Red, pink and orange shirts strung on a line through the EMU this week represent rape, blue and green shirts stand for incest and child abuse, and purple shirts represent violence against gays and lesbians, said ASUO Women’s Center spokeswoman Stefanie Loh.
The shirts, part of the University’s annual observance of Sexual Violence Prevention Week, are “a public airing of dirty laundry,” Loh said.
In the buildings and streets of the University, students will raise awareness about sexual assault prevention every day this week. The statewide event aims to educate the community to help prevent sexual violence, Loh said.
The annual week of performances, talks and demonstrations culminates Thursday night with the Take Back the Night march. According to a press release, Take Back the Night marches in the U.S. began in San Francisco in 1978.
Eugene citizens took up the cause and have been marching annually since the mid 1980s. Loh said the march will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the EMU Amphitheater, where African drummers and “radical cheerleaders” will perform and Nandi Crosby will read her poetry.
The radical cheerleaders dress in outlandish clothing and will pump up the crowd with sexual violence prevention oriented chants, Loh said.
Crosby is an award-winning performance artist and an assistant professor of women’s studies and sociology at California State University, Chico, according to her online biography.
Marchers will rally in the EMU Amphitheater from 4:00 until 6:30 p.m., when they will leave the University and cut through town with a police escort, Loh said. When the march reaches the corner of East Eighth Avenue and Oak Street, the crowd will hear speeches from those affected by sexual violence. After the speeches have ended, those who want rides will be driven back to University grounds.
Last year the march attracted more than 600 people, Loh said.
Throughout the week, Loh said, the Women’s Center, Sexual Assault Support Services, the University of Oregon Men’s Center and the Office of Student Life will sponsor a variety of events.
Tuesday, the Men’s Center will sponsor its fourth Annual Walkathon to Prevent Sexual Violence. The event, Men’s Center director David Miller said, allows men to speak against sexual violence. Miller said that when men say nothing they let the rapists speak for them. People rape men and boys as well as women, Miller said.
“It’s not a women’s problem. It’s everybody’s problem,” Miller said.
Also on Tuesday, folksinger Magdalen Hsu-Li will perform at 6:30 p.m. in Gerlinger Lounge. Loh said Hsu-Li will sing some of her internationally acclaimed songs and lead a brief workshop about sexual violence.
On Monday, Sexual Assault Support Services sponsored a workshop focusing on issues of sexual violence in Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender and Queer communities. The workshop provided tools for creating barriers within these communities against sexual violence by working with survivors and by helping to create effective institutions.
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