Spring Break
Annual event increases awareness of sexual violence and abuse
Justyna Tomtas
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: News
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The Campus Feminist Alliance will be hosting the 18th annual "Take Back the Night" march and speak-out. This event is an internationally recognized occurrence that aims to raise awareness and advocates for an end to sexual violence.
"This event is empowerment in a single word. It's empowerment. It's allowing those that had experiences to finally talk about it and to finally voice it often for the first time," said Lara Adamson, junior human development and family studies major and president of Campus Feminist Alliance.
Anyone is allowed to participate in Take Back the Night, which includes a speak-out by allies and former survivors of sexual assault and sexual abuse, a mile-long march to Old Town and a rally where this year three poet-activists, Alex Bartz, Jennifer Pacheco and Isis, will do a poetry reading.
"I think it's important to get the know out there about sexual assault and abuse, because I think a lot of times we think it's a thing in the past and it isn't," said Stephanie Johnson, a senior women studies and international studies major and member of Campus Feminist Alliance.
"(Sexual violence is) a thing going on, and we need to be aware of the fact that it is going on to secure ourselves and be allies to other people."
Statistics show that sexual violence is not as uncommon as some may think, with one in four college women falling victim to rape.
"(In) the streets and atmosphere you really can't go out as a woman without at least in some way or another risking your safety," Johnson said. "Take Back the Night is owning your night again."
During the march, allies and survivors unite to show that sexual violence needs to be stopped. It focuses on uniting the survivors of sexual assault with allies and loved ones who support their decision to speak out.
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