TAKE BACK THE NIGHT 2015

It's not often victims of sexual or domestic violence flood the streets. In fact, it's far more common for victims' stories remain much like their faces: anonymous. But not last night. It's called, "Take Back the Night." Tonight, survivors of unspeakable acts- rape, assault, incest and abuse- joined friends, family, activists and students. They band together to pay tribute to victims, honor lives lost, find strength in numbers, and most importantly, reclaim the power they were robbed of. Hundreds of people met at the Oak Street Amphitheater at UTC. After music and mingling, the crowd filled into a line and marched throughout the entire campus chanting, "Take back the night, take back the night!” By the looks of it, many of them did. Those who could walk in the rally did, and those who we’re unable to shouted from the golf cart that led the parade. People with intellectual or physical disabilities are 4 to 10 times more likely to be abused.* Some people cried, overwhelmed by the sea of white light from a candle vigil. Others, you could tell, couldn't believe they we're there. How had they become a member of such a atrocious club? Rape happens to "other people" until it happens to you. Until your catapulted into a hell that brings you to your knees. A hell that makes you an unofficial expert. The hell that, after crawling through the darkness for days, months, even years- you find yourself- holding a candle and taking back the night. It's a funeral for the self that was once lost, and a birthday party for the Phoenix that arose. It's knowing for the first time you're not alone. It's the affirmation some women needed that not all men will hurt them. It's the gut wrenching reality that rape and domestic violence doesn't just effect women. It's a shout, it's a whisper. It's leading the parade. It's privately watching from your car on East 5th street as the parade passed by, because you're not quite ready to join the masses. Above all, it's overwhelmingly powerful in every way it should be.

*ARC.org