When I began researching the topic of sexual harassment at gigs back in 2018, I couldn't have known that there was going to be a pandemic in 2020, or that it would turn the once thriving and lucrative world of live music into a smoking ruin.
For a long time in 2020, when I was ready to actually write the piece, I held off because I knew it wasn't the right time. There was a moment in late summer/early autumn when it looked like it might be a good moment, but that moment suddenly passed and I was forced to put it back on the shelf again.
The piece was eventually finished in March 2021, and it was published at the beginning of April in the wake of the Sarah Everard murder and revelations about rampant sexual harassment and abuse in UK schools. Ideally I'd rather these events hadn't happened and that my piece had felt less timely as a result of that, but, given the sense of rage and injustice both events inspired, it really did feel like the best moment to publish it.
I'm still really proud of this piece, and it has been reasonably well read, generating a small amount of positive feedback. But it was hard work, and it was emotionally draining, so I was pleased when I could eventually hit publish and Let It Go.
Photo by Hanny Naibaho on Unsplash
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