Survivors of sexual assault and their allies took to the streets of Morningside Heights on Thursday night, filling the chilly air with sounds of drums, whistles, and chants at the annual Take Back the Night March.
Beginning and ending their march at the Barnard Gates, participants protested against domestic violence and sexual assault. A speak-out was subsequently held in Barnard’s LeFrak Gym, where survivors and their supporters spoke about their experiences anonymously from behind a screen.
“Sexual violence affects everyone—not only those who experience it,” TBTN participant Laura Weldon, CC ’10, said. “This march is a way for people to respond to it—to literally raise one voice together against sexual violence that the whole community can hear.”
Take Back the Night is an international movement that began in Belgium in 1976. The first march at Columbia University was organized at Barnard College in April of 1988 following a Seven Sisters conference. Since then, the march has continued to grow, attracting as many as 1,000 participants in some years. This year, the march attracted several hundred people.
Take Back the Night began as a women-only march. In later years, men were allowed to join once the women had reached College Walk. But starting last year, TBTN organizers decided to begin a pilot phase in which men could participate throughout the entire march. “Rape is not something that exclusively affects women,” TBTN co-organizer Linnea Hincks, CC ’10, explained in an interview before the event. “We need to pay attention to men, and we think that opening up the space to them is really important.”
While many participants were in support of this change, TBTN organizers also recognized that some women would be against it, given that there are female sexual assault survivors who would not want to be around men when they marched. For this reason, a women-led “safe space” was created at the front of the line. Male allies are allowed to march behind them in the co-ed space.
“I think we had a lot of energy, especially in terms of the women’s led space,” TBTN co-organizer Emily Kamm, BC ’11 said. “The women’s-led space was a lot more defined than some of us think it was last year.”
As the group made its way through the streets, residents often appeared at their windows to wave and cheer for the marchers. When the group moved down Frat Row, fraternity members also made gestures of support, a far cry from the catcalls that some said they once made as marchers walked by years ago.
“I’m a senior, and I’ve seen this for four years,” TBTN participant Anne Epstein, BC ’09, said. “It’s always empowering.”
Following the march, the group entered the LeFrak Gym for the speak-out. Participants huddled together on blankets on the floor in the nearly pitch-black room and listened to community members tell personal stories from behind a screen of anonymity. After each speaker’s anecdote, the crowd affirmed, “We support you.”
“Even though it’s really hard to listen to everyone’s stories, I think the people who are there telling their stories are really grateful that they’re here, and I’m really grateful that they’re brave enough to say what they have to say,” TBTN co-organizer Lauren Herold, CC ’12, said. “It’s my first march, and it’s had a big impression on me.”
Echoing Herold’s sentiment, many expressed the poignancy of the experience.
“Personally, I experience the march as one of the most powerful events I participate in all year,” Karen Singleton, director of the Sexual Violence Prevention & Response Program, said.
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