I know that poetry can go to the good. Fundraising through poetry works as a few years ago we raised enough money from poetry for the Guatemala Stove Project through chapbooks to convert words into the work of 3 stoves for the Maya in the Guatemala highlands.
Natalie Hanna of Battleaxe Press got the idea that an anthology about assault would create a safe forum for talking about what must be said. The result was the bird, philomela which launched at a special edition of the Sawdust Series. All the money from the poetry anthology goes to the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre and so far has raised over $700.
You can see pictures of the event here.
Jennifer Pederson was on the show talking about Sawdust Reading Series. In this episode of Literary Landscape we talked about the philomena chapbook which Natalie Hanna put together. It is so important that dismissal, silence, get-tough-love and derailing are not allowed to close people’s ears to compassion and to understanding how complex assault is to navigate. “Perpetrators” are not demons, and “victims” are not waifs.
You can listen to the episode there and hear the start of the song Epilogue: Beater. You can buy the whole song by local writer/singer instructor Jennifer Pederson’s and make a further donation to the rape crisis center at Bandcamp.
Ontario has launched a free legal advice program for people who have been assaulted.