On January 25, at an experimental music concert at Kohn’s, an unknown person surreptitiously slipped a drug into the glass of wine of a woman audience member.

This type of abuse is all too common at Houston bars and clubs. We are calling on those who host experimental music concerts in Houston, both organizers and venue owners, to commit efforts toward maintaining safe spaces at our events for all attendees. We are calling on those who host events to have zero tolerance for violent abuse at our events.

Similarly, we are asking for our audience to be vigilant.

We have invited you to sign on to this document as an event host or audience member or both.

By signing, you are committing to the following:

• For hosts/organizers/venue owners: If it is clearly determined that someone has committed this or a similar type of abuse at an event, you will ban them from all future concerts. This is whether it happened at your concert or at someone else’s.
• For hosts/organizers/venue owners: You acknowledge that such abuse is all too common at public events in Houston. You will commit yourself and all staff members at events (bartenders, door persons, tech crew, etc.) to be on the lookout for abuse.
• For hosts/organizers/venue owners or audience members: If you are aware of anyone committing such an act or if you notice suspicious or unusual behavior that may indicate abuse of this type, you will share that information by emailing the address at the bottom of this document. Testimonials can be kept confidential by request, but we ask that they are not sent anonymously. That information will be shared with hosts/organizers/venue owners who sign onto this agreement.

If you have been victimized and want to share your account confidentially, it could help us connect the dots with other accounts. Feel free to send a message to [email protected].

We understand that coming forward about such a thing can be scary and vulnerable, and enduring this type of ordeal is painful enough. We also understand that silence keeps the truth in the dark. And that truth and information is needed to keep our spaces safe.

Sincerely,
The Coalition for Safe Spaces for Experimental Music
"Safe Spaces and Unsafe Music"
[email protected]

By lending their names to this document, Coalition members have committed to following through on the above measures for keeping our spaces safe by sharing information with all organizers/venue-owners who sign this document and by banning offenders from our events.

Coalition Members:
David Dove, Nameless Sound
Sofia Bernstein, Nameless Sound
Tom Carter, Internal Eternal
Pete Gershon, Orange Show
Garland Fielder
Sonia Flores
Ryan Hollaway
Danny Kamins
Rebecca Novak
Kalen Rowe
Spike the Percussionist, An Exchange of Noise
Elizabeth Bailey, JSB Music Room
Ruth Sosa Bailey, JSB Music Room
Kurt Brennan, Sound Exchange
Khon Lu, Khon’s
Anna Walker, Lawndale Art Center