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Predator, a song written by 23-year-old Avery Mandeville, was not an empowerment tool for the Middletown resident who works at Toast Red Bank, but one that changed the relationships in her life.

“I chose to share my personal and most honest stuff,” she said. “I wrote Predator in July just before MeToo became a huge hashtag and movement. I found myself not even choosing to be a part it but needing to be a part of it. As a result of Predator, I’ve lost people in my life who know that the sound is about them. The song became a statement that I made that people had a negative reaction to, but a lot of people had a positive reaction to it.”

Mandeville [at right] was among a group of musicians who came together Saturday night to perform in support of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault [NJCASA]. From folk to rock the lineup up of musicians entertained a pack room with songs that touched on the events theme.

“I gave a lot of thought to what I would be playing this evening,” said Tara Dente, who opened the evening’s performances.

The night’s bill included the aforementioned, Alexa Mazurkiewicz, Mack, The Vaughs, and Fiona Silver and event organizer and local musician Pamela Flores.

“This is a movement that I really do believe in,” Flores said. “It is very personal to me and I am sure it is very personal to those of you out there. Tell your story, be honest and we are all here for you.”

Flores said she first learned of the organization a year ago during a Babes In Business event, a female empowering networking organization run by three Asbury Park creatives –  Jennifer Chavez, Maggie Brown and Ciara Perrone.

The local musician, who spoke publicly almost one year ago about being sexual assaulted as a teen, has said she became furious by the media coverage on the Brock Turner case, the former Stanford University swimmer convicted last year of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Turner, who faced a 14 year sentence, was released after serving three months in a county jail.  

“I think it’s pretty clear why an event like this is so important,” Flores said. “With everything happening in the world right now and mainly in this country, with everyone speaking out in Hollywood and now in sports, it’s on society to change things. Because I am a musician and music is my outlet, I wanted to put this on to bring the community together.”

Flores said a part of her message is that young women should feel comfortable taking back their femininity and she hopes to provide a platform of solidarity that empowers the next generation.

According to NJCASA, nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetime. Founded in 1981, the nonprofit not only works with county-based rape crisis centers but also advocates for survivor-centered legislation.

“This has been a really crazy time,” NJCASA Executive Director Patricia Teffenhart told the packed room. “No one wants to utter words like rape, consent or sexual assault.”

“The organizations that are responding to emergency rooms at 3 a.m., serving a survivor while they are getting a rape kit conducted – that’s the real work that deserves recognition,” she said. “Begging for legislation to be introduced wasn’t a cool topic. No legislator wanted their name on a bill connected to issues leading to sexual violence or sexual assault.”

Teffenhart, a keynote speaker at the 2017 Women’s March in Asbury Park that drew an audience of over 6,000, said today she counts the organization’s successes not only for the legislation that has been introduced and passed but for the ones they have been a part of knocking down because they were not survivor-centered.  

“It couldn’t get more poetic than being here in Asbury today,” she said. When I have an opportunity to be in a room with people that I don’t have to women-splain to, it’s really nice.”

For more information about NJCASA, visit njcasa.org.

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