Review by Abigail Vidals
“…We are not free until all of us are free…ask her story and then shut up and listen. Black, Asian, poor, wealthy, trans, cis, Muslim, Christian. Listen, listen and then yell at the top of your lungs. Be a voice for all those who have prisoner tongues. For the people who had to grow up way too young. There is work to be done… Lord knows there’s a war to be won.”
Halsey’s raging voice rang like cannonfire from the podium to the ears of thousands. The 23 year-old singer-songwriter told her story as a victim of sexual abuse in the powerful, five-minute poem, “A Story Like Mine”.
It was delivered at the 2018 Women’s March in NYC, on Jan. 20, the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Trump. More than 200,000 protesters showed up to the rally. The Women’s March was created as a worldwide protest against Trump, and to support policies and legislation for women’s rights, racial equality, LGBTQIA rights, and many other issues.
Halsey’s speech joined the larger movement, #MeToo, started in 2006 by Tarana Burke, a survivor of sexual assault. She wanted to raise awareness of sexual abuse and assault happening in her community, and support assault survivors, especially women of color. Burke’s movement spread rapidly when Alyssa Milano tweeted, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet”.
The hashtag has become a worldwide movement since. Halsey’s poem touches on many events of sexual harassment exposed in 2017.
“It’s Olympians and a medical resident and not one fucking word from the man who is President. It’s about closed doors and secrets and legs and stilettos from the Hollywood hills to the projects in ghettos.”
On Oct. 5, The New York Times published a story of women accusing Harvey Weinstein, a media tycoon, of sexual harassment. On Oct. 18, Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney tweeted that she was sexually abused by Lawrence G. Nassar, her former team doctor. Nassar, at the time, was being sentenced to 60 years in prison for child pornography.
Halsey spoke with a frustrated spirit energized to anger. The years have brought her, and the world she addressed, to a time of action. Now, together, many are saying enough is enough.
“It’s 2018 and I’ve realized nobody is safe long as she is alive, and every friend that I know has a story like mine and the world tells me we should take it as a compliment but then heroes like Ashley and Simone and Gabby, McKayla and Gaga, Rosario, Aly. Remind me this is the beginning, it is not the finale. And that’s why we’re here. And that’s why we rally.”