DETROIT (WXYZ) — “It’s bittersweet. I keep looking at the sign and glancing up around me, I have so many memories here,” said Detroit Free Press reporter Jasmin Barmore.
For Barmore, it began as love at first sight as a teenager inside Northland Skating Rink. She would then go on to marry the young man she met seven years later but after enduring years of domestic violence, it would finally end in one of the worst ways.
“How did you know it was done? asked WXYZ’s Glenda Lewis.
“He shoved his fingers down my throat, head between car and console. I’m done!” said Jasmin Barmore.
Now it’s Jasmin’s mission to help other domestic violence sufferers put that pain in its place so they can continue moving forward in life.
She created a nonprofit for the LGBTQ+ community and others called, “How Understanding Something Helps” or HUSH.
“To be able to talk about your pain and to be able to cry about it and know that it's okay to cry and know that its okay to admit, this hurts me still. So, I am hoping that we’ll be able to, humanize the conversation a little bit more,” said Barmore.
Detroit artist Kyra, aka KMXPX, will join Jasmin for a first-of-its-kind event for the organization at Riverside Marina Clubhouse in Detroit where she will paint while Jasmin and other survivors speak about what they have been through.
“We are going to have 3 guests come in and they are going to retell, relive through poem painting a pic of what that pain that looks like for that person and once done, a silent auction,” said Barmore.
All the proceeds from the auction and the paintings will go toward, creating a way out of a bad situation.
“We’re going to raise money for a family or a person that’s living in a domestic violence situation, we’re going to help them with their moving expenses to get them completely out of that total situation,” said Barmore.
“I’m a firm believer that in order to heal from something you’ve got to first own it,” said Barmore. “You’ve got to accept that it happened to you and after that, you have to get past the stage of embarrassment, that’s why I know a lot of victims suffer. I stayed longer than I should have because of embarrassment and after you get past that able to talk about it and talking is healing.”
The event is January 28, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. Riverside Marina, 11000 Freud St. in Detroit.
Painting My Pain Event Rundown
6:30-7: Meet and Greet
7-9: Presentation of Painting My Pain
9-11: Afterglow featuring Live Entertainment
