Lexie Bean on Nostr: This October marks 15 years of working directly with survivors of domestic violence / ...
This October marks 15 years of working directly with survivors of domestic violence / sexual assault. This is my ID from my entry-way, when I volunteered for a rape crisis hotline in rural Ohio and continued that work for 4.5 years. This was well before I reckoned with my own childhood sexual abuse experiences. Since then, it has taken many shapes - facilitation with schools + non-profits + independently centering survivors, trans survivors, taking routes of storytelling workshops or training staff or restorative justice circle-keeping; DIY and collaborative performances around the US and Canada; short films and soon feature length ones dancing with the topic; several anthologies as an editor and/or contributor, books that are fiction for kids and non-fiction for adults. Figuring things out with the RAINN National Leadership Council. Etc.
I absolutely do not have it all figured out and believe the most value I bring to these projects is my lived experience and cycles. There have been pockets I have been wildly burnt out, have martyred myself and put myself in worse than precarious situations. All that being said, this work in its many shapes has extended my life. It has offered me accountability for being better to myself. There were times it offered me accountability for getting up the next day because I know people were/are relying on me. It has taught me a great deal about asking for help, showing up as I am, and managing expectations of others (still working on this for myself).
If you met me or we became close because of this path, I just want to say - candidly - I wish life circumstances were different so we would have met another way. Yet, I hope that in the process of knowing each other we can be reminded we are much more than what happened to you, me, your loved one, and how our bodies handle(d) it. I am wishing us all a little bit more ease.
I absolutely do not have it all figured out and believe the most value I bring to these projects is my lived experience and cycles. There have been pockets I have been wildly burnt out, have martyred myself and put myself in worse than precarious situations. All that being said, this work in its many shapes has extended my life. It has offered me accountability for being better to myself. There were times it offered me accountability for getting up the next day because I know people were/are relying on me. It has taught me a great deal about asking for help, showing up as I am, and managing expectations of others (still working on this for myself).
If you met me or we became close because of this path, I just want to say - candidly - I wish life circumstances were different so we would have met another way. Yet, I hope that in the process of knowing each other we can be reminded we are much more than what happened to you, me, your loved one, and how our bodies handle(d) it. I am wishing us all a little bit more ease.