Empty Playground: A Survivor's Story

by Callen Harty

When most people think of child molesters they think of children lured into vans or victims of creepy old men lurking around school grounds. They don’t think of Josh Duggar's sisters or Irish Catholic boys from rural Wisconsin getting abused repeatedly by an older brother. They should. That is the reality. That is the untold story of untold millions. Empty Playground is a memoir that shares the journey from childhood sex abuse through the repercussions suffered and into recovery and healing. It is the story of a male survivor, an often overlooked segment of the survivor community. It is a story often lived but not often told as men, both gay and straight, are so reluctant to speak about their abuse and often stay silent about their emotions as well. It has only been in the last decade or so that male survivors have been added to the discussion of sexual assault but the topic has more recently become recognized, particularly with the revelations of several well-known survivors, among them basketball player Keyon Dooling, hockey player Theo Fleury, and actor Tyler Perry. They have all told their stories. There are countless other stories out there about ordinary people who have survived similar abuse, but most of them remain untold. Empty Playground is one such story, told with an unflinching directness and gentle honesty.

260 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2015

About the author

Originally from Shullsburg, Wisconsin Callen Harty is the author of twelve books. He is also the author of 23 full-length plays, an adaptation, a one-act play, and 50 monologues that have been produced. Most of them have been produced at Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin where he has worked as an actor, writer, and director since 1983. He served as the Artistic Director of the theater from 2005-2010. Monologues that he wrote for the Wisconsin Veterans’ Museum won him awards from the Wisconsin Historical Society and the American Association of State and Local History.

His essays, poems, and articles have been published in newspapers and magazines around the country and he has taken the top prize in several photo contests. His writing has appeared in Out!, James White Review, Scott Stamp Monthly, Wisconsin State Journal, and elsewhere. He has had several essays published online for Forward Seeking, Life After Hate, and The Progressive. He has also published dozens of essays as Facebook notes and on his own blog, A Single Bluebird.

Callen has also been a community activist for many years. He was the co-founder of Young People Caring, UW-Madison’s 10% Society (now The Pride Society), and Proud Theater. He served as the first President of Young People Caring and as the Artistic Director for Proud Theater during its first five years. He served for two years on the Same-Sex Domestic Violence Committee of the Dane County Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence Task Force. In 2003 he won OutReach’s Man of the Year award for his queer community activism. OutReach is Madison, Wisconsin’s lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community center. In 2013 he won Community Shares of Wisconsin’s “Backyard Hero” award for his work on organizing Paths to Healing, a conference on surviving childhood sex abuse. In 2016 he won Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault's Courage Award. He has been invited to speak before many community groups, at a roundtable on queer community theater in New York City, as a child sex abuse survivor, and has emceed several events.

Reviews

[Daniel Easter · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I decided it was time to confront a painful and difficult event, I found there was an extremely limited amount of resources available as it directly related to my own experiences. We are a brotherhood and sisterhood that no one wants to belong to but which has an uncountable number of members. In saying that, most of the literature I have read as it relates to sexual violence experienced in childhood has come from profoundly strong women. Their work and stories have been exceedingly impactful in my progression but I have been searching for a point of view that can more directly relate to my own experiences.

What drew me in particular to Callen Harty is an interview I read about the author speaking about the “success” of the book after its release. He joked it would take quite a few years to be a million-seller. Sales averaged little more than a copy a day and have all but fallen off in the years since. Well I would tell him he can be gratified in the fact that it has spurred the confrontation of perversion.

One of the major points this memoir touches on is that abuse thrives in silence and lack of consequences. There is no dream of ending it unless you face it squarely. Harty never told anyone and when he did, it was that something happened not exactly what. A secret can eat away at person and that shame and self-loathing lead anyone to dangerous coping methods. He emphasizes the found liberation from his need to keep secrets.

Maybe I too will find that to be true.

[Brittany Padgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to read some parts. Good story and a fast read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

l received this book for free thanks to Goodreads Firstread giveaway

undecided about two or three stars. l gave three as although it was not my preferred genre it was honest. l am sorry to admit that l could not empathise with Callen partly because l found his style of writing rather stilted.

[Jackie Gutschenritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest, well written.

An honest look at the struggles of male sexual abuse survivors. Some struggles are different for male and female survivors, but many are the same.