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Faces of the Iowa Voices Project!

The next phase of the Iowa Voices Project is underway. This October as part of our Domestic Violence Awareness Month activities we will hold a traveling photography exhibit featuring the portraits of the 31 amazing Iowa Voices Project participants.

The exhibit be open to the public and will travel to nine Iowa cities throughout the month. The rough itinerary is below. Please check back for details regarding the exact times and locations. Feel free to e-mail Sarabeth Anderson at sarabetha@icadv.org with any questions. You can also visit author and photographer Katie Thompson's website for exhibit details. Or, visit www.booksbykt.com/photography.php for the photo log of this exciting month.

October 3	Des Moines	DMACC Urban Campus, Bldg. 1, 11:00 to 8:00, reception at 5:30

October 7	Quad Cities	Scott County Community College Library. 11:00 to 8:00

October 10	Keokuk	River City Mall

October 14	Creston	Southwestern Community College (room 180) 11:00 to 8:00, reception at 6:00

October 16	Council Bluffs	Iowa Western Community College, reception 10:00 to 12:00 exhibit open throughout the day

October 21	Forest City	Waldorf College

October 23	Ottumwa	Indian Hills Community College (in the Pitt), 11:00 to 8:00

October 28	Ft. Dodge	Iowa Central Community College, Ace Building 11:00 to 8:00

October 30	Sioux Center	to be announced

Click here for our Iowa Voice Project photo gallery and links to the survivor stories. Or, click on the right for PDF versions of the stories.

Love and hell in Iowa

by Katie Thompson

In the last 11 weeks, dozens of women across Iowa have told me their stories of love and hell. Bullets, knives, money, power, sex, and kidnapping. Chaos and pain. Hope. Love. And even...joy?

I couldn’t make this stuff up.

And I’ve tried. As 'Kate Iola' I’ve written two novels, both thrillers, each featuring a tangled plot, a manipulative villain, a smart woman, and a few bullets and knives. But they were just fiction.

Then along came the ‘Iowa Voices Project,’ an idea hatched by the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The plan was to interview women across Iowa, one for each day in October (National Domestic Violence Awareness Month), to publish their stories in newspapers across the state, and eventually to publish them in a book. I was to be the official interviewer and writer.

I thought the interviews would be like pulling teeth. After all, this is the Midwest, and I wanted to ask the women about, you know, um....sex...and love and control and other very personal things. Nonetheless, I hit the road and started my rounds. I went from Sioux City to Iowa City, from condo to farmhouse, interviewing grandmothers, students, nurses, skydivers, clerks, artists, computer programmers, mothers. Women.

So: Did they talk?

Yes. All I had to do was turn on the microphone. The stories poured out. Could I use their real names? Shoot their photos? “No problem,” they said. Police reports, affidavits, crime scene photos, 911 recordings, videotapes, medical records? “I’ll run fetch them from the closet,” they said. Glasses of pop sat untouched, ice cubes melting, for two, three, four hours as they told me their story, jumping back and forth in time over sagas that lasted five, 10, 40 years. Some of the women told me things they had never said out loud. Some had never seen a counselor; talking to me was the first time they had reached out. A few of the women, despite the police reports and fear, have never told their family what was really happening behind the scenes; their stories, in print this month for the first time, will do just that.

And nearly all of the women, unsolicited, blurted out this unfinished statement: “If my story helps just one woman....” Translation: Make my hell useful and it won’t hurt so bad.

Some of the women started their interview slowly, watching me, quietly checking me out to see if I understood--really understood--how they could stay with a partner who did these things to them. Then they would drop a bomb: “My stepson was abusing me, too.” “I started using prescription drugs.” “He raped me the night of our wedding.” Many women told me they had nightmares after I first called, just thinking about telling their story to me.

I had nightmares after they were done.

No matter. It’s my duty. I have much to repay to the excellent support services that saved my life here in rural Northwest Iowa. For the record, I’ve seen a bit of that love and hell myself, with a bank robber and a bit of strangling thrown in.

I am Kathleen Thompson, story 13.

INFO BOX

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