The Women’s Resource Center gears up to host Take Back the Night, an annual event aimed at recognizing and speaking out against violence toward women. Take Back the Night will take place on April 24 from 5:30–8 p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 101.
The event will be held alongside Bike Back the Night, during which participants can show their support by biking along designated routes. The ride will begin at Colonel Summers Park located at Southeast 17th Avenue and Taylor Street at 5:30 p.m.
“As far as we know, Bike Back the Night is the only one of its kind,” said Kari Anne McDonald, events and publicity coordinator at the WRC. “It was created in order to get our thriving Portland bike community involved in this important issue.”
Take Back the Night will begin with a resource fair. The fair will allow attendees to learn more about interpersonal violence services offered in the Portland metro area. It will be followed by the Bike Back the Night ride and a march through downtown.
McDonald said marchers will hold signs with messages about ending sexual violence. The theme of the event is “Transcending Rape Culture: Rewriting the Narrative” which will be specifically addressed by the event’s guest speaker, Monika Weitzel. Weitzel, an advocate at Portland Women’s Crisis Line, will address concrete ways attendees can aid in ending rape culture in their communities. The event will end with a vigil and survivor speak-out.
Students have been largely responsible for planning both the Take Back the Night and Bike Back the Night events.
“Without student involvement we would not have an event,” McDonald said.
A student committee has been meeting every Wednesday since January to plan the events, McDonald said. Students have determined what kind of entertainment will be present, which speakers to invite, how events are scheduled and what activities will take place. The student committee has also been active in canvassing and raising awareness for the events.
The first Take Back the Night march took place in 1975 as a response to the stabbing and murder of Susan Alexander Speeth, a microbiology student, while she walked home alone in the dark.
“The ‘70s were a time of feminist revolution, fostering demonstrations like Take Back the Night,” said Virginia Martin, assistant director at the WRC. “Today, Take Back the Night is still focused on raising awareness about sexual violence, building community and providing a space for survivors to be heard.”
Martin said the event will also feature a clothesline activity where attendees can write encouraging messages or their own experiences on cutout paper T-shirts. The T-shirts will then be hung up and displayed.
“Our clothesline project will be a creative outlet for participants to rewrite the narrative of rape culture through sharing their own stories,” Martin said.
Take Back the Night will conclude with a candlelight vigil and survivor speak-out, which will allow victims of violence to voice their stories in a safe environment.
“The survivor speak-out will honor survivors and their stories by believing them without question or judgment,” Martin said.
Take Back the Night is being co-hosted by the Portland Women’s Crisis Line, a 24-hour hotline that offers resources for victims of sexual violence. The PWCL has been hosting the Bike Back the Night portion of the event since 2008. While the primary focus of the PWCL is the crisis hotline, the organization also works toward social change.
“We’re a really small staff,” said Fawn Livingston-Gray, the volunteer coordinator at PWCL. “Partnering with PSU allows us to extend our reach and do projects that are maybe bigger than what we can do on our own.”
Bike Back the Night arose out of a desire to include a major aspect of life in Portland, cycling, into an event that is inherently about changing culture at large Livingston-Gray said. Bike Back the Night is not a bicycle safety event, but is instead intended to be fun and a reminder that bikes can be empowering tools.
“I think we’re at a really interesting point in thinking about transcending rape culture,” Livingston-Gray said. “There’s been a lot more talks this year about what that is and what that means, so I think it’s a really interesting time.”
Livingston-Gray said she thinks social media has played a major role in connecting activists with a larger audience.
“There have been some really interesting conversations about engaging a broader base of folks,” Livingston-Gray said. “Not just the activists, but also folks who really care about creating safety and ending violence.”
