‘Take Back the Night’ at Chico State
Analicia Hawkins prepares supporters for the march. Photo credit: Ryan Corrall
A silent candle-lit march ignited hope in downtown Chico Thursday night.
Earlier that evening, the Gender & Sexuality Equity Center hosted “Take Back The Night” as part of sexual assault awareness month.
“Take Back The Night” is a national event started in 1975 with the goal of ending sexual and domestic violence in all forms.
The theme for this year’s event at Chico State was “Reclaiming Our Voices Through Agency and Advocacy.”
The GSEC Facebook event page stated the theme was chosen to empower survivors.
“Our hope with this theme is to provide an opportunity to acknowledge and empower survivors, to find strength in voicing our truth, and to reclaim the right to everyone’s security,” the event page states.
This year’s “Take Back The Night” included a keynote speech, workshops and a spoken word poetry event. The evening ended with a march through downtown Chico.
On April 22, GSEC hosted a debriefing brunch for those who participated in the event.
GSEC is located in BMU 004 and can be contacted at either 530-898-5724 or [email protected]
George Johnston can be reached at [email protected] or @gjohnston786 on Twitter.
Rich Johnson // Apr 25, 2016 at 12:28 pm
Great event, I look forward to it every year. But maybe they should do it at beginning of school year every year? The message that Chico students won’t tolerate date rape or the drunken pawing of women probably needs to be emphasized early on, rather than later. From reading the Orion year after year it’s often these young students – freshman – who get drunk and do awful stuff, so I think doing this even early in the fall would be a good idea.