Blogging Against Sexual Violence Using Creative Expression

April 3, 2008 · Filed Under Art & Creativity

Today is A Day to End Sexual Violence. Courtesy of abyss2hope, today is the second annual Blog Against Sexual Violence Day.

I’ve been thinking for a few days about what I wanted to write about. I cover sexual violence quite a bit here, but I wanted this to be a bit different and have deeper meaning to me, so I finally decided to share a piece of my own creative writing that tells a little but about my childhood and my own past with sexual violence.

This is a short prose piece entitled Stonewalled and was written on May 8, 2005. It was featured in North Eastern Pennsylvania’s Women’s Resource Center’s “An Empty Place at the Table” art gallery.

Stonewalled

Go brush your teeth and I’ll be right up to tuck you in.

And with that statement, you were gone. The door slammed, the car’s ignition hissed, and the tires roared away from our townhouse apartment - home for needy welfare mothers who spend their earnings from their spread your leg careers on “I’m sick of feeling like this, I want to be someone else” hallucinogens and “My veins are pretty empty and could use a lift of spirits” syringes. Where were you this time? Because I’m still in bed peering from the turned-down comforter to see you and smell the musty scent on your breath, on my face, on your clothes. When do you think you’re coming back?

This is because you couldn’t mother a pair of mistakes; the first a little more damned than the second. If the men had the money you would introduce them to your shining star concubine - age’s six to twelve. Sifting into nothing but a corpse; unable to do anything but lay there, engulfed in a wonderland of dead fairies that all look identical. Laying there as if nothing happened; gyrating into outlandish figures - all bleeding from one sacred pore.

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Releasing Lori: Poetry on Self-Mutilation

March 29, 2008 · Filed Under Art & Creativity

Self-mutilation is often not given the serious attention it demands; it is often chalked up to teenage angst or a person seeking attention, which is far from the truth.

Self-mutilation has become a major public health concern and affects a large variety of people including men and women ranging from teenagers to adults; although about 75% of self-mutilators are girls and women. It is estimated that 0.75% of the general American population practices self-mutilation.

There are many forms of self-mutilation, such as cutting, burning, hitting, bruising, biting, pulling or picking at skin and pulling one’s own hair. There are many causes of self-mutilation, such as the result of strong negative emotions and feeling the need for the outside to represent the inside of one’s self as well as technique for triggering the body’s biochemical responses to pain.

Those who self-mutilate often find comfort in the arts, such as writing poetry in order to rid themselves of their emotions and what drives them to commit such acts to themselves.

Here is another short film by filmmaker Dany Nieves, whom I’ve featured on this website once before with Alison’s Cycle.

Releasing Lori is another short film from Nieves with poetry by Alison Floersch, read by Lori Beaty. It speaks about the painful truths revolving around those who self-mutilate and the emotions behind it. It is a must-see film for those who currently or have self-mutilated in the past as well as for anyone who has been affected by it or just want to know more about this public health crisis.

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Finding Angela Shelton

March 26, 2008 · Filed Under Art & Creativity

I’ve written about Angela Shelton before , specifically about her activism efforts regarding the Report It campaign as well as the Report It rallies for victim’s rights, but there is some awesome news that I couldn’t let go by without mentioning and that is that Angela Shelton is now also a novelist, on top of being the superhero of victim rights activism.

Angela Shelton was sexually abused as a young child by her father, which is what she confessed to the world while making her documentary, Searching for Angela Shelton. Since then, she has become a motivating and inspiring woman to countless survivors. On a personal level, after watching her documentary and after some time reading up on her and getting involved myself with activism efforts to raise awareness about sexual abuse, she had given me the motivation to speak up about my own abuse in early 2007.

She has undoubtedly inspired the lives of many people to either confront their own abuse or get involved in raising awareness of just how widespread sexual abuse is. In fact, it is believed that each and every single person knows someone who has been sexually abused, yet the silence surrounding it is overwhelming.

On top of her activism efforts, Angela Shelton’s first book, an autobiography of her life and her abuse, as well as overcoming it and going on to help others, Finding Angela Shelton, is hitting bookstores April 1! You can pre-order the book today or head on down to your local bookstore and pick it up when it’s released!

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Alison’s Cycle

February 28, 2008 · Filed Under Art & Creativity

I received an email from filmmaker Dany Nieves this morning telling me about a new, (nearly) five minute short film called Alison’s Cycle. Alison’s Cycle is a series of five poems that tell a story of heartbreak, past abuse and overcoming tribulations in order to become a woman that she loves being and in the process, urging others to embrace themselves as they are and nothing less.

“Alison’s Cycle” is a reading of poetry from inside of the soul that reflects 5 days in a woman’s cycle. Emotional outpouring from past memories and childish doubts. Expressions of emotions bottled inside released in an artistic film. Alison Floersch opens her thoughts of past hates and coping with tormenting memories [and] child abuse issues.”

Check it out!