Take Back the Night is coming back.
This event is sponsored by the Womyn’s Awareness Center and Alpha Sigma Tau Sorority.
“TBTN is about the power of speaking out,” according to Gustavus alumni Kerrie Humble ‘17.
The Take Back the Night events include speakers and activities that “help survivors know they’re not alone, and that [sexual violence] will not be tolerated or left to go silently into the night,” Humble said.
TBTN is a 100 percent volunteer organization that has held events in over 30 countries and at over 600 communities and campuses.
The events have influenced over 30 million people to put an end to sexual assault and violence.
It was founded in the 1970s and began as a way to protest the violence that women experienced while walking in public at night.
It has grown to include different types of violence, like rape and domestic violence, expanding to also include male victims of such violence.
“Take Back the Night events occur on college campuses, in major metropolitan areas, in small towns, on military bases, and even in high schools. International events have been documented in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Bermuda, Canada, Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary, India, England and many other countries,” Take Back the Night’s platform on their website said.
Last year, speaker Ali Miller from the I-Am-Movement came to Gustavus and encouraged Gusties to join her movement.
She spoke of her experience and how she was able to get her voice heard.
Miller is from Minneapolis and is a rape survivor who has turned her love of photography into something empowering: a movement against the silence of sexual violence.
“Miller twists what society perceives as weakness into strength, capturing the beauty and warrior-like qualities in the women she features,” Huffington Post writer, Anne Hilker said.
According to the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), only 30 percent of sexual assault cases are reported to authorities, and only 16 percent of all rapes were reported to law enforcement. These statistics only confirm the “crimes of silence” label, because so few are reported.
Take Back the Night promotes removing that silent stigma that surrounds violence and hopes to create community of openness and belonging.