Working in 'the city of steel'

When it came to be my turn to have the notorious shirt, I thought to myself, “Why did I agree to do this? I hate writing! I do not do anything to end sexual violence!” But then I realized that I am an advocate at my local sexual violence center, where I go out on medical calls and take calls on the helpline.

My week with the shirt was pretty uneventful at first. I went to a famous bridge here in Pittsburgh to take a picture with the shirt with my little family, got all the way there, paid for expensive parking (I am not a Pittsburgh native and do not know the places to park yet!), and realized I did not bring the shirt with me! I took a picture anyway as you can see.

Midweek I did a helpline shift where I was able to be available for those that called.

At the end of the week, I was out on a medical call with another advocate (I wanted to shadow again because I had been gone for the summer). The survivor (as all survivors are) was an amazing, powerful person who reminded me why I am involved in the fight against gender-based violence. She managed to escape from the abuse and kicked on every door in her apartment complex while yelling for help until someone opened their door (this was very early in the morning). I loved being able to be a support for her while also being able to inform her of all that was happening and all that PAAR can offer. The SANE nurse was amazing (and is sadly moving out of state) and so was the detective. Both were sensitive to the victim's needs and did their jobs flawlessly.

Pennsylvania is a great state because it does a lot for victims of sexual violence. Victims can go to the E.R. and have the rape kit, prophylactics (Anti-STD medicine), and Plan B paid for. Pennsylvania also has a victims compensation fund that helps victims pay for some of the expenses that come up after being raped. I am so happy to be here working in PA with PAAR (Pittsburgh Action Against Rape). PAAR does absolutely everything they can to help victims, and they love their volunteers.

I have a darling daughter, and really, she is the person I teach every day about how to be an amazing human. I wholeheartedly believe in teaching one's family, community, and friends, even if just through everyday interactions, nothing big.

It is in our day-to-day that we learn what to value, how to help, and who we are.

It's an Empire State of Mind Kind of Thing - #notoriouspgv

These photographs are best seen when playing this in the background

When you have to serve New York City to eradicate gender based violence, you have to become part of conversations that keep up with our fast pace of change and an awareness that the global community is our actual constituency.  Advocates, activists and community members working this cause become immersed in stories of how violence can cause tragedies and trauma. We hear these stories in many different languages, each person and each replicated village requiring specific approaches, healing and a diverse sense of justice.  Serving in New York City means that lack of equality faces you in its immediacy and you have to face it back with a complete rhetoric that this is not a city which has time of inequities.  We can’t waste time in inequalities when the whole world is watching to see how we make it work.  People survive interpersonal violence in New York City by steadfastly identifying their supportive community, the available resources, opportunities to enterprise, grow and succeed .  When you are serving New York City to eradicate gender based violence, there is no time to let privilege intercept conversations, nor time to look the other way when the community that is most affected is right next door to you, when the woman surviving is taking the same subway train.  You can’t waste a New York minute when there are tears falling in city shelters that are too overwhelmed and over capacity to recognize holistically every story from women residents, who tell us sad stories of oppression through violence and abuse in places they once called home.  

This is the city where conversations of women empowerment, men contributing to the solution and disloyalty to heteronormative forms of violence in LGBTQ communities need to happen in the same rooms while existing three years into the future.  That is the actual pace of New York City, because the whole world lives here and the whole world is watching.  We also owe this pace to the people who are surviving. In any street corner, or in any subway train, crossing the bridges from one borough to the next, there is always someone trying to find their way home.  For many, home is somewhere that resembles a place they left behind in order to make it through, in the city that grew on them and captured their hearts.

New York City placed that urgency in me, and this sense urgency has been met excellently and up to par by the Program of Gender Based Violence at the University of Colorado, and the members of the cohort I am a part of: Cohort XV.  Perhaps the heavy influence of New York City’s hip hop sounds followed me to Denver and we decided to name ourselves:

The Notorious PGV.

But really?  Why are we the Notorious PGV?  Because we are advocates asking questions to challenge the daily routines which bring the initial fiery spirit of the anti-violence movement into dormancy.  We recognize that this movement can never be part of any status quo -devoid of creativity, innovation and afraid of what is radical.  We are the Notorious PGV because there are still people uncomfortable with accepting that Gender Based Violence is a social ailment that needs constant revisiting of values, structures, states of privilege, and ideals of womanhood that are equally accessible to everyone-ever inclusive of ethnicity, creed, gender, sexual orientation, and type of income earnings.  Every time we meet we word these aspects of the work fearlessly, shaking the roots of movement work and keeping our intentions politically aligned with survivors.  And we do so knowing that we are entering a world of leadership in program, policy and administration, where this spirit is at times quieted or silenced for the sake of institutionalizing and legitimizing our voices in processes of resource allocation.  While we become part of different organizations, agencies and policy processes, we do so knowing that we will look for the spaces where the movement fire will be kept alive and burning, so that we can continue working towards the world we visualize: free of oppressive interpersonal violence.  

We are the Notorious PGV because we seek to do this fearlessly, passionately and dedicated-an ideal that has been unfortunately become unpopular in too many places, but the members of this cohort are vowing to make this ideal a comeback.     

#notoriouspgv #Isthisathing - That spirit I just described is what makes this a real thing.

Word! Palabra!