The manager of a Boston-area nightclub was fired this week, days after a female musician from Maine alleged on her website that the manager “sexually attacked” her after a recent performance.
The owner of Out of the Blue Too, an art gallery and nightclub in Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said on its Facebook page that the manager no longer works at the club “in light of the serious allegations.”
Meanwhile, Cambridge police said they would like to speak with the alleged victim about the incident.
Morgan Lindenschmidt, a singer and songwriter from New Gloucester, played Monday night at Out of the Blue Too. In a post on her website Tuesday, she said, “I had a pretty disturbing and horrible time last night. I played at Out of the Blue, Too in Cambridge and after the show was sexually attacked by the manager. …
“He came in for a hug and wouldn’t let go, even after I told him to stop touching me.”
The manager kissed her against her will and touched her inappropriately, she wrote.
She forced him away, retreated to the bathroom and then grabbed her guitars and fled the club.
Later, in the same post, she said the incident was not a sexual act, but “a display of masculine violence as a form of silencing feminine power.”
Lindenschmidt, 19, did not reply to emails Wednesday.
Her father, James Lindenschmidt, who lives in New Gloucester, said his daughter has been “inundated” with interview requests.
On his Facebook page, he thanked people for supporting his daughter. “She’s not on social media and she is quite overwhelmed by the support she is getting, from family, friends, friends of friends, and perhaps most surprisingly, the huge number of total strangers,” he posted Tuesday night.
“It’s kind of unbelievable, and it does my heart good and gives me hope.”
Lindenschmidt has a modern-folk approach and her music is ethereal, layered and moody.
On Wednesday, Cambridge police said they had not received a complaint about the incident, but are aware of Lindenschmidt’s allegation.
“At this stage, we are looking to connect with the alleged victim and have made efforts to contact her,” Jeremy Warnick, director of communications for the Cambridge Police Department, wrote in an email.
In a post on her website Wednesday night, Lindenschmidt said she doesn’t plan to contact police.
“I have no interest in engaging with an establishment that’s built on protecting white male wealth,” she wrote. “The police are here to uphold a certain social structure that I disagree with on a basic core level.”
The situation generated a lot of buzz on social media.
The Out of the Blue Too Facebook page was filled with comments from musicians who have canceled gigs.
The club owner, Tom Tipton, apologized to Lindenschmidt via Facebook on Wednesday, praised her for speaking out and promised that changes would be made at the club beyond the firing of the manager.
“It takes courage to speak out and it takes speaking out to make a change. We are working to make that change,” Tipton wrote on Facebook.
The Press Herald is not naming the manager because he has not been charged with a crime and could not be reached to discuss the allegations.
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