MARN ART + CULTURE HUB is excited to host ‘Exploring the Power of the Arts to Tell Your Untold Story’, a panel discussion about humanizing the experiences of survivors of sexual violence and finding strength, community, and justice through the exploration of the arts.
Join us on Thursday, August 1st from 5-8pm for a panel discussion and Q&A. The discussion will give the participating writers, musicians, and student artists the opportunity to share their unique experiences and how the program personally impacted them.
Content Warning: This discussion, as well as the poetry and visual art represented at the event, includes topics such as sexual assault, abuse, and violence
Follow the contributors on Instagram: @lotus_legal @annadaood @fieldreportmusic @art.with.ashlyn @rhiannakvasquez
This free community event is made possible through the generous sponsorship of Odvant Creative
@odvant
About the Panel:
Anna Daood is a Senior at Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design majoring in New Studio Practice. Working mainly in the realm of two-dimensional visual art and in the medium of oil paint, the subject matter of Daood’s work is mainly figurative. Her work deals with the interpersonal relationships between people and aims for viewers to be able to connect with the people depicted, even without knowing them personally. She aims to create spaces that support these beings and create environments to capture emotion, vulnerability, and comfort.
Anna participated in LOTUS’ Untold Stories program in 2023 and her visual response art can be found in LOTUS’ newly published Untold Stories 2024 magazine.
IG: @annadaood
Chris Porterfield is a songwriter, singer and guitarist. He is best known for his folk-rock project Field Report. He has toured with many legendary artists, including Emmylou Harris, Richard Thompson, Aimee Mann, Counting Crows and Bon Iver. He lives in Milwaukee with his wife and daughter.
Ig: @fieldreportmusic
Fb@ officialfieldreport
Bandcamp: https://tinyurl.com/fieldreportbandcamp
Headshot photo credit: CJ Foeckler
Ashlyn Bledsoe is a Senior at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She volunteered at LOTUS Legal Clinic as an illustrator working with the writers last fall 2023. She’s passionate about making art that reflects women leadership, empowerment, and finds healing through her work.
Ashlyn’s visual response art can be found in LOTUS’ newly published Untold Stories 2024 magazine.
IG: @art.with.ashlyn
Rhianna Vasquez:
I became connected to LOTUS Legal and Rise and Thrive in 2017 through the Voice and Faces Project writing workshop. I was learning how to speak up and advocate for myself while being a wife, mom, college student and working full time.
I consider myself so lucky to have found a community of people who respect me and my writing.
Growing up in a sexually and financially abusive home I felt shut away from the world. Forced to grow up too quickly and never thought my voice mattered. It was when I found out I was having my son I knew I had to break this generational cycle.
Though it hasn’t been easy I am so proud of the woman I am today and continue to work hard on myself to be the best mentor and fearless advocate that I can be.
IG: @rhiannakvasquez
https://wifemothernomad.weebly.com/
Featured in: Mudita Magazine, We Are HER, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Untold Stories (2017) and Rise and Thrive (2020).
Dr. Austin M. Reece is Director of Therapeutic Arts and Advocacy at LOTUS Legal Clinic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he provides trauma-informed, Arts & Humanities-based programming for survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking. He edits Untold Stories Magazine which publishes survivor writings alongside visual art responses from community artists. He also teaches philosophy, most recently at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and Mount Mary University. Previously the Education Specialist in the Sexual Assault Unit at the YWCA of the Sauk Valley, he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Boston College, two Master of Arts degrees from University College Dublin and Marquette University, and his doctorate in philosophy from Dublin City University where he wrote a dissertation titled, “Explorations of Pathological Mourning, the Problem of Guilt, and the Tasks of Poetry.” His essays and poetry have appeared in books and magazines, most recently in Just in Time: Moments in Teaching Philosophy (Pickwick Publications, 2019), Restorative Justice: Promoting Peace and Wellbeing (Springer, 2022), and Iterant Magazine, Issue #11 / Spring 2023. He lives with his wife and daughter in a house made of cream city bricks.
Abbey Brooks participated in the Untold Stories program through LOTUS Legal Clinic as a writer in September 2019 and November 2022. She is also a part of the Rise & Thrive program with the concert in September of this year. Abbey is a survivor of human sex trafficking and has found assistance and support through LOTUS Legal Clinic. As a mother, fiancé, environmental services manager, and working on her Bachelor of Social Work degree, she is excited to see what life brings.
Abbey’s poetry has been published in LOTUS’ Untold Stories magazine (2019, 2022) and her poetry will be featured in the upcoming Rise & Thrive music project.
