directed the show, Secret Survivors, based on our journals and recorded conversations from a creative writing workshop and from individual interviews with each of us. Secret Survivors premiered at El Museo del Barrio in March 2011, and has been seen in part or full by about 1,000 people nationwide so far. Thanks to our funders, we have been able to create a documentary version of the project that expands on the theater performance and includes other voices (advocates, survivors, and survivors who are advocates).

We’ll be performing the live show one last time from October 25-28 at La MaMa theater in Manhattan, and we have recently released the documentary on DVD (including a curriculum guide and educational toolkit) via our website. Folks who can’t make it to New York for the performance can live stream it on October 28^th for free.

Ping Chong & Co. is now exploring ways to partner with other organizations and communities across the country to replicate the show with different casts of survivors, as a way to uplift more survivors’ voices and continue to break the taboo against speaking out against child sexual assault. For more background on the show, people can also access a webinar I recently presented for the Ms. Foundation and PreventConnect.

BR: I do believe Child Sexual Abuse is an epidemic that can be eliminated for coming generations if we take action today, and I have great admiration for your work. Thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts. Do you have any final resources you’d like to share?  

AS: Yes. RAINN has a hotline: 1.800.656.HOPE. Generation FIVEis another good resource, as is Creative Interventions. There are also resources on the Secret Survivors website.

*The opinions and facts expressed in this article are solely the responsibility of the author and interviewee.*

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Photo credit: Annie Escobar

Amita Swadhin is an LA-based, NYC-bred educator, storyteller, activist and consultant dedicated to fighting interpersonal and institutional violence against young people. She loves spending time with her partner and her pitbull, writing and performing poetry, building interdependence with other QTPOC organizers, and enjoying all the beauty that California has to offer.