submitted by Casey L. Sundahl, New Creek, WV

Read more »

submitted by Colleen Clark, Ashfield, MA

I was a simple child once. I lived in a house.

When I was 11 I sat on a toilet at my Grammar School. I investigated the smell of dried blood in a paper lined receptacle.

I didn’t understand as I didn’t belong, not yet. Read more »

submitted by Sahag Gureghian, Los Angeles, CA

When I was little, I wanted to be Cinderella, smiling every time my tiny fingers skimmed over the yellowed pages of my favorite book. It was torn and aging but I kept it under my pillow and felt safe knowing it was there. My mother would come into my bedroom every night and read it to me before bed. As her calming voice acted out the story I knew so well, the enchantment of overcoming struggle lingered inside my ignorant brain since I didn’t know any better.

When I got older, my mother stopped her nightly visits and started drinking. My father gambled our money away and instead, he was the one who snuck into my bedroom while my mother passed out on the couch. Every night, just as I was about to drift to sleep, he would approach and kiss me roughly on the mouth. I would try to pull away, but he’d grab my arm and kiss me harder. As I’d struggle to break free, I wondered when my fairy Godmother would come and rescue me.

“Be a good girl and give daddy what he wants,” he’d say and I remember wishing he wasn’t my daddy. Read more »

submitted by Sabrina Hawthorne, Boston, MA

submitted by Corrine Bayraktaroglu, Yellow Springs, OH

Read more »

submitted by Renee B, KS

I’ve decided after thirty years of suppressing my feelings of shame, guilt and being afraid,  that it was time to break the silence of my abuse. I am sharing my story as a healing process for myself, but to give other survivors a hope for recovery.

If I had a chance to go back in time and redo any part of my life, would I?  Or If I only knew back then what I know now would I change any part of my past?  My answer would be no.  Although I would never willingly put myself through the pain and trials again, I wouldn’t change the outcome.  If I wouldn’t have gone through these times, I would have never become the stronger person I am today.  My wounds have healed, but the scars remain as a simple reminder that something good can emerge from painful situations.

I could never have envisioned that my life would be forever changed by various experiences . At the age of nine my parents divorced. A girlfriend of mine, thinking she was being comforting, molested me. This happened on several occasions and deep inside I knew it was wrong. I did not understand the complexity of the issue, so it was easier to stop being friends with her. If we were not friends, than it would stop and go away. I was confused and ashamed, so I told nobody. I wanted to forget, so I buried those feelings deep inside. At this point, I was forced to grow up at the age of nine. Read more »

submitted by Steven Adam ‘Joaquin’ Drake, Escondido, CA

Read more »

submitted by Dorothea Czarnecki, La Antigua Guatemala, C.A.

Read more »

submitted by Aaron Alon, Houston, TX

click to play: Breaking the Silence by Aaron Alon

I began work on Breaking the Silence knowing only that I wanted to write a piece about child abuse, a horrific social illness which is alarmingly pervasive in our society.  Aside from writing a brief text – which is sung by the soprano, who represents a small child singing a children’s song of her own invention – I sought to have the direction and social statements of the piece guided by the interviews of survivors: the freely-spoken words and/or the writings they chose to share.  These interviews compose the tape portion of the piece and tell, in words, stories more powerful than a writer could manufacture or a composer could mimic.  My work on this piece allowed me to bring their stories together, to interweave them, always seeking to have their words understood, but allowing the audience to experience, through spoken vocal polyphony, the struggle of breaking the silence, of having one’s words heard.  I am aware that the piece is controversial.  My only hope is that the volunteers who shared their stories will gain from being heard and that this may help others to break their silence too.

The four survivors who were interviewed were Mike Migura, Michelle Fellow, “SafeAtLast,” and Anonymous.  In live performance, the piece is performed in surround sound with a live soprano (Laura Botkin on this recording) and a soprano on tape (Angela Mortellaro).

submitted by Steven Adam ‘Joaquin’ Drake, Escondido, CA

Compelling To The Nights Shoring Up Wounds!

Through “Grapes of Wrath” villainy disdained!
-Marvel at magic’s alchemy-
For a silver thread up to Heaven’s Gate,
In poetic verse beyond restraints…
Tilling the soil in breadth of substantiation
In hearth of heartache’s relief.
Calling out of the distance echoed
Off walls of primordial affairs -stalled by
Compliance in depth of artist merits.
No longer mortified. But relied on… pictured
In breath of the air that we breathe sustained.

Flying through windows in safety’s eye of
The soul in sight of the spirit’s development.
Although, past those whom brutalize the
Innocence in birth of one’s own Rights
To live for sanctity’s beauty worn up
No body’s sleeve -transparently-
For causes of truth’s wisdom in thoughts
Mindful of who we are for Humanity’s Being.
Beyond ‘sly wits’ that manipulate laws -outside-
Of Peace of the sword… sworn by the word!

Double edged -slippery slope- in light of
Confessions discerned, forevermore, knocking
On hearts that beat the drums in cadence of art.
Compelling to the nights shoring up wounds in
Island dreams off the coast of continental divides.
Reaching out beyond despair, profound to those
Whom veritably care for the risk in bounty of
Enlightenment spared… for love beautified.
In nexus of test of countenance dared… for
No shadow of doubt for clarity realized here!

Read more »