Students rally to 'take back the night'

People from across the Eastern Connecticut State University community came together Wednesday night for the annual Take Back the Night protest against sexual assault and violence.

The event began with a rally and speak-out event in ECSU’s Student Center and followed with a campus-wide march where students recited poetry written by assault survivors and heard a poetry performance by the Salt Lines Poetry Quartet.

“This gives us a chance to speak out publicly together against gender discrimination, bias and violence,” said Eastern President Elsa M. Nuñez. “Violence is not a women’s issue, it’s humanity’s issue.”

Take Back The Night events have been held in nations across the world since the 1970s to protest and to raise awareness about sexual violence.

Early events were centered on making streets, cities and campuses safer, and then as a protest of pornography and the degradation of women and sexuality.

Events in recent years, like the one at Eastern, highlight issues of violence against women and broader issues of sexual violence including assault, rape, dating violence, sexual abuse, domestic violence, stalking, sexual harassment, child abuse and internet harassment.

“The turnout was great, it was significantly stronger compared to last year,” said Raja Staggers-Hakim, Eastern’s Women’s Center coordinator and coordinator of the event.

During the rally and speak-out, anti-abuse activist, counselor and survivor Evelyn Miller shared with the audience her own experiences with sexual abuse and of the lasting effects on her life.

“When you are a survivor you will fight every day,” she said. “There’s a part of us that is taken away.”

Eastern freshmen David Mejia said he came to the event as one of several members representing the group MALES, which stands for Men Achieving Leadership, Excellence and Success. “We came here to show support for the cause,” he said.

“Every time a man joins women in speaking out against rape, the world becomes a better place,” said Levar Mitchell, also a member of MALES.

Marcia McGowan, English professor and director of the Women’s Center at Eastern, echoed a common theme of the night, saying men are essential in stopping violence.

“Women can’t be empowered unless men are with us,” she said. “It’s not just about violence against women, but about all kinds of gender discrimination. It’s about shattering the silence around violence.”

McGowan told the audience that when she was a teenager, her mother told her to carry her keys in her fist when she walked alone, so that she could protect herself if someone tried to attack her.

“My mother thought she was empowering me, but it just made me scared,” she said.

She stressed the need and the role of Take Back The Night in empowering women and men and stopping fear.

“Violence dehumanizes not just those who were violated, but those who perpetrated the violence. This kind of behavior dehumanizes everybody,” McGowan said.

“I hope that everyone here becomes an active agent for change to stand up and say ‘no more.’”