Voices uniting
against violence
One evening last November, Rebekah Long was awakened in the middle of the night by her boyfriend, who asked her to go for a ride with him. He drove her up to Tantalus, where without warning, he struck her repeatedly in the face and demanded she write him a check for $5,000. When she exited the car, he kicked her so hard in her side that she urinated blood for two days afterward. "I've known this guy for 12 years and he was my best friend," she reveals. "He totally changed my life forever."
'Speak Out'
Presented by Girl FestWhere: Studio 1, One North King St.
When: 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. tomorrow
Admission: $7 to $20 sliding scale donation
Call: 945-0996
But it wasn't the first time she'd been assaulted by the man. Earlier that same month, he had thrown Long through a closet and a glass shower door. For weeks, Long's employees at her Kapiolani Boulevard salon had watched their 27-year-old employer come to work with new bruises and abrasions. "I was totally brainwashed," she confesses. "The things he did, I kept justifying and no one knew what to do about it."
Through six months of legal proceedings, Long, with the help of friend Kathryn Xian, sought help. She was shuffled from agency to agency and was offered little more than use of a shared women's shelter. "To get a restraining order, I had to go through hell," says Long. "Me and Kathy were like, 'That's it! We're starting our own non-profit organization for abused women.' Through my journey, I found out where we needed to help women."
The pair began The Safe Zone Foundation in February to help women and girls break away from dangerous relationships and forge new lives, as well as to raise awareness about domestic violence and to help end it. As their first major fundraising campaign, Long and Xian, (with the help of the Domestic Violence Clearing House and Legal Hotline, the Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence and others), have assembled this weekend's first "Speak Out" multimedia event at Studio 1 on King Street.
A shindig that promises to be as educational as it is entertaining, "Speak Out" will feature music by Honolulu all-female DJ collective Sisters In Sound with Hope Atz, funk fusionists Quadraphonix, spoken word artists Katana, Kasi Nunes, Ted de Oliveira and others; film and video screenings from Xian's award-winning production with Zang Pictures and Jenny McCormack; plus visual art by Elea Dumas and dance exhibitions by Sami Akuna and Halau Lokahi Hawaiian Public Charter School.
"There needs to be more awareness on this island, even among the younger, cooler, hipper crowd," attests Long. "If your boyfriend slaps you, that's a problem and it needs to be addressed."
"It is a touchy issue for a lot of women and girls to admit they've been abused because they've got pride, too," adds Xian, who, like Long, would like to reach a youthful audience through "Speak Out." "We wanted to form this project to promote the beauty and value of women and girls to give them some sort of empowerment and self-confidence, but also to be a networking venue; a venue for social change."
While Long has recovered from her injuries, the emotional impact of her abuse lingers. She takes solace in knowing her efforts were not in vain and that in the end, her work will help others. "I just care a lot and I love women and I have to make sense out of what happened to me," she says. "I could just start to cry when I think about hearing that 'guilty' (verdict), because he is guilty and it was worthwhile and it was worth fighting for. It's too bad that a girl has to go through that much to win, but if I can do it, anyone can do it. Women just need to know their rights."
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