Justice? Or...Just Me?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that Black women suffer death at a partner’s hands more often than women of any other race. Black women were also found most likely to be shot to death; 57.7 percent died of a gunshot wound. The study found that over half of all female murder victims are killed by intimate partners and that 98 percent of the homicidal partners, regardless of race or method used to kill, were men. This study looked at murders from 2003-2014. Globally, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, reports of domestic abuse increased. The domestic violence I survived happened in 2003.

With this project, I'm trying to bring awareness to domestic violence one show and book at a time. Justice? Or...Just Me? started out as a ten minute monologue with the intention of it one day becoming a full length show.

It is now a trilogy: Justice? Or... Just Me? The Bite, The Fight, The Flight. The first in the series, The Bite, came out summer 2021 with subsequent parts coming out in consecutive summers.  The Bite premiered in the 2021Hollywood Fringe Festival and the book is now available on Amazon in three formats. The story is based on my testimony being a domestic violence survivor. The goal is to tour with the shows. Each show will be followed by a Q & A. Each show and book will come out in the summer as a tribute to my deceased friend's birthday.

The funds raised go towards production costs. Production costs include theater rental, marketing costs, salary for staff (director, musicians, videographer), programs, and props.
The hope is that my story will help remove the shame and encourage others to share their stories and to take action to leave.  It is also the goal of this project to inspire legislative change and the financing of real resources for those caught in the throes of intimate partner violence relationships.

Domestic Violence doesn't always look like what we think it should. In my story we follow Dominique "Nikki" Mills as she navigates motherhood and the all too real complex consequences of her choices.
Why don't you just leave? We hear it all the time. She did. Leaving is the most dangerous time for a victim.

"Writer, actor and activist Lorinda Hawkins Smith's compelling solo performance Justice? Or...Just Me? intricately remixes incisive text and soulful vocal rhythms and textures to examine a Black woman's encounter with law enforcement, domestic violence, and her interracial marriage to a White man." - REDCAT