Halsey Shares Poem On Sexual Abuse At The NY Women's March

Yesterday was the second Women's March and it looks like New York City has got a new annual tradition on its hands. Last year, the first Women's March took place on the day after President Trump's inauguration; this year, the event takes on even more seriousness in the #MeToo movement.

Helped along by beautiful spring-like weather, several celebrities spoke at the event in New York City, including musician Halsey. In the past, she's been vocal about her struggles with mental health and suffering through a miscarriage right before a show in Chicago. All of which was fuel for an incredibly visceral and potent poem called "Story of Mine" that she recited at the Women's March. Because as she explained, she can't do a speech unless it rhymes.

"It's 2009, and I'm 14, and I'm crying. I'm not really sure where I am, but I'm holding the hand of my best friend Sam," she begins. She then goes on tell the story of her friend, who was raped by an older man at an after-school program, and how they went to a Planned Parenthood together to seek healthcare for Sam.

Next, Halsey takes us back to "2002, and my family just moved," and tells her own story of sexual abuse. "I'm too young to know why it aches in my thighs, but I must lie, I must lie."

"It's 2012, and I'm dating a guy, I sleep in his bed, and I just learned how to drive." Halsey discusses how this boyfriend demanded sex, whether she wanted it or not, by dangling his financial support over her head. "He says I can't say no to him, this much I owed to him, he buys my dinners, I have to blow him."

Halsey then relates a story about how, in 2017, she's achieved a level of fame that she felt would protect her from sexual predation. She was horrified to learn that it didn't, and tells another story of being groped by a man."What do you mean this happened to me?" she cries — a moment that, sadly, most women can deeply relate to.

She ends the poem by realizing that "no one is safe as long as they're alive," but calls for us to treat our neighbors "kindly," because so many women share the same stories. Halsey, in a tweet, said that reciting the poem was hard for her to do, but it may have just become the next rallying cry for all of us.

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