This year's Lawrence Take Back the Night protest and march will be Thursday, September 23.
Take Back the Night is an internationally held rally and march to raise awareness of violence in the community and to protest rape and all other forms of violence against women. The Willow Domestic Violence Center sponsors the event annually during the month of September in collaboration with other community and campus organizations.
This year's event will include a special focus on human trafficking and its close ties to domestic violence and sexual assault.
The evening begins in Lawrence's South Park at 5 p.m. with live music, local food vendors, table displays from local organizations, and children's arts and crafts projects. The Clothesline and Pantyline projects to raise awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault will also be on display, and survivors and witnesses of domestic violence will have the opportunity to make their own Clothesline Project t-shirt. Take Back the Night t-shirts will also be on sale, and participants will have the opportunity to make protest posters to carry in the march down Massachusetts Street.
At 7 pm the evening's formal program will begin, featuring Vicky Lutrell, Human Trafficking Task Force Coordinator for the Office of the Attorney General of Kansas.
At 7:30, the march will begin from South Park and head up Massachusetts Street to Watson Park, where the Speak Out Circle and Candlelight Vigil will be held.
Violence against women is something that affects us all, and through Take Back the Night we have the opportunity to learn and teach about this issue, but also to raise broader awareness so that we might stop it.
