Take Back the Night

PART 3 OF 3

Dear WMST-L,

Does anyone know of a scholarly article about "Take Back the Night" Activist
Marches, perhaps about the history of TBTN or about the activist strategies
behind the movement?

Thanks in advance,

Jen 
_________________________

Jen McWeeny, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Executive Secretary of the Society for
Women in Philosophy, Eastern Division
John Carroll University
20700 North Park Blvd.
University Heights, OH 44118
E-mail:  jmcweeny  AT  jcu.edu 

I helped organize the first Take Back the Night march in Boston.  We got the
idea from some British women - we read about their march - probably in Off
Our Backs - and thought we should do it ourselves.  I don't remember what
year we organized the Boston march.  It was sometime between 1977 and 1982.
We came up with the idea at The Saints, a now defunct and but very beloved
women's bar where all the lesbian feminists used to go to flirt, dance, and
talk.  I distinctly remember talking over the idea with a group of women in
one of the booths at The Saints.

I don't think we had any particular strategy.  The march was part of our
larger movement against violence against women.
Aimée Sands
Producer/Director
"What Makes Me White?"

We did a Take Back the Night march in Hyannis on Cape Cod in the early 70s.
I know it was one of the first, but not the first.  It concentrated on
street crime against women.

marge piercy 

The Wikipedia entry for "Take Back the Night" mentions marches first held in
1976, 1977 and 1978: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Back_the_Night

Martin 

Hello Jen
Although it is not a scholarly article, there is a herstory of TBTN on the
Canadian website of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter
www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca . Members of our collective participated in the
first San Francisco march and introduced the march to Canada in the  ad hoc
"fly by night collective".  The next year we organized it as Van Rape Relief
and then took a resolution to the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault
Centers and built a national event.  We have many of the original artifacts
and minutes.
regards
Lee Lakeman
www.leelakeman  AT  shaw.ca 

Hi Jen

A very good coverage of the Australian version of TBTN, Reclaim the Night,
is at:
http://www.isis.aust.com/rtn/
with the history being at:
http://www.isis.aust.com/rtn/herstory.htm
kind wishes,
Kaete Walker
mytanwy  AT  gmail.com
www.kaete.net

Another great archival source is:

Documents from the
Women's Liberation Movement

An On-line Archival Collection
Special Collections Library, Duke University

http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/

I hate to disagree with such a reliable source as Wikipedia, but as Marge
Piercy has already pointed out -- and as has been discussed before on this
list -- TBTN marches were already taking place across the US in the very
early 1970s.  I helped organize one at the University of South Florida in
maybe 1972 or 1973.  And we definitely did not come up with the idea
ourselves.  

Eileen

Eileen Bresnahan
Associate Professor
Feminist and Gender Studies
Colorado College
14 E. Cache la Poudre
Colorado Springs, CO   80903
ebresnahan  AT  coloradocollege.edu
    

At Stony Brook University and Suffolk Community College on Long
Island, we held such an event in 1973.  Sandra Emmachild
(emmachs  AT  sunysuffolk.edu)

Hello everyone!

Thanks for sharing all of this wonderful information ~ it's been of great
use to me too!

I was wondering if anyone could suggest any explicitly intersectional
feminist analyses of Take Back the Night?

Thanks!
Jesse U.

**********
Jessica LeAnn Urban
Assistant Professor, Women's Studies Program
Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA 95521
jlu5  AT  humboldt.edu 
**********

"For positive social change to occur we must imagine a reality that
differs from what already exists." --Gloria Anzaldua, 2002

Jesse,
Over the years I've had the opportunity to be involved in organizing TBTN
marches and rallies in very different settings. Your interest in gathering
historical information is much appreciated, as many of the students I work
with think TBTN started as a means to protest violence against women on
campus. I do believe that TBTN started in England, although I can't say that
definitively. I know that NYWAR organized a TBTN in the 70's that wound its
way down 42nd Street (which had fallen into a bad state and had many sex
businesses). Personally, I am aware of a TBTN that was organized in LA in
response to the Hillside Strangler case (at that time unsolved), and I was
involved in a subsequent TBTN in 1985, organized in response to another
serial killer of primarily women of color in South Central LA. I was
involved in socialist-feminist work (through Democratic Socialists of
America) and a volunteer at the LA Commission on Assaults Against Women at
the time. We worked in coalition with feminists of color from the U.S.
Prostitutes Collective, Rosa Parks Rape Crisis Center, NOW, and many other
organizations.

Someone who might be able to guide you vis-a-vis analyses of TBTN is Nancy
Matthews at Northeastern Illinois University.

Claire Kaplan

-- 
Claire N. Kaplan, Ph.D.
Director, Sexual & Domestic Violence Services
University of Virginia Women~Rs Center
PO Box 800588
Charlottesville VA 22908-0588
cnk2r  AT  virginia.edu
http://womenscenter.virginia.edu/sdvs

Hello
One of the earliest if if not the first event in my understanding was at the
(early 70's) Brussels International Tribunal of Crimes Against Women
organized by Diana Russell.  ( I hope someone is collecting her memories and
I wish I had thought to do so when she appeared at the anti-porn conference
in Boston last year organized by Gail Dines and co).  Some of that work is
captured in her book of the Tribunal papers.

Members of my collective Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter
participated in the San Francisco anti-porn conference leading to the march
through the streets.  (roughly 77)

When they returned to Canada some created a small ad hoc group called "he
fly by night collective " which organized the first TBTN in Canada. (78)
Very vocal troublesome and wonderful.  We may still have photos.  The next
year (and until now) our collective took public responsibility for the
event.  We organized it as a national event coordinated through The Canadian
Assoc. of Sexual Assault Centers for several years.  Some of that work was
reported in special issues Off Our Backs on organizing.

We have many artifacts photos and records.  And many considerations recorded
over the years of the race and class issues in each year.

regards,
Lee Lakeman
leelakeman  AT  shaw.ca

Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter   www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca
Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers.    www.casac.ca
77 East 20th Ave.,
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V5V  1L7

At

> Members of my collective Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter
> participated in the San Francisco anti-porn conference leading to the
> march through the streets.  (roughly 77)


That was the first march I knew of that was primarily about porn and not
about violence against women and safety on the streets.

marge

re "first march primarily about pornography and not about violence against
women and safety on the streets".

When our members got back to us they argued the connections.  They saw
things as a piece: peep shows, districts or streets where women feared to
tread, street prostitution, pictures of women raped, fear on the all the
streets.   We rallied against physical immediate violence primarily as that
was our work and we incorporated our protest of the profiteering in
pornography.   Since TBTN was valued as direct action not just protest we
aimed our actions at owners not lobbying for law.  For us it was the
beginning of "hard core porn" video tapes which had to be mail ordered from
the states.  It took us a few more years to see the women rape victims in
the porn itself.

regards,
Lee Lakeman
leelakeman  AT  shaw.ca

Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter   www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca
Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers.    www.casac.ca
77 East 20th Ave.,
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada V5V  1L7

We did a version of Take Back the Night that was partially a staged 
reading of student monologues (a la Vagina Monologues) and partially a 
traditional speak-out.

This was actually something I did as a class project. The course was 
"Women, Violence & Resistance," and one of the requirements was to 
write a monologue about personal experiences with violence. I left it 
very open--among other topics, they could write about fear of violence, 
how they feel after watching violence on TV, knowing a friend who had 
been raped, or even about the effects of the course content on their 
thinking about violence. The only real criteria were that it be honest 
and based on their own experiences. I received so many thoughtful and 
creative pieces. No one was required to share the monologue, but I did 
ask for volunteers and several enthusiastically agreed to read their 
pieces aloud at our event, which we publicized to the campus and 
community as a Take Back the Night Speak-Out.

The students decorated the stage with candles and flowers, and draped 
white and lavender fabric over the chairs of the readers. After the 
staged reading, we opened it up to the audience as in a traditional 
TBTN speak-out. (We had a couple "plants" to help us make this 
transition.) We concluded with refreshments and a resource fair.

The event was a huge success, and I would definitely use this format 
again.

Shereen Siddiqui
Florida Atlantic University
siddiqui  AT  fau.edu