2015 Grammy Awards: Brooke Axtell exposes human trafficking during Katy Perry intro
Over 25 years after being trafficked, Brooke Axtell stood before millions at the Grammy Awards to introduce Katy Perry’s rendition of “By the Grace of God.”
“Authentic love does not devalue another human being. Authentic love does not silence, shame or abuse,” Axtell said in a spoken-word piece. “Please reach out for help,” Axtell implored. “Your voice will save you.”
Brooke Axtell at 2015 Grammy Awards photo/ screenshot CBS coverage
When Brooke Axtell was a child, her nanny took her to the basement of a strange house and sold her to men who raped her.
Axtell’s speech, which followed a video public-service announcement about rape from President Obama, lasted less than two minutes and put Axtell’s experiences center stage.
In a piece titled “What I Know of Silence,” written for an anthology of women’s writing in 2012, Axtell recounts in graphic detail how Jim abused and threatened her.
“Jim tied me up and called me a whore. He gave me to other men who pay to rape little girls and film it for their private pornography collections,” she wrote.
The essay goes on to describes the basement where she was trafficked, furnished with a cot, a cage, chains and a camera, and the shame she felt for what happened there. Even after Jim left, that shame kept her from reporting him.
Axtell carried the secret of her abuse into adulthood, when she again became a victim of sexual violence , this time at the hands of her boyfriend.
“I was terrified of him, and ashamed I was in this position,” she said in her speech at the Grammys. “I believed my compassion could restore him and our relationship. … But my compassion was incomplete because it did not include me.”
It wasn’t until her boyfriend threatened to kill her that Axtell sought help. She told the story of her abuse to her mother, who connected her with a local domestic violence shelter.
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