Marchers at this year’s Take Back the Night rally embraced a more uplifting mood while still remembering the complexity of the cause. Though about 200 activists didn’t carry candles through campus at the College Feminists event as in previous years, they still chanted to raise awareness, said Kimberly Orozco, Weinberg junior and co-chairwoman of the Take Back the Night committee.
The main goal of the committee this year was to raise attendance and draw more people to the Rock with live music and performances, she said.
“It’s more celebratory instead of negative,” Orozco said. “We’re focusing on the survivors, not the victims.”
The night started informally with a Panhellenic-sponsored barbecue in the sorority quads. Students then proceeded to The Rock, where members of the committee passed out programs with chants for the march and ribbons to represent support for sexual assault awareness month in April.
Marchers listened to live, upbeat jazz music followed by Extreme Measures a cappella group. But when Ashlee Richman, SESP ’07, started speaking, everyone fell silent.
Richman had been raped the summer before her freshman year and described her emotional struggle from initially feeling like “damaged goods” to finally facing her rape and regaining power over her self-doubt.
“Someone can violate your body but not control who you are,” Richman said. “I’m empowered by seeing that rape doesn’t make me a victim. It makes me a survivor.”
Richman, who spoke at the event her freshman year, said sharing her story this year transformed a painful reminder to source of empowerment.
“It’s more uplifting and empowering rather than obsessing over victimization,” she said.
After the speech, members of the committee introduced two rape counselors and encouraged the marchers to speak out against the “blame-the-victim mentality” and violence within the community.
The marchers went through the Sorority Quads, up Sheridan Road, through the Fraternity Quads and then to Norris University Center, waving their signs and repeating chants directed by a committee member shouting through a megaphone.
“We have the power. We have the right. The streets are ours. Take back the night,” they chanted.
The march ended at Dittmar Gallery in Norris. Marchers listened as volunteers shared their stories in a more intimate environment.
Fundraising proceeds and donations from the event will go to Mujeres Latinas en Accion, a Chicago-based organization with a mission to empower Latina women and their families. The Northwestern Police also waived the normal fee of $500 to cover the event, Orozco said.
Take Back the Night began in London in 1977 when people marched to protest violence against women. It arrived at NU in 1986 and has grown over the years.
Weinberg junior Mike Dinard said the event had symbolic importance in working to make the night safe for women and bringing awareness to men as well.
“Being educated about sexual assault should be more than women learning how to avoid it,” said Dinard, a football player. “It should be about men learning that yes is yes and no is no.”
