One in four girls and one in six boys in the U.S. will be sexually assaulted by the age of 18, said Coordinator of Violence Prevention Programs Virginia Solan.
To fight back, the University of Idaho Women’s Center is hosting Take Back the Night, an annual event that brings the community together to put an end to domestic violence and sexual assault.
Take Back the Night features a keynote speaker, a march through campus and an open forum for the public to speak out about their experiences with sexual violence. This year the event will begin at 8 p.m. Sept. 19, in the agricultural science building, room 106.
Interim Program Coordinator for the Women’s Center Colleen Kulesza said Take Back the Night took roots in the 70s and has since gained international attention because of the widespread problem of sexual violence.
“The Take Back the Night events — which happen all over the world — are a way for folks to share information about sexual violence,” Kulesza said. “How prominent it is, how it is unacceptable and how we’re not going to tolerate it.”
ASUI Director of Safety and Violence Prevention Sara Spritzer said the event is a moving experience because each element of Take Back the Night has a purpose and connects with one another.
“The speaker at the beginning is more like a call to action,” Spritzer said. “Like ‘here is what the event is about and this is why we’re marching,’ and then you do the march. After the march people might feel the support and love among their peers and then feel comfortable to speak out in the open forum.”
This year’s keynote speaker, Terry Lingrey, is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau and a lecturer in the department of English. Solan said the story Lingrey will tell during her speech will be an eye-opener for the audience.
“Terry has one of the most gripping, intense stories I’ve ever heard and I’ve been an advocate and a journalist for 30 years,” Solan said. “She has a message of hope and healing, and people looking out for each other and standing up to violence.”
During the march, participants in the event will carry glow sticks, hold signs and recite historic chants of Take Back the Night such as ‘shatter the silence, stop the violence’ and ‘wherever we go, however we dress, no means no, and yes means yes.’
Kulesza said the end of the event is an open forum facilitated by Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse that gives people a safe environment to express their own stories of sexual violence.
“It gives people who have never spoken out about it a chance to share their story,” Kulesza said.
Veronica Smith, a volunteer at the Women’s Center, said Take Back the Night is not only for women, but for anyone who cares about sexual assault and can recognize it as a problem in society.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman,” Smith said. “It’s something that everyone should care about because the people that get sexually assaulted are your mothers, your sisters, your daughters, your brothers, your dads. It’s something that connects a lot of people in the worst of ways.”
Solan said although Take Back the Night is centered on a serious issue, it is also fun and creates a sense of community — every person who shows up, regardless of the reason, shows support of the creation of a safer environment.
“It’s for survivors and also it is for everybody that cares about power-based violence,” Solan said. “Everybody who’s ever known somebody who’s been impacted — and that’s everybody.”
Amber Emery can be reached at [email protected]