Protected: You Are Here

Introduction to You Are Here by Jet Moon

You Are Here – peer to peer survivor writing – is my second survivor writer’s platform; building on the first: Playing With Fire which took place in 2021. 

You Are Here offers an expanded series of workshops, a survivor writer’s group, via Spread The Word, and a series of interviews for the Wellcome Collection archives. Alongside this I had time to write and finished my novel Artists Are Demons, with Olumide Popoola as my mentor. 

In addition to one-off survivor writer’s workshops, which provided a structured space where survivor writers could come together to explore common issues in writing as survivors. I decided to create a survivors writing group, because I wanted a share a more ongoing space with peers. The group was aimed at writer’s developing an ongoing body of work; and offered an opportunity to meet regularly, to exchange and support each other in our creative work. 

The writer’s group met every two weeks: five online sessions on Saturday mornings, spaced across October to December. Over the course of the zoom sessions writer’s shared new work – read pieces out loud, discussed common themes, brought current problems to the group; gave and received input. Between our zoom sessions we communicated via Slack message board: posting new work, having conversations, sharing our writing struggles and triumphs. The group provided impetus, encouragement, identification and a place to try things out. By its nature it was an intense space where people brought their full powerful and vulnerable selves, it was also a place of camaraderie, listening deeply to each other, and cheering each other on. 

This online showcase and its print counterpart, highlight survivor writing and feature commissioned pieces from the survivor writers group.  

YAH uses an open definition of survivorship including but not limited to survival of sexual violence. There are many things people survive, homophobia, racism and transphobia, I wanted people who identified with the need to share space with other survivors to feel welcome. All writing forms were included: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blogs, monologues, performance texts, critical writing, writing which incorporated graphics; in workshops and the writer’s group there was no instruction to write specifically about survivorship. 

It has been my experience that while as survivor writers we may come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have different experiences of survivorship; we often share similar resonant effects of our experiences. 

The interviews which are part of YAH were conducted with writers in my personal network, some of them Playing With Fire alumni. Survivor writers who spoke at length about their development, process, cultural surrounds, struggles and determination as writers. Playwrights, film makers, novelists, poets, academics, researchers, editors, organisers and activists; sharing their outlook on how and why they write. 

The online showcase and zine feature short quotes from the interviews; the interviews in full can be accessed in both audio and transcript form. This content and other materials related to the project will be added to the You Are Here Survivor Writers archive at Wellcome Collection. 

The more I have space to listen and share with my peers, the more I believe in our shared wisdom. It’s from my peers that I’ve learned to clearly recognise my own experience and to believe in something other than the shallow narratives written ‘about us’. Peer to peer spaces have shown me new possibilities – for envisioning who I am or what I can be – they have given me strength. I hope that this collection of writings and interviews can bring a sense of solidarity and support to other survivors and writers. 

Jet Moon

Listen along as you read

“Find your cheerleaders, find the people who are 

going to support you in having a voice… 

This Survivor Writers Group: it’s just such an 

amazing thing to be celebrated by other people. 

I think that is incredibly important to find those 

spaces where your most tremulous voice can have its beginnings. 

To do it alone is one thing; to do it with other people 

– giving you that swell of listening approval – 

is something else. So find your cheerleaders, find 

your little group of people that you can be 

together with.” 

Jet Moon is a multi-disciplinary artist who writes, performs and collaborates on fierce work for radical social change. Collaborating for many years with the LGBTIQ, kink, sex worker, disability and survivor communities they belong to, dedicated to creating intimate spaces of sharing, visibility and resistance.