Five women dressed in black stand in a line while the audience waits patiently. As the first words are spoken, the entire audience becomes very quiet. No one shuffles in his or her seat. No one speaks. They just listen.
They listen to the words of incarcerated women telling tales of being raped, beaten, tortured and abandoned, during which some members of the audience are moved to tears.
They listen to phrases like "You ain't been beat by your own mama," "He then proceeded to rape me" and "If I ever left him, the result would be the death of my children."
These words were recited during "Any One of Us: Words from Prison," a performance of writings from women in prison wanting to tell their stories, presented in Smith-Buonanno Hall last Thursday.
Two writings from "Any One of Us" are original works by women from Rhode Island's Adult Correctional Institute. Tab Glavin, who co-produced the event with Shanna Wells, said she hopes to present the stories at the prison next year.
Other writings come from the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Mich.; Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, N.Y.; Broward Correctional Institution in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; and San Francisco County Jail No. 8. They were read by volunteer actresses Rhonda Araujo, Kim Baker, Kristen Butler, Carolyn Mark and Maria Mendes.
According to Glavin, the concept started as a writing workshop that Eve Ensler, writer of the "Vagina Monologues," ran for 10 years.
"The words were so very powerful" that they evolved from just a writing workshop into not only a performance but also a book and a film, Glavin said.
The different stories that were told are moving, and they are real.
One is about a 9-year-old girl who was drugged and raped by her brother.
Another is about an incarcerated woman who was raped by a correctional guard and threatened with "major misconduct" if she told anybody. "My body was no longer mine," she said.
One girl was raped by two men in an abandoned building. "I crawled out of that building," the performer said.
There were multiple stories of severely abusive husbands and boyfriends. "If this is love, then please hate me," one prisoner wrote.
"You beat me, I let you," another performer said.
Writing these stories down was "very cathartic for these women," Glavin said.
This event is meant to show the complexity of imprisoned women's situations and "bring attention to end violence against women and girls." It is bringing the issue out and "throwing it in people's faces," Glavin said. "You need to care about this."
"Any One of Us" was hosted by the Coalition Against Relationship Abuse, the Sexual Assault Task Force and the Alpha Chi Omega sorority.
The proceeds went to OpenDoors, a program that provides long-term case management services for former prisoners reintegrating into the community.
Abuse victims constitute 79 percent of women in federal and state prisons, and female prisoners are three to four times more likely to have experienced abuse than male prisoners, according to a pamphlet distributed at the event. Ninety percent of women now in prison for killing their husbands or boyfriends did so in order to protect themselves from violence.
"People need to hear the truth," Glavin said. "There's a story why this woman is going to jail."
"It doesn't justify it, but it certainly qualifies it," she added.
The recitations have a clear progression from acts of abuse toward these women to their feelings of anger and ultimately revenge to punishment for their retaliation.
"You say, ‘Lock them up.' I say, ‘When were they free?' " one woman read.
"You say, ‘An eye for an eye.' I say, ‘I long to see,' " another added.
A panel discussion about issues affecting women in prison followed. Four participants answered questions posed by Wells and the audience.
Sol Rodriguez, executive director of OpenDoors, said prison is particularly difficult for women because they have "lost years of their lives, years of their children's lives."
"Women tend to suffer more quietly," said panelist Koren Carbuccia from SER-Jobs for Progress. "Sometimes things hurt so bad" that women tend to just put them aside, she added.
To help these women, judgment must be withheld, said Liz Tobin Tyler, director of public service and community partnerships at Roger Williams School of Law. "Listening is a huge part of it," she added.
"They just need somebody to be a friend to them," said panelist Robyn Frye from Providence Re-entry Initiative. Frye added that people often get too caught up in statistics, and there is "no connection to a face, no connection to a soul."
A woman's situation behind bars does not preclude the fact that she has an amazing story to tell, Carbuccia said.
The event was presented by Until the Violence Stops: Rhode Island, a week-long festival bringing attention to violence directed toward women. This is the festival's third year in the state. Other parts of this festival included multiple performances of "The Vagina Monologues," a peace photo exhibit, a sex trivia night and an all-male event, which were all fundraisers for organizations formed to aid women, Glavin said.
This event is "the hardest to hear," Glavin said. "It's very staggering for you."
"It's very shocking," she said, "but it's real."
