Greater Baltimore Medical Center Archives

Today, we share some unreleased content from out of the Doc’s Castle Media Vault. Are you a fan of conscious music?

In 2014, I recorded a track that speaks on the life of a girl who’s a victim of domestic violence. It’s not your average Eve’s “Love is Blind” type of track. It’s my version of a story of a girl who was my best friend. Our relationship changed when I saw her transform before my eyes into a woman who believed in lies from a man full of broken promises to never hurt her.

I thought I’d share this song after I posted about Walk A Mile In Her Shoes, a GBMC’s SAFE Domestic Violence program 5K walk geared to help raise money and spread awareness about abuse because domestic violence is a subject that shouldn’t be glossed over. A victim of domestic violence doesn’t deserve to feel like they’re being looked over. It’s a serious matter that sometimes ends in unfortunate death for many men and women around the world.

Passion Peace is a narrative of what I saw my friend becoming after dating a guy who isolated her from everything she already knew and loved. It was my stern affection of love for her and my eagerness to tell her that she was and still is beautiful while her boyfriend profusely abused her.

It was recorded at the Dugout Dojo in Fall 2014 by engineer and Baltimore recording artist Flu_x. The Dugout Dojo is where I also recorded my hip-hop mixtape Songs From Da Dugout.

I made Passion Peace while we were no longer friends but used it as a message to tell her I still loved her more than the person who placed her in dangerous situations. I sent it to her in hopes that she would one day realize what she is worth.

If I knew any better, I would have contacted the many different domestic violence programs that could help her escape an unsafe situation. Programs like the SAFE program or My Sister’s Place Women’s Center both located in Baltimore City, could have helped stir my friend away from what was keeping her bound in her relationship.

Today, her and my relationship are far from what it used to be. What she went through torn between our bond. I don’t know how someone can change everything a person stands for and still claim to love them. But I saw it happen. I watched her change. She’s no longer with the guy who was abusing her and she’s no longer the same.

Do you have a domestic violence story to tell? Leave us a snippet in the comments below.

Have you read about GBMC’s Walk A Mile In Her Shoes 5K Event? Read GBMC Working to End Domestic Violence Through Gender Role Reversal on Doc’s Castle Media.

We’ve already seen the backlash of the RompHim on social media but how do you feel about men switching roles for a good cause?

Like every year, Spring 2017 is a season full of weekends for 5K Walks and Celebrations. This spring I went to a total of three 5K Walks, one of those walks being the GBMC Walk A Mile In Her Shoes 5K event, one of many programs geared to the education and ceasing of Domestic Violence amongst both Women and Men.

The GBMC Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event was organized by the Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s SAFE Domestic Violence Program, a program that provides crisis counseling, safety planning, advocacy and resource linkage for GBMC patients. It’s the only hospital in Maryland with such a program with as many services that it provides for its patients. The program helped aid over 300 individuals in 2016. Hearing a number as high as that lets someone in on the seriousness of domestic violence and the dire need for people to come out to support a cause to spread awareness.

The 2nd Annual Walk A Mile In Her Shoes 5K Walk was a huge success. Sponsors and participants raised over $41,000 to donate to an important cause. Three of the biggest sponsors of the event were Towson University, Auxiliary and Sheppard Pratt Hospital. Many others contributed in other ways such as entertainment and providing brochures and pamphlets of information about abuse. Giants Food Supermarket donated bagels, coffee, and CBS Friends and Neighbors Campaign provided music and free prizes to participants in the walk.

The GBMC Walk A Mile In Her Shoes event was full of a welcoming amount of over 250 walkers, a number that the chairman of the SAFE program Laura Clary hopes to increase in the coming years while they continue to organize events similar to Walk A Mile In Her Shoes.

Though a number of men only wore heels during the opening ceremony of Walk A Mile In Her Shoes, it served a great purpose of expressing empathy for the many women of domestic violence. Even if it only was for a few minutes, these men showed their concerns for the many women and men subjected to mental, physical, and emotional abuse.

View more photos of Walk A Mile In Her Shoes in the gallery below.

Domestic violence is an issue I’m very passionate about because I have love one’s who suffer the consequences of scars and burns from being emotionally involved in a relationship with someone who physically and mentally abuses them. It’s a serious matter that I often ponder how certain people are suddenly put into.

In many instances, I’ve asked victims of their reasoning for why they stay in a dangerous environment when they know that their situation is detrimentally unsafe. Each time, I was given the rationalize answer referring to what love is for the couple; like each situation is deeper than the surface. But I can never understand the justification of being abused.

There are programs available for both men and women to get involved in to help spread awareness of domestic violence and other forms of abuse in Baltimore, MD. The people who work with these programs are specially trained on how to deal with victims of mental, physical, and verbal abuse. So when it comes to counteracting justifications like claims that I and many others cannot rationalize, there are trained professionals that still can assist individuals into a safe place.

If a victim of domestic violence needed a place to find help, the Baltimore County Government website is a good place to start. It’s where victims can find the contact information for programs, like the 24 Hour Crisis Line, Turnaround, Inc., Department of Social Services, and more. All of this programs that help hundreds of cases of abuse from people as young as newborns to the elderly.

Do you know of any programs in Baltimore that aid victims of domestic violence? Leave your comments below to possibly help a person in need.