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Open mic event becomes clearinghouse for victims of violence
Listen to me: Artist Leolintang Aniesmunfarida recites poetry while dancing and painting an abstract piece onstage during an open mic event called Speak Up and Support, organized by House of the Unsilenced, UN Women and Institut Français Indonesie for the campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence
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isten to me: Artist Leolintang Aniesmunfarida recites poetry while dancing and painting an abstract piece onstage during an open mic event called Speak Up and Support, organized by House of the Unsilenced, UN Women and Institut Français Indonesie for the campaign 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. (Courtesy of House of the Unsilenced/Intania Fitriani)
A woman stepped off the stage and wept hysterically while she was hugged by a female friend after telling a story nuanced with dark humor about being raped by her own father. She was then escorted out of the auditorium to receive psychological first aid from officers standing by.
As the afternoon drew on, many female (and some gay male) victims of gender-based violence took to the stage to tell their stories in various formats — from essays or poetry to skits and short stories — to purge the emotional excess baggage they have been carrying as they struggle to overcome the psychological repercussions of the violence.
A recent open mic event called Speak Up and Support in Jakarta, organized by House of the Unsilenced, a division of literary platform InterSastra focusing on gender violence, in collaboration with United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and Institut Français Indonesie (IFI) has become a clearinghouse for these survivors to share their stories.
The event held on Nov. 30 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. was part of an international campaign called 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
More than 30 survivors bravely took to the stage and poured out their stories, which revolved around domestic violence, family conflicts, sexual abuse, prejudice and discrimination — the multiple facets of gender-based violence. They also openly told the audience of the pain they had to deal with in the aftermath of such violence, including suicide attempts and self-harm.
One of the afternoon’s highlights was a moving performance by a poet (name withheld for ethical reasons) who criticized how toxic masculinity manifested itself in violence against women.
“Let us all be humane by the end of our lifetimes, before we eventually return our bodies to Mother Earth,” went a passage from the piece. With tears in her eyes, the performer called on men to give up their arrogance and violence by remembering humans’ eventual mortality.
An artist named Leolintang Aniesmunfarida wowed the audience with a multidisciplinary piece: dancing onstage while spontaneously painting an abstract piece on a canvas and reciting poetry on resisting gender-based violence.
The evening was not all gloomy. Despite horrific stories of abuse and violence, these performers also highlighted the resilience of women to heal and restore themselves from trauma.
Apparently, the session has given the women (and gay men) a sense of camaraderie and solidarity with fellow survivors. Nimo Adam Ahmed, a female refugee from Somalia, also felt this.
“I really appreciate this space that my Indonesian sisters give me,” she said. “It’s amazing to see how women always have the strength to take care of other people, despite being hurt and neglected by the men.”
Novelist and InterSastra director Eliza Vitri Handayani said it was a truism that creative endeavors played a vital role in the healing process.
“To express what they have buried deep down all this time into a concrete creative work can relieve survivors, not only [through them] telling their stories to other people but also [through] the sense of pride they can obtain that they can transmute their pain into something new, which is also appreciated by other people,” Eliza said.
Eliza asserted that the voices of survivors played a vital role in gender justice advocacy.
“Their stories can help more people understand that healing from the repercussions of sexual violence takes such a long time. Hopefully, the public can also hear these survivors’ difficult struggle to seek justice,” she added.
To help survivors who got upset upon being emotionally triggered by these stories, Eliza said her organization also provided psychological first aid by trained psychologists from the Pulih Foundation specializing in gender violence.
