‘Public Health Thank You Day’ in Nebraska
OMAHA – Without disagreeing, during the pandemic health workers have worked in the middle of exhaustion and exasperation. The Nebraska Association of Local Health Directors identifies November 22 as Public Health Thank You Day.
Road to Omaha – Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
Omaha, NE – On today’s episode of “Road to Omaha,” KVNO’s Brandon McDermott spoke with Oral Roberts head coach Ryan Folmar.
No Means No Fest
July 5th, 2017
Omaha, Ne “No Means No Fest”
Drincic: “I think the thing we were having was, we had all of these fantastic ideas of how to curb the epidemic of sexual assault and abuse in our community, but we really fell short because we didn’t have a way to implement it.â€
That is Ren Drincic, they/them President of the new non-profit organization in Omaha, Nebraska Sexual Assault and Abuse Program also known as NESAAP. She and vice president A.B. Khim are standing up for their community, taking previously generated ideas and have turned it into a place where people can work on and help prevent issues of sexual violence. Their upcoming festival is to raise money and awareness for victims and survivors.
Khim: “Sexual assault and rape is considered a pre-existing condition which is something that is something really mind blowing and it just baffles me. It’s like something that you didn’t ask for, you weren’t diagnosed with and it just happens for no reason. How are victims and survivors supposed to..I mean, rape kits are already over $1,000 which is insane but that accessibility is going to be inaccessible very soon. It’s going to have a lot of these victims and survivors out of pocket, more than what they already need to go through. And, having to go through that financial abuse is insane to me. Basically we raise money for those who especially come from a low socioeconomic background and fund them for these things.â€
On behalf of NESAAP Khim created the fundraiser called, “No Means No Fest†that empowers survivors and showcases local artists. The event will be held Saturday July 7th, at Midtown Art and Milk Run, both venues located on 25th and Harney.
Khim: “It’s basically to raise awareness about rape culture and sexual violence in our culture that no one ever talks about. But then also to embrace and empower survivors because there are a lot of survivors out there that want to have and fun and get out and take their lives back but can’t because of the fear that they will see someone that is their perpetrator or other things that could trigger survivors, so this night is about them. WE have over 20 different performers and that includes music, poetry, art and burlesque. I really wanted to push a more of a diverse scene. Me being a brown person, I go to a lot of shows and I don’t see a lot of people of color, or marginalized people so that is something I wanted to push with this is to have people of color, to have disabled people, to have trans people to come rock out and do their thingâ€
The art and poetry in the festival is women led and includes artist from Lincoln and surrounding areas, with the purpose of inclusion.
Drincic: â€The most important thing about that, I’m very data driven and from what I’ve seen, when it comes to abuse and sexual assault it mostly targets women in marginalized groups. It’s this whole thing where the one cause that we have been able to find for abuse has been a culture in which men have this power over women and abuse tends to be more common in intersections where a white man is dating a black woman because he has that much more power over her. So I think it’s incredibly important to not just consider this a women’s issue but also to consider this an issue for people of color because there is this intersectionality that contributes so greatly to the issueâ€
They/Them Presdient and Vice President A.B. Khim and Ren Drincic, inviting you the Omaha’s “No Means No Festâ€. It’s an all-ages show, and tickets are available the day of the festival, they will be taking donations in all forms.
Drincic: “And we have a lot of information on our website about how you can donate in all sorts of ways, we appreciate any form of donation. We would love to help support artists in our community by linking any local photography of Omaha and the surrounding areas on our website to local photographers, portfolios, in addition to that. You can donate your art to us to help us with visuals, you can donate money, we do have a patron if you’d like to make any continuing donations and we also take donations of time. We have an application available on our website if anyone would like to help us with any piece of our program whether it be selling merch at a table or helping survivors in compromising situations. You can find all of that information on our website including ways to get in contact with us, including our hotline.â€
For more information about the organization and the event you log on to their website, nesaap.org, nesaap.org or find them on Facebook by searching Nebraska Sexual Abuse and Assault Program.
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