The Epstein Files are difficult to read because they remind us that power so often protects itself at the expense of the most vulnerable. For many of us who were once young girls already aware of our bodies in ways we shouldn’t have had to be, this isn’t distant information. It’s recognition, and it can be retraumatizing.

Many of us are encountering these files alone through headlines, screenshots, endless scrolling. There is so much information and so little space to breathe, to ask questions, to feel what’s being stirred.

This is not how humans are meant to process grief or rage.

That’s why we are hosting a virtual gathering to collectively process the Epstein Files. We will use Leigh Gilmore’s The Tainted Witness to guide our discussion, but you don’t have to do anything besides show up.

Questions that will guide our conversation:

• If society claims to be unequivocally opposed to child sexual abuse, how do powerful men repeatedly evade accountability for exploiting children over decades?
• What connections exist between the cases of Epstein, Diddy, R Kelly, Andrew Tate, and other powerful men who have used their influence to groom and traffic children?
• Why are survivors’ testimonies so often dismissed until they are corroborated by leaked emails, recordings, or documents produced by perpetrators themselves?

This conversation will be facilitated by scholars of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and approached through critical, feminist analysis. It is not a therapeutic space, but a collective, intellectual, and political one.

You don’t need to have the right words. You don’t need to explain your reaction or justify why this matters to you. You are welcome as you are.

February 18 · 7pm EST

Virtual

Pay-What-You-Can Pricing

Hosted by The Delvion Institute