Sadie Dupuis of Sad13
By Libby Webster, Fri., Jan. 20, 2017
In December, Sadie Dupuis performed inside at Mohawk as Sad13, a political pop solo project that just last week was confirmed for South by Southwest in March. The merch table held its usual fare: stickers, records, and then a stack of papers Dupuis had printed off – bystander intervention and de-escalation techniques.
Dupuis has always been vocal about the need for live music venues to act as safe spaces. In 2015, her Boston band Speedy Ortiz set up a hotline fans could text at shows for help with harassment. When rolling it out, she tweeted, "Sometimes as a showgoer I've felt unsafe & didn't know what to do. As a performer I've always had an easier time getting security's ear."
In the wake of the presidential election, Seattle's Death Cab for Cutie tweeted about their shows being safe spaces and the need for love and mutual respect, yet provided no tangible plan on how to enforce that. Dupuis was critical of the lack of a plan for how to make that a reality.
"It could be something as easy as having a phone number that people can text, or a very clearly designated security booth, or having someone on-site that's trained in de-escalation or outreach," said the singer by phone late last year. "It's hard for me to say for a band operating on that scale, but I feel like just saying, 'We are not bigots,' isn't enough to ensure that people in the crowd feel the same way."
Dupuis is hesitant to put all of the responsibility on the artists. As someone who's spent the past several years touring, playing hundreds of venues, she says accountability also falls on the people behind the scenes.
"Certainly there are places we play on tour that I love to return to because I know they have a safety policy posted, and I've seen them act on them. I think larger-scale venues could do a lot to just have a system in place every day for what you can do if you're experiencing harassment at a show. Generally, every city has maybe two or three big promoters, so it's not that hard to come up with a system or a phone number, just something that people can do to know who they can approach if they are in trouble.
"I rarely go to a large venue that makes that kind of thing clear," Dupuis reveals. "Of venues that aren't DIY or community art spaces, I can think of four venues I've ever played that had policies posted or let you know who to talk to if there's trouble. I'm on tour 10 months of the year, generally a different venue every night, I've only seen that four times.
"It's nice when bands take on these tasks, but it's even more important for the venues to be in solidarity for that."
