Don’t Tell (fixed media)
CW: rape, sexual assault. Run time: 5′.
As a survivor (or, on the worse days, a casualty) of sexual assault, it can be difficult to create work that addresses the topic with integrity without compromising my own self-care. Don’t Tell, the piece that started Letters from the Aftermath, was the result of almost a year’s work to begin speaking to the realities of sexual assault and trauma. It’s available for personal listening through Bandcamp or performance licensing through the form below.
Description
CW: rape, sexual assault
As a survivor (or, on the worse days, a casualty) of sexual assault, it can be difficult to create work that addresses the topic with integrity without compromising my own self-care. Don’t Tell, the first piece in a larger endeavor to paint a well-rounded sonic picture of life after sexual trauma, is the result of almost a year’s worth of consideration. The piece focuses on the negative effects of victim-blaming, placing the audience inside the mind of an unknown narrator as she recounts the ways her world thinks she should have protected herself. The structure of the piece relies on text delivered by male and female voices as well as processed found sounds. In the concert hall, Don’t Tellcreates an atmosphere of necessary confrontation, requiring audiences to consider their own roles in creating a future well-suited for the safety and wellbeing of the entire populace. It is my hope that Don’t Tell will foster open conversation about the effects of sexual violence and how to better protect those individuals who might not always be able to run from the things that go bump in the night.
This piece is part of Letters from the Aftermath, a larger body of work I am constructing that discusses the realities and aftereffects of sexual assault and rape culture. For more information, click here.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Brianne Borden, Adele Etheridge Woodson, Julian Iralu, Tess Galbiati, JP Lempke, Cameron Robello, Jeremiah Sweeney, and Chris Marchant for letting me borrow their voices for an emotionally exhausting piece. Y’all really brought this one to life. Thank you.
Don’t Tell is available for purchase and high-quality listening on my album, WEAKNESS, available on Bandcamp. (For performance licensing, scroll down past the videos.)
Watch me perform choreography by Sofia Klass alongside Sofia, Alicia Bobb, Emilee Iuvara, and Kezia Madarang as part of my capstone performance, face the mirror, in 2019:
Watch Megan Holehan perform her original choreography to Don’t Tell in 2017:
Past performances:
- Recording released on my EP out of the dark (2020)
- 3/3/2019: with dancers Sofia Klass, Kezia Madarang, Emilee Iuvara, and Alicia Bobb, Roy O. Disney Concert Hall, Valencia, CA
- 4/9/2018: California Electronic Music Exchange Concert, UC Santa Barbara
- 4/28/2017: with dancer Megan Holehan, Choreographer//Composer, Tempe, AZ
- 4/1/2017: with movement/theater artist Tess Galbiati, Recital Hall, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
- 2/23/2017: Creatives for Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
- 2/13/2017: Katzin Concert Hall, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ (world premiere)
Interested in licensing Don’t Tell for performance? Fill out this form and I’ll be in touch!
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