Tonight from 6–9 p.m. the Women’s Resource Center and the Portland Women’s Crisis Line will join together in hosting the Take Back the Night and Bike Back the Night events on the Portland State University Park Blocks.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness month and the WRC organized a number of events, including a workshop on consent and several lectures related to sexual assault, according to the Women’s Resource Center website.
Take Back the Night, a rally, march and bike ride, is the culmination of the month and aims both to celebrate survivors and spread awareness about sexual assault and its prevention.
According to the Take Back the Night Foundation, both the foundation and the rallies that it helps to organize exist in the hopes of ending the anxiety that women face when walking alone at night.
Miranda Williamson, the WRC’s faculty and community liaison, said, “the first recorded ‘Take Back the Night’ occurred in 1976 at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in Brussels.”
In that instance, 2,000 women marched to protest sexual violence, Williamson said.
Although some organizations have used the phrase “Take Back the Night” to protest pornography and more general violence, “over the last 30 years in the United States, Take Back the Night has returned its focus to eliminating sexual violence in all forms,” according to the event website.
According to Williamson, PSU has hosted Take Back the Night events since the 1990s. Since that time “it has grown from a small group of women organizers…into a huge inclusive event that draws hundreds.”
This year the Portland Women’s Crisis Line and the WRC will be hosting Bike Back the Night together with Take Back the Night as “one large event with the goal of spreading the message on both a bike and march route,” Williamson said.
Williamson said, Brickers, a local ska band, will open the night at 6 p.m. with a short concert.
Next, an artist known as Tash will give a spoken word performance, followed by a short speech.
Around 7 p.m., marchers and bicyclists will begin their separate routes, both with chants and signs to increase awareness and to protest sexual assault, Williamson said.
When riders and marchers return to the PSU park blocks, around 8 p.m., survivors of violence can share their stories in the survivor speak-out portion of the rally.
“Survivor speak-outs are an inseparable part of Take Back the Night,” Williamson said. “Take Back the Night has inspired both women and men to confront a myriad of social ills, including rape, sexual violence, domestic violence, violence against children and violence against women.”
And according to the TBTN Foundation, survivor speak-outs particularly “help survivors know that they are not alone.”
A candlelight vigil to honor survivors of sexual assault will follow the survivor speak-out.
Both groups hosting this year’s event, the WRC and the PWCL, Williamson said, “are striving to raise awareness in our communities and end sexual violence” by making both assault and survival more visible.