Julie Jewels Smoot

This composition creates space for that reconnection. The sounds move gently, inviting listeners to notice what is present without judgment. There is no requirement to feel a certain way. No expectation to force awareness. Only an invitation to listen. To notice.

“Shut Up and Listen to Survivors” operates less as a protest poem and more as a clinical case statement rendered in voice. Written in 2016 in response to survivors of military sexual trauma (MST) being heard but not meaningfully responded to during U.S. Senate proceedings, the poem articulates a familiar trauma dynamic: testimony offered in good faith, followed by institutional non-response.