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Shouting
for Safety For more than 20 years, Eugene residents have been hitting the streets en masse once a year to wave banners, light candles and link arms to let the community know they want a city free of sexual violence. While issues of sexual assault and abuse are often murmured about in hushed tones, Take Back the Night is an annual opportunity for survivors and advocates to reverse the trend of silence and take a stand against the sexual violence … loudly. On April 27, the chanting and cheering, drumming and demands for physical safety will be heard all the way from campus to downtown Eugene. Take Back the Night is an international event sponsored locally by Sexual Assault Support Services and the ASUO Women's Center at the UO. This year's event will kick off with a rally at the EMU Amphitheater, after which assault survivors and allies will march through the streets of Eugene, ultimately making their way to the corner of 8th Avenue and Oak Street. The event will conclude with African drumming, fire dancing and a speak-out for survivors who want to share their stories with the community. This year's rally features nationally-acclaimed poet and spoken word artist Nandi Crosby, a professor at California State University at Chico whose material encompasses issues of sexual violence and the experiences of women of color and the GLBT community. Other speakers include Heather Huhtanen of the state Attorney General's Sexual Assault Task Force, Daniel Friend, sexual violence prevention coordinator at the UO Office of Student Life, Lezlie Frye of Disability Services and Patricia Cortez of Amigos Multicultural Services. Featuring diverse speakers from a wide variety of community organizations is critical to the message of Take Back the Night: Sexual violence can happen to anyone and needs to be addressed by everyone. "This year, we tried to focus on a complete community response to sexual violence," said Nicole Pete, sexual violence prevention and education coordinator for the Women's Center. She and other coordinators invite any and all individuals who support survivors to participate in some aspect of the event. "It is important to remember that sexual violence happens because we create a community where women are not valued. We can be instruments of intervention; we can be there for survivors." Pete hopes this collective call to the community will echo long after the banners have been rolled up and the candles extinguished. "Whether you are a survivor or not, you probably know someone who is a survivor. Sexual violence affects everyone in the community and it is everybody's responsibility to respond to it."
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