by SOPHIE BIRD
On Monday, August 17, Bloomington musician Krista Detor will perform during “Why We Fight: Voices from the Struggle for Reproductive Justice,” a livestream event from activist organization Voices of a People’s History.
The event, produced and cast by Bloomington activist Anna Strout, will also feature writings and poetry from women across the country on the topics of bodily autonomy, birth control, abortion, childbirth, and equal access to healthcare. Detor’s song “Strawhouse,” which addresses the political undermining of Roe v. Wade, will be featured during the livestream.
“‘Why We Fight’ will feature a lot of really high-profile actresses and activists and people like that, so I’m really just honored to be a part of this program,” Detor says. “I feel like it’s allowing me to establish myself in solidarity with people who are trying to stand firm against the erosion of the rights of women.”
While Voices of a People’s History is a New York-based organization, the event’s Bloomington ties go beyond Detor and Strout.
Detor will participate as part of the Strawhouse Collective, which also features Bloomington musicians Dena El Saffar—of Bloomington-based Middle-Eastern music group Salaam— Detor’s multi-instrumental daughter Aurora Detor, and recent Bloomington High School North graduate Marielle Berin, who will join Purdue University’s American Music Repertory Ensemble in the fall. Additional musicians from around the country round out the collective.
“I wanted women of color, women from different parts of the country, just sort of a representation of at least two generations of women facing down this issue that we thought was settled,” Detor says.
Detor says she hopes the performance will inspire Bloomingtonians to look into Voices of a People’s History and become more involved in the fight for women’s reproductive rights.
“I feel like at this point in time I have to take a firm public position because I have daughters and because we are at an extremely critical junction in our human existence and our arguments need to move to more rational realms and away from this,” Detor says. “If we can make a moral argument to commit atrocities to entire populations of human beings, I don’t see the moral that argument can hold against choice.”
For more information on “Why We Fight,” and to tune into the livestream, click here.
