Emory’s Alliance for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP) hosted a Take Back the Night (TBTN) rally on Wednesday, followed by a protest march around campus in order to raise awareness about sexual violence.

This was the fifth year that Emory has hosted a TBTN event.

“The main goal was to give the survivors a voice and to raise awareness about the issue,” said Tracy Mayer, president of the Sexual Assault and Awareness Greek Advocates (SAAGA) and vice president of ASAP. “We wanted to show that this isn’t some intangible topic, it’s something that happens in the Emory community.

A crowd of about 130 attendees gathered on the grass in front of the Candler Library steps for the rally. At the rally, guest speaker Kelsey Tucker, TBTN Chair for Georgia Tech, told her story of how her life was changed by sexual assault.

Saba Khalid, ASAP treasurer, went to high school with Tucker and said it was difficult listening to her friend speak about the incident.

“It was really weird hearing her story because I went through it with her,” Khalid said.

Members of ASAP read stories about sexual assault that were submitted anonymously by students, faculty and staff.

Audience members had the opportunity to share their stories of abuse. To encourage the crowd to speak, a member of ASAP shared her own rape experience.

The stories told at the rally ranged from one about a 4 year-old who was molested by a pre-teen boy, to another about a girl who was sexually abused by her grandfather when she was growing up.

“The stories were a lot more intense and personal than I expected they would be,” Mayer said. “Some were really hard to listen to.”

Once the speakers were finished, ASAP members passed out cones for participants to shout chants as marched.

Following the rally, the march began outside of Candler Library and continued toward the opposite end of the quadrangle, through campus and ended outside of the Dobbs University Center.

In addition to the rally and march, two strings of decorated T-shirts with both accusatory and inspirational sayings about sexual assault, hung across the quad. The Center for Women held a workshop last week where several students and faculty designed shirts to put on display. The DeKalb Rape Crisis Center also provided t-shirts.

Representatives from several campus groups participated in the TBTN event, including the Center for Women, Feminists in Action, Pride and volunteers from Emory’s Counseling Center.

— Contact Jim Liepkalns.