Stop Stalking Me!

For seven years a stranger has emailed, called, messaged, and hunted Lily Baldwin. She has never spoken out—until now.

It all started with an email. I was in my dressing room on August 8, 2009, taking off my makeup after a performance. I’d been on tour for almost a year as one of three dancers in David Byrne’s show for the album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, and my whole life felt electric. I was kicking it, working hard with my creative heroes and seriously starting to feel my power as an artist, as a woman.

That night we were in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’d been getting a lot of fan emails, but this one stopped me in my tracks. The sender said he’d seen us in Lyon, France, a week before and went into detail about my performance. He mentioned wanting to work together in a company he was starting, but something about his tone made the hair on my neck stand up. He was too familiar, too intimate in the way he described how I danced.

I honestly don’t remember whether I answered that email. If I did, it would have been a “Thank you, glad to inspire,” which I generally said to our fans. What I do know is that, despite seven years and hundreds of emails, letters, Facebook messages, phone calls, and packages— despite him showing up in person to hunt me down—I have never once responded since. And although experts have told me that’s exactly what I should keep doing, warning me that to acknowledge him in any way would only feed the fire, I’ve had enough. After months of agonizing deliberation, I’ve decided to go public. I want to be a voice for people who haven’t found theirs, and to call attention to the terror of stalking. And I want to say to my own stalker, right here and right now: Stop.

“I know you love me, Lily”