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OUR ISSUED RESTORATIVE JUSTICE STATEMENT REGARDING AN ONGOING SITUATION THAT WE MUST TAKE ACCOUNTABILITY ON: 

There is nothing more amazing than to see an idea blossom into something bigger than you could ever imagine. Bringing community together through the love of poetic expression has been a labor of love and something Spoken Views Collective has worked tirelessly to achieve. 

Over the last 16 years there have been many challenges, many successes, and key moments of support. We have been blessed to have many community partners who have allowed us to use their spaces and for that we are beyond thankful. But navigating new spaces, new ideas, new partnerships, and new community support/participation takes patience and communication which we have tried hard to uphold. 

The opportunity to do Monday Night Poetry as a weekly event at a bar was a bit overwhelming and worrisome after crawling out of a global pandemic. We not only lost a lot of momentum in our previous planning, but also the participation of some strong poets. It took about 6 months of keeping the doors open and believing in what we were doing to get us to where we are today. We have had some amazing talent touch our stages, we have witnessed some extraordinary growth from our participants, and have built some beautiful relationships from this opportunity. We are forever grateful to those who show up for the love of poetry. We cannot do any of this without the support of our community. 

As stated in our mission statement, we seek to provide a platform and safe spaces for spoken word expression as well as build a community of spoken word artists and poets. Our platforms are built through collaboration between us and local businesses that allow us to use their spaces. Without these spaces we simply could not operate. We offer a safe space through our listed guidelines of expectations of each event we advertise. We have designated people on site at our events whose job is to observe the social climate of the event, looking for moments when we may need to take action (especially if requested by individuals) to ensure the safety and access to the event overall. 

The building of community is important to us and can only prosper through clear communication, transparency, and a belief in making progress over perfection when it comes to addressing conflict that is brought directly to our attention. We are committed to doing our best to make the public aware of what we can do and are doing to address issues as they arise. 

And since our events now take place in local businesses we now have limited power over how we can control who comes in and out of the locations of our events. 

We bring this up because we want our community to be made aware that recently some guests at an event left feeling rather uncomfortable, upset, and even unsafe. We were made aware of a few uncomfortable situations months prior to the event, all of which took place outside of our events after they had concluded but did involve the same individual. We engaged in various conversations with those involved and took all of the action steps at our disposal. Unfortunately we did fall short during an event in limiting entrance access to the individual whom we had been made aware of to cause safety concerns. Though our understanding of what we could do in terms of preventing access to the space was communicated, due to the type of event it was, we understand that we could have done more. The event went on without conflict or physical harm, but we were made aware that our inactions caused great distress and anger to some in attendance. 

So what can we do moving forward? 

If a situation happens outside our venue of use, to where accusations of assault (sexual and/or physical), harassment or anything that warrants action from authority, we suggest contacting police and/or the owner/manager of that place of business to see what can be done. 

If that person shows up to our event, please make us aware of the situation so that we can offer you support in the form of making sure someone is with you the whole time (sitting with you, escorting you to the bathroom and outside to your vehicle). In some cases we can try and speak to the individual to make them aware of their presence causing discomfort to others at our event, but only after the situation has been assessed and we don’t feel safety is at risk through confrontation. We will always take immediate action if something violating our policy is happening during our own programmed events. 

It is also important to note that as a non-legal entity, SVC is limited in the steps we can take to prevent access to the physical spaces that we are now hosting our events at. We are guests of these businesses and are made to follow their rules when it comes to who is allowed in. We want to apologize to those whom this affected, and as the director, I will take personal responsibility for avoiding one conflict that caused another. I am deeply sorry. We do appreciate that this was brought to our attention so that we can learn and grow from these type of situations. Again, progress over perfection.

We are open to discussing this matter further for those that need more clarification in how we addressed this ongoing situation and what steps we took prior to the event. We understand that as we grow and take on new endeavors there will be missteps and mistakes. We appreciate everyone who has helped us grow and become better. Thank you for your support.