Disclose

03/13/2018

A REMINDER:

DISCLOSE will be hosting a Survivor Salon next Monday, March 19th. We look forward to seeing you there!

02/26/2018

Hello, community!

DISCLOSE is starting our Survivor Salons back up again for the month of March. Our intention is to keep these going indefinitely.

The Salons are where DISCLOSE began in 2013 - secure meeting places for folks who have experienced assault to come together to be witnessed, heard and validated. In these spaces, a survivor shares an artistic work (one of their own, or one that inspires them) which serves as a jumping off point for us to hold transformative dialogues in which we may experience support and inspiration for our vision of a world without s*xual violence.

These spaces were deeply impactful, and the community built during these times has lasted. It is time for us to bring them back!

PLEASE JOIN US on March 19th in Oakland from 630-830! More details in fliers below.

Email [email protected] with any questions.

*we know the word 'survivor' can sometimes be confusing, or not fit our definitions of where we may be in any given moment. For the purposes of this flier, we are defining 'survivor' as any individual who has experienced s*xual violence.

12/08/2017

"New celebrity video circulating "I will not be silent" compelled me to repost this video produced earlier this year by Disclose, shown as part of a bi-coastal action produced in collaboration with Force
Upsetting R**e Culture.

This video, We Will Not Be Silent, features the voices of folks who have experienced s*xual assault, speaking to the direct ways DT reminds them of their abusers. On the eve of the inauguration, DISCLOSE and FORCE projected this video on both the Oakland Police Department and the Washington DC Convention Center to draw connections between State and Federal abuses of gender-based power and enactments of s*xual violence.

The people in this video, and almost everyone involved in its production, are LGBTQ+ and predominantly POC. Sexual assault impacts our communities in ways that are site-specific, our experiences of intersectional oppressions complicating every aspect of the moment of impact and its aftermath - the conditions of our assault, our ability to disclose, whether we are believed and validated, our access to support, whether or not responsive support exists and more.

When the speakers in this video proclaim "We Will Not Be Silent", when we marched through the Oakland streets that night and chanted "WE WILL NOT BE SILENT" in front of lines of cops, we were engaged in a transformative act of resistance and resilience, one in which visions for a new world were tilled, seeded and nourished, laying fertile ground for them to bloom.

Today, I am thinking of who gets the privilege to speak and why. I am thinking of who we pay attention to, who becomes "the face" of a movement, and how that is often at odds with who is most deeply impacted, those many who have been shouting - screaming - into a what feels like the void. I am thinking of the public dialogues surrounding s*xual assault we are currently witnessing, and the many backs upon which they were built. I am thinking of the myriad who have spoken and were never heard. I am thinking of the continual cooptation and overshadowing of the work of POC, LGBTQIA+ folks, disabled folks, immigrants and undocumented folks in this movement by the white cult of celebrity and institutional power. I am thinking of magazine covers, I am thinking of Tarana Burke. I am thinking of the charge given to us by Audre, to speak even when our voices shake. I am thinking of the earthquakes that live in our bodies, those that we inherited from our ancestors, and those that crash and shatter through our living skin.

I post this video today to honor the many voices who contributed to it, all of the incredible compas I have been honored to work with in this movement as well as those I have admired from afar, and the many visionaries who came before us whose work so deeply influences our practice. I am indebted to every individual who has refused to stay silent in the aftermath of s*xual violence. I am indebted to you, and I will continue in the struggle beside you until the last breath leaves my body." - DISCLOSE Member, J. Stahl

*excerpt below. full video in comments.

This is "WeWillNotBeSilent 3mins" by Jadelynn Stahl on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

10/16/2017

From DISCLOSE member, Jadelynn Stahl re :

I have noticed it in a shudder. In a fidget. In a scratch.

I have recognized it in a side glance, in a raise of an eyebrow.

I have understood it in a breath, in a sigh, in a scream in a laugh.

I have felt it in a tremble. In the electric vibration of a shaking shoulder, a rippling sob.

I have smelled it in the sweat that drips fear from our skin. I have tasted it in the tears of a lover as we proclaim to one another that we are real, that we are valid, that we exist.

I have witnessed it knowing no gender, no race, no class, no ability, no age, no s*xual orientation. I have known it to wear no particular skin, to claim no particular identity, to do no particular kind of work, to engage in no particular kind of s*x.

I have known it to have no standard of perfection, to shape itself into no box, no statistic, no qualifying speech from a person in power. It refuses to conform to one-hundred-twenty characters or less.

I am acutely aware of how fickle it can be to name - for whom disclosure is allowed, just who can wear that mantle with its liberatory grace upon their shoulders, who is deemed worthy and who is not. I am aware of who defines this worthiness.

My feed is full of . I am moved in the way that I am moved every time I witness a person who experienced s*xual violence speak. Our visibility is powerful beyond words. Our bodies once broken, still broken, drip revolution.

I am called to honor so many others in this moment as well - those who cannot or should not or can't yet or don't know. Those who aren't sure or maybe not or mine-wasn't-as-bad-as-theirs. Those righteously mitigating dangers, calculating their next move, spinning in the web of survival strategies. Those for whom the risk is too great. Those for whom the person that caused them harm doesn't fit the accepted narrative of "perpetrator". Those whose safety still depends on loving the person that harmed them.

We witness and honor you. We witness and honor you in all of the ways that your bodies speak, even when your words cannot.

My identity as a human is inextricably linked to my histories as a person who experienced childhood s*xual assault, intimate partner violence, attempted s*xual assault as an adult, s*xual harassment and coercion. It is linked to the violence experienced by members of my family, my communities, the intergenerational traumas of my ancestors that I carry upon my back. This identity is complex.

Sometimes I feel like a survivor. Sometimes I feel like a victim. Sometimes I feel like a warrior goddess. Sometimes I feel terrified and caged. There are days that I feel broken and days that I feel mosaic. I never feel 'healed'. I am not sure what this word means, as it exists in the world, or if I can trust it.

I know that this movement is built upon our blood, our tears and our sweat. I know that we are the architects of our own transcendence, the creators of another world in which many are possible - a world in which s*xual violence is abolished and destroyed.

You, all of you, will always have a seat at that table - those who are called to speak and those that cannot. Those whose words are understood, believed and accepted and those whose are rejected, scorned and belittled. Those whose experienced are affirmed by the dialogues that currently exist around s*xual violence, and those who are still desperately hoping to be heard.

There is no one way to say 'me too'.

If you long to build with us, please reach out to me. Our movement carries no price for admission. If you need to speak, please know I will listen, compa. And I will believe.

03/08/2017

Today, we stand in solidarity with the many who are unable to take a day off of either paid or unpaid labor to participate in the Women's Strike.

We stand today, and every day, with women of color, with trans women, with undocumented women, with mothers, with caregivers, with broke and poor women and with disabled women. We stand with all women.

We stand with all women who are being s*xually intimidated or exploited in their jobs, for all women for whom taking a day off could mean termination. We stand with all women who are experiencing physical, psychological and financial abuse at the hands of partners, who are trapped in their homes - women who now are even more bereft of a way out, as gentrification makes survival for many nearly impossible. We stand with all women survivors of s*xual assault and trafficking, women who need their majority-women therapists, doctors and other care providers to show up to work today to witness and support.

We stand with trans women who may find themselves, once again, invisibilized by pink knitted hats or signs equating Women to genitalia.

Today, we stand with all women, and call for survivor-led resistance, defined outside of the realm of second wave feminism.

Today, and every day, we assert that another world is possible.
Together, we hold a vision of a world without gender-based violence, and we will not stop fighting until we see that vision become a reality.

In Oakland, California, multiple survivors of gender-based violence have come together to articulate a video declaration against the Trump administration, and to…

01/20/2017

Images from the incredible projected action that Force: Upsetting R**e Culture undertook at the Washington DC Convention Center, using text and images from DISCLOSE's video, "We Will Not Be Silent".

"On the eve of the presidential inauguration, survivors of r**e and abuse projected building-sized statements of how Trump reminds them of their abusers in Oakland, California and Washington DC. The stills are from a video by Disclose, which was released online today during a Twitter storm coinciding with Trump’s swearing in ceremony.

As Trump supporters and protesters poured into the nation’s capitol for inauguration weekend, the front facade of the Washington DC Convention Center was lit up with statements like “In this man’s words I feel the anger of the man who pinned me to the floor when I was 14”. These statements, along with images, were taken from a video by Disclose, an Oakland-based art-activism collective. Tonight, the convention center will host an inaugural ball, celebrating Trump’s presidency. Luminous Intervention projected the statements in collaboration with FORCE.

In Oakland, California, Disclose organized survivors and allies who marched to the Oakland Police Department headquarters, where they projected the video upon the building’s front facade. The Oakland action was in protest of the inauguration of the "Ra**st in Chief" and o the repeated s*xual exploitation, coercion and intimidation of s*x worker Celeste Guap, whose story made national news in 2016.

Photos by Nate Larson and Casey McKeel."

On the eve of the presidential inauguration, survivors of r**e and abuse projected building-sized statements of how Trump reminds them of their abusers in Oakland, California and Washington DC. The stills are from a video by Disclose, which will be released online today during a Twitter storm coinciding with Trump’s swearing in ceremony. Join **e and .silence on twitter from noon to 1pm EST.

As Trump supporters and protesters poured into the nation’s capitol for inauguration weekend, the front facade of the Washington DC Convention Center was lit up with statements like “In this man’s words I feel the anger of the man who pinned me to the floor when I was 14”. These statements, along with images, were taken from a video by Disclose, an Oakland-based art-activism collective. Tonight, the convention center will host an inaugural ball, celebrating Trump’s presidency. Luminous Intervention projected the statements in collaboration with FORCE.

In Oakland, California, Disclose organized survivors and allies marched to the Oakland Police Department headquarters, where they projected the video upon the building’s front facade. The Oakland action was in protest to the repeated s*xual exploitation, coercion and intimidation of s*x worker Celeste Guap, whose story made national news in 2016.

Photos by Nate Larson and Casey McKeel.

01/20/2017

PLEASE VIEW AND SHARE WIDELY!

*TW: Content about gender-based violence.

"We Will Not Be Silent" is a video created by DISCLOSE, though it included the voices, the artistic brilliance, the raw vulnerability and sheer power of so many individuals here in the Bay Area and beyond. We cannot express our gratitude enough for the offering these survivors provided here: this incredible gesture of resistance.

The words of the survivors in this video speak for themselves. We speak out against this administration, we name how this man in power reminds us of those who have caused us harm, and we articulate a vision for a world without gender-based violence.

In this man, we see violence. And WE WILL NOT BE SILENT.

This video is captioned. Image description and full transcript can be found here: http://www.disclosesilence.org/we-will-not-be-silent.html

This video features the voices of multiple survivors who have come together to assert that our collective vision for a world without gender-based violence persists…

01/20/2017

On the eve before Trump's Inauguration, survivors of gender-based violence and allies marched to OPD to let the Ra**st in Chief and Ra**st Police know that !

Organized as part of Anti Police-Terror Project's 120 hours of direct action to and enact ! Big thanks to San Francisco Projection Department for helping project our video and voices. So much love for everyone who showed up, shared their stories and helped us claim this space and time.

The projected video, created by DISCLOSE, was part of bi-coastal direct actions in Oakland and DC, in partnership with Force: Upsetting R**e Culture.

This is just the beginning. Join us in future efforts towards the long-haul fight for a world without gender-based violence and s*xual assault. Write us at [email protected]
See you in the streets!!!

*The full video, titled 'We Will Not Be Silent', was released during the inauguration: https://vimeo.com/199628959

01/20/2017

Thank you to everyone who came out to the rally tonight, to those who helped us organize, and especially to those who shared their stories - your voices are powerful. This is just the beginning - tomorrow 1.20 we will be sharing our video featuring survivors, and then we will keep fighting, keep being present for each other, keep building a world without gender-based violence

01/20/2017

Screening video now OPD.

01/20/2017

01/19/2017

RESIST!!!! Tonight! 630 Pm Oscar Grant Plaza!

The Trump transition team is proposing dramatic spending cuts all in the name of a "skinny budget" plan.

01/18/2017

"To the man in power, and to those that support him, we are ready for you.

Together, we hold a vision of a world without gender-based violence, and we will not stop fighting, until we see our vision become a reality."

A short clip from the video "We Will Not Be Silent" by DISCLOSE.

This video features the voices of multiple survivors who have come together to assert that our collective vision for a world without gender-based violence persists in the face of the impending administration.

The full video will be released on Friday, January 20th at 9:30 am, PST, and is part of a series of coordinated actions in partnership with FORCE: Upsetting R**e Culture.

A short clip from the video ‘We Will Not Be Silent’ by DISCLOSE. This video features the voices of multiple survivors who have come together to assert…

01/18/2017

Tomorrow, survivors will meet together on both coasts to take action and articulate a space of solidarity and resistance, organized by DISCLOSE of Oakland and FORCE of Baltimore! On Friday, DISCLOSE will be releasing a video project, featuring the voices of several survivors of gender-based violence; a video which unapologetically declares that, in the face of this administration, We Will Not Be Silent!

Please help us get the word out! Sign up for our Thunderclap! It is simple. Go to this link and click on "support" through your social media spaces. Choose which of your sites you would like to post our video to (Facebook is great!), include a personal message (if you wish) and VOILA! At the same time, the day of the inauguration, this video will be posted to your page.

There is a catch - we have to get a certain numbers of supporters for this to work! We're over half way there, but we need more folks. There is just 1 day left!

Your time and action are very much appreciated. Thank you for your support! See you tomorrow in the streets!

I just supported We Will Not Be Silent on // .silence

01/15/2017

Resist Gender-Based Violence! - Oakland Solidarity Rally & Creative Direct Action: 6:30pm, Thurs 1.19.17 at Oscar Grant Plaza, Oakland.
www.facebook.com/events/1808692219384897silence **e

01/12/2017

Keeping the conversation going the day of the inauguration! This event is organized and led by the filmmaker, Sian Taylor Gowan, and MISSY, an Oakland-based organization working with s*xually exploited youth. Check it!

“SURVIVING INTERNATIONAL BOULEVARD reveals the complex reality of domestic child s*x trafficking through the experiences of two women from Oakland, California. Driving along International Boulevard’s dark streets, a mother recounts her own wild determination to rescue her 15-year-old daughter from a s*x trafficker "boyfriend." Night after night, combing the dangerous streets of East Oakland, she never gives up on her child. Switching to daylight, a nonprofit advocate and survivor of s*xual exploitation shares her extensive experience helping young victims get the help they so desperately need. Driving along The Blade as they call it, Sarai Smith Mazariegos, co-founder of MISSSEY.org and founder of SHADEproject.org, unveils her personal story while breaking down the raw truth about victims and traffickers as it unfolds on the street around her.

Surviving International Blvd” a film on s*x trafficking of children and women on International Blvd in Fruitvale. The discussion will be led by a speaker from MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth) and the filmmaker Sian Taylor Gowan."

“Surviving International Blvd” a film on s*x trafficking of children and women on International Blvd in Fruitvale. The discussion will be led by a speaker from MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth) and the filmmaker Sian Taylor Gowan. 6:00pm - 6:30pm Receptio...