Take Back the Night is an evening of speaking out against sexual assault and domestic violence.

Students, staff, and community members will play music, dance, read poetry, share stories,

perform monologues, and honor sexual assault survivors and victims. A march around the

campus and a candle light vigil will follow the performances.

The first Take Back the Night event in the United States took place in Philadelphia in October of

1975. Citizens of Philadelphia rallied together after the murder of young microbiologist, Susan

Alexander Speeth, who was stabbed by a stranger a block from her home while walking alone.

Take Back the Night is an international rally and march that is organized in local communities

with the purposes of unifying women, men and children in an awareness of violence against

women, children and families. The event is a collaboration of community and campus and other

interested persons who are ready to take a stand against violence and make the night safe for

everyone. The march intends to:

• Increase community awareness of issues of violence against women, and its

interrelationship with all other forms of discrimination;

• Educate about the extent and the nature of the violence that is systematically used

against women to keep us from becoming powerful, autonomous individuals;

• Honor the memory of the victims of violence against women and celebrating its

survivors;

• Serve as a collective voice for women to demand a world in which women’s bodies,

minds and souls are not targets of violence;

• Empower individual men and women to take direct action against violence, whether it is

through speaking out, lobbying, voting or some other forms of activism;

• Provide the leadership to challenge organizations and institutions to implement policies

and initiatives which are effective in addressing issues of violence against women.

While different organizations and agencies may sponsor this event, the message is always

the same: "We march to demand that the perpetrators of this violence--the batterers,

the rapists, the murderers--be held responsible for their actions and be made to change."

www.takebackthenight.org