Man Recounts Haunting Moment When He Stumbled Across His Rapist’s Facebook Profile

“When my rapist showed up under the ‘People You May Know’ tab on Facebook, it felt like the closest to a crime scene I’ve ever been,” Kevin Kantor recalls in a haunting performance piece during the 2015 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. “Facebook informs me that we have three mutual friends. Which is to say that he is people you may know.”

In the poem “People You May Know,” Kantor recounts the day he stumbled across his rapist’s Facebook profile — learning the man’s middle name, seeing his baby photos, and being forced to relive the violent assault and its painful aftermath.

“Two police officers told me that I must give the act a name or it didn’t happen,” Kantor says.

“That obviously I could have fought back, which is to say: No one comes running for young boys who cry rape.”