SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY
University Affairs Office
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
(707) 664-2057
e-mail: jean.wasp@sonoma.edu
University Affairs Office
1801 E. Cotati Avenue
Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
(707) 664-2057
e-mail: jean.wasp@sonoma.edu
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 4, 2003 File #347
Contact: Kris Montgomery, (707) 664-2845
SSU Hosts The Clothesline Project and Take Back the Night March & Rally in April
Two educational events featuring the voices of sexual violence survivors and victims take place this month in recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month including a special Clothesline Project and the annual Take Back the Night March.On Wed., April 16, The Clothesline Project, a visual display of t-shirts with messages that graphically demonstrate the impact of violence against women, will be hung throughout the Main Quad from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The annual Take Back the Night March and Rally will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Wed., April 23 in The Cooperage Building in the Residence Halls. The SSU Women’s Resource Center, Student Advocates For Education and the Office of Campus Life sponsor both events, with support from the community rape crisis organization, United Against Sexual Assault.
The Clothesline Project displays and Take Back the Night events are held in communities nationwide in order to educate about the epidemic of sexual violence against women. These events also offer survivors, their families and friends ways to "break the silence" surrounding these issues. FBI statistics estimate that, in the U.S., a woman is raped every 1.3 minutes, a woman is beaten every three seconds, and one in three girls will be sexually abused in their lifetimes.
The Clothesline Project was created by women in Cape Cod, MA in 1989, to visually testify to the harm of rape, incest, physical abuse and other forms of gender-based violence in a way comparable to the AIDS quilt and the Vietnam Wall. Since 1993, students, faculty and staff have created more than a hundred shirts to add to the SSU display. Some shirts express intense feelings of anger, loss, fear, shame and hatred, while others offer inspirational messages aimed at stopping sexual violence.
By making shirts and adding them to the clothesline, participants mourn those who have died or whose lives have been devastated by such violence, while others bear witness to survivors' courage and commitment to healing.
Each shirt’s color symbolizes a different form of sexual violence, and the sounds played during the display represent how frequently U.S. women are battered, reported raped or killed by their partners. Staff from United Against Sexual Assault and SSU groups working against sexual violence on campus, will staff information tables during the display.
The first U.S. Take Back the Night March was held in San Francisco in 1978 to protest violence against women, particularly sexual assault. The idea was for women to symbolically take back the streets of their communities, demanding that they be made safe for women and girls and challenging the "It’s not safe to go out after dark" curfew mentality imposed on females. The SSU march and rally will unite the campus and the community to speak out against sexual assault and assert women's right to live without fear of sexual violence.
The rally will feature music and speakers, and offer survivors of rape the opportunity to speak as a step toward healing from their attack. The rally will be followed by a candlelight march around campus, with participants raising their voices to help stop rape.
For more information, contact The SSU Women's Resource Center at 664-2845.