From Racheal's Desk
The stage, the page, and the loud voices.
The marketing essays live with On Connection. This desk holds the rest: She Left, the personal essays, and writing that tells the stories needing to be told.
"Why didn't you just leave?"
She Left
Drama · Political · Tragedy · Four women · Sixty minutes
Three women stand in separate pools of light, answering the question society always asks survivors of domestic violence. Through interlocking monologues they reveal the psychological manipulation, the financial control, the threats, and the systemic failures that make leaving the most dangerous choice of all.
Then comes the turn. "I did leave," they confess, and they catalog how the system failed them anyway. Restraining orders ignored. Shelters full. Courts granting custody to abusers. A heartbeat runs beneath their testimonies, growing louder until it stops. In the silence, a fourth woman steps into the light and asks the final, shattering question.
Written as part of her own healing, She Left placed in the top ten of eighty-five competition submissions and is listed on the New Play Exchange, looking for its stage.
Published & awarded
Can We All Stop Using Adjectives When Describing Rape and Sexual Assault?"It's not violent rape. All rape is violent." On the language we use, and the hierarchy of suffering it creates.First place, Creative Nonfiction · River Voices, Spring 2025 · Read the journal (PDF) →Essay
Beyond the SmileFor every woman who has been told to smile when she wanted to scream, dismissed for speaking her mind, or expected to package her pain into something pretty.Second place, Creative Nonfiction · River Voices, Spring 2025 · Read it here →Satire
The House Was Asking For It"Their home was the nicest on the block. It was practically asking to be burglarized." A satirical trial where the victims are convicted, written the way sexual assault cases read.Read it here →Allegory
Sea of PebblesThe boulder we carry and the pebbles we blame. "Written months before I left, and as I reflect on it now, it feels more true than ever."Read it here →Contact
Bring this work where it's needed.
Producers, publishers, educators, podcast hosts, and program directors: if something on this desk belongs in your world, tell me about it. I read every note myself.
- Who you are, and what you're building or curating.
- Which piece you have in mind.
- Where it would live: the stage, the page, the classroom, or the screen.
Prefer email? hello@byrachealblackmore.com