The IWWG Bi-Monthly Open Mic is thrilled to feature author Michelle Bowdler, reading from her book, Is Rape a Crime?: A Memoir, an Investigation and a Manifesto, on Thursday, May 20, 2021, 2 p.m., ET, LIVE ON ZOOM and free to all.

Michelle Bowdler’s book focuses on the history of sex crimes in the US and the ways they have been minimized and neglected by law enforcement and our society for decades, and why. The book also includes her own story which includes national activism work she got involved in to look at the hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits in warehouses and crime labs across the country, and a final journey decades later to understand what happened in her own unsolved case.

She Said meets Lucky in Michelle Bowdler's provocative debut, telling the story of her rape and recovery while interrogating why one of society's most serious crimes goes largely uninvestigated.

The crime of rape sizzles like a lightning strike. It pounces, flattens, destroys. A person stands whole, and in a moment of unexpected violence, that life, that body is gone.

Award-winning writer and public health executive Michelle Bowdler's memoir indicts how sexual violence has been addressed for decades in our society, asking whether rape is a crime given that it is the least reported major felony, least successfully prosecuted, and fewer than 3% of rapists ever spend a day in jail. Cases are closed before they are investigated and DNA evidence sits for years untested and disregarded.

Website Link: https://michelle-bowdler.com/

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