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This year’s Take Back the Night event will feature guest speaker Kemba Smith Pradia, who will share her own experience with intimate partner violence. |
LHU’s HOPE Center announces 4th annual Take Back the Night event
Nationally recognized author Kemba Smith Pradia to be featured speaker
April 6, 201
LOCK HAVEN, PA – Lock Haven University’s HOPE Center will hold its 4th annual Take Back the Night event on Wednesday, April 18 at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Gymnasium. The event, which is open to members of the university, Lock Haven, and surrounding communities, is held to raise awareness about the reality of sexual violence and its impact on the freedom and well-being of all women and men.
This year, the event features guest speaker Kemba Smith Pradia, author of the memoir “Poster Child” and founder of the Kemba Smith Foundation. Ms. Smith Pradia will speak about her own traumatic experience of intimate partner violence as a young college student in her talk “A Cry in the Dark: Abusive Love.” Her story has been featured on CNN, the Early Morning Show, and Nightline as well as the New York Times, JET, Glamour and other major media venues.
Other speakers will include Cindy Love of the Clinton County Women’s Center, Zakiyya Muhammed of the Campus Violence Prevention Program, and LHU Athletic Director, Sharon Taylor. There will also be “open mic” time allotted for attendees to share their stories about sexual violence and survivorship. The event will officially close with the traditional candlelight vigil march around campus, symbolizing the continuing need to light the night and reclaim it for the safety of all persons. Refreshments will be provided by the Women’s Coalition.
Take Back the Night, also known as “Reclaim the Night,” has a long and powerful history, nationally and internationally. The first anti-violence rally in the United States that used the slogan “Take Back the Night” occurred in 1977 at a Pittsburgh, PA rally organized to protest sexual violence. A year later, 3000 marched through the “red light” district of San Francisco in the first officially organized Take Back the Night, organized by Women Against Violence in Pornography and Media. Since the 1970s, Take Back the Night marches have been established across the globe, including countries such as Belgium, Canada, India, Germany, England, and Australia, all in an effort to break the silence about sexual violence, in all its forms.
The event is co-sponsored by LHU’s Office of Social Equity, the HOPE Center and the Women’s Coalition. The HOPE Center, which opened in February 2009 and is housed in G204 East Campus, provides a safe place for students to discuss issues regarding sex, gender, personal safety, sexual violence, and social justice.
For more information about this event, contact the HOPE Center at (570) 484-2111, or Dr. Lisette Schillig at (570) 484-2765, lschilli@lhup.edu. To learn more about the HOPE Center’s purpose and upcoming events, visit the website at: http://www.lhup.edu/hope.
Lock Haven University is a member of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the largest provider of higher education in the commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Nearly 405,000 system alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.
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