Resilience. Survival.
And a new novel.
By Christa Desir
Participating in The Voices and Faces Project’s two-day testimonial writing program for survivors of gender-based violence and other human rights violations changed Christa Desir’s life. Here the critically-praised young adult novelist writes about the power of The Stories We Tell, and the fellow workshop participant who inspired Christa’s first book, Fault Line.
“In 2011, I participated in the first Voices and Faces Project testimonial writing workshop. Entitled The Stories We Tell, this is a two-day writing workshop geared toward survivors of gender-based violence and other human rights violations. I have long been affiliated with The Voices and Faces Project. I am one of the founding members and remain president of the board. The mission of the project is to give a voice and a face to survivors of sexual violence so that myths about rape can be dispelled in media, in culture, and more importantly in people’s minds.
The writing workshop is a natural offshoot of this mission. It’s not a “healing” workshop so much as a workshop to teach survivors about the power of testimony in changing culture. The workshop itself is full of important readings: from Martin Luther King to Sandra Cisneros to Primo Levi. And the writing exercises are what ultimately led me to a first draft of Fault Line.
The two days in that workshop changed my life. Not just because for the first time I was able to find a voice in my writing, but more because of the stories other people told in that room. Over and over again I heard horrifying stories of unimaginable violence followed by absolutely amazing tales of resilience and survival.
In that room I met a beautiful woman named Sarah who was gang raped with three friends on the Appalachian Trail. This went on all night until she and her friends finally hid in the trees and the perpetrators were too drunk to track them. When she got home and went through the trial, things were equally as bad for her because there were no rape shield laws at that time to protect her from the defense attorney’s horrifying scrutiny of the girls’ sexual past or the media’s printing all their names, ages, and schools in the paper. Her story cut me to the bone and yet her survival has been the thing I keep going back to when I’ve felt that there was little hope for anything ever changing. Sarah changed my life. In the same way that every survivor I’ve ever spoken to or advocated for in hospital ERs has changed my life. They have all become my sisters and brothers. My family in sorrow and survival.
When I sold Fault Line, I always knew that half of whatever I earned from that book would go back to the survivor testimonial writing workshop. Because I want other survivors to have access to something like this. I want them to be able to find their own voices and write their own stories. I want them to be in a room with other survivors and know that there is hope, there is a way to make it through, and that they have people who want to listen. Because of Fault Line and my readers and the writing community, I have now been able to fund two additional writing workshops. And The Stories We Tell has grown. Other people have participated in it and helped to get more funding. Last year we did five workshops. This year, we have plans for more. I am so proud of the work that we’re doing with survivors and so incredibly grateful for all the people who have come forth to donate, offer assistance, spread the word, help in whatever way they can. You have all helped me and other survivors more than you can ever know.”
Christa Desir is a founding member of The Voices and Faces Project and the author of several young adult novels including Fault Line, Bleed Like Me and Four-Letter Word.