Page 4
The Blue Banner
Features
Review
Rally Protests Violence Against Women
Rachel Grumpier
StaffWriter
Summer Starling, an undeclared
sophomore, and Katie McClure,
also an undeclared sophomore, or
ganized Take Back the Night, a
rally to end violence agai nst women,
which took place April 13.
The event was both powerful and
cathartic for many individuals in
the small group that gathered in
front of Ramsey Library that
evening.
“ I expect people to take away some-
thing (from the rally), whether that
is something meaningful, or pow
erful or really negative,” said Star
ling. “I hope (the rally) makes them
think about these issues, makes
them feel about these issues and
will, in some way, affect their lives.”
According to McClure, the Take
Back the Night rally began during
the 1970s on a college campus.
Women were tired of staying inside
at night for fear that they might be
raped or abused. A group of college
students gathered to march and
“take back the night” for women.
“Some women were tired of feel
ing like they could not go out on
the streets at night because they
were potential victims,” said
Mclure. *
Word of the rally traveled quickly,
and soon, worldwide communities
began to hold their own Take Back
the Night rallies.
No specific date marks the calen
dar for the rally. So, whenever a
community feels the need, they
coordinate the event.
Starling said she and McClure
intentionally decided to hold
UNCA’s rally at the end of
Women’s History Month.
We “decided to organize it be
cause we feel that it is something
that is needed on this campus. It is
a very important thing for students
WALTER FYLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The “Take Back the Night” rally was held in front of Ramsey Library. The rally originally began
as a silent candlelight vigil in the 1970s.
and the community to be thinking
about,” said Starling. “I think the
end of Women’s History Month is
a good time to do it because people
are more in tune to everything.”
For the rally. Starling and McClure
planned an hour-long open mic,
two hours worth of speakers and
performers and a candle-lit march
downtown.
The open-mic kicked off the rally.
Starling and McClure invited any
one who felt inclined to speak to
tell the crowd about the abuse in
their own lives or in lives of women
they know.
After a long, tense five minutes,
Daniel McCamish, a junior math
ematics major and one of a surpris
ingly large number of men who
attended the rally, took the stage.
His voice quivered as he recalled
his father dragging his mother by
the hair and sending her to her
room, as though she were still a
child. Now, his mother will only
leave the house at night.
McCamish said his abusive father
profoundly affected his own life,
and he explained the long line of
abusers in his family.
Abuse “is an evil, dark cloud,” said
McCamish. “The most important
thing we can do is break the cycle.”
McCamish’s testimonial was met
with a few tears in the audience and
some commiserating smiles. He
received several supportive em
braces when he returned to his seat.
Although the audience had grown
considerably by 6:20 p.m., when
McCamish left the stage, Jacqueline
Quintrall, an undeclared freshman,
said she was disappointed with the
small turnout.
“I thought there would be a little
more involvement,” said Quintrall.
“There are not very many people
here.”
Then, after McCamish spoke, a
spell of bashfullness swept over the
crowd, leaving the audience in si
lent reflection for a good 15 min
utes.
Quintrall’s friend Tanya Colbert,
also an undeclared freshman, said
she wished more people would have
participated in open-mic.
I came “to realize what people
have gone through,” said Colbert.
“You always hear stories, but you
never see the people up close. I
thought there would be a few more
people” on stage.
After the crowd grew audibly rest
less, Linzey Walker, a freshman
drama major, bounced onstage with
her pigtails flying behind her. She
spoke to the crowd about how happy
she was to be a woman.
“I feel really liberated right now,”
said Walker, in a giddy rush.
Once Walker abandoned the mi
crophone, the stage was never
empty. One student gave her falter
ing testimony about how proud she
was of her mom for leaving her
abusive husband.
Solstice, an Asheville all-woman
chorus, sang a capella in gorgeous
three-part harmony. The group
sang two activist songs.
Natalie Grinnell, one of the sing
ers and a UNCA alumnae, said the
group prefers to sing for social
change.
One woman, who wishes to re
main annonymous, brought her 4-
year-old daughter on stage with her
to tell the crowd about slave labor
and its effects on women and chil
dren.
Her little girl told me she was
really excited to be at the rally be
cause she had never been onstage
before and she had just learned to
climb a tree.
Her innnocence and oblivious
ness to the meaning of the rally
drove home the horror of abuse. As
I watched her grinning onstage, I
could not help but consider the fact
that she herself might be abused
one day.
When the open-mic concluded,
the next two hours were devoted to
various speakers and performers,
each of whom Starling introduced
kindly.
An older woman from the Quaker
community, Virginia Redfield,
spoke about how violence had ef
fected her own life and others
around her.
“Well, I am kind of scared,” said
Redfield before the rally began. “I
think it is scary anytime you share
deep, real things about yourself,
and there is not any other way to do
it. I am not going to get up there
and speak in cliches.”
Ginger Starling, Summer |
Starling’s aunt and a representative
of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender community, brought
out her keyboard and guitar to play-
some songs. She sang one song,
“Take Back the Night,” which the
group sang on the march down
town.
For the march, McClure and Star
ling passed out candles, which rep
resented the lives of women who
had violence in her life.
“I want my candle when I march
to be in solidarity with the women
I know who have been the victim of
violence,” said McClure. “Violence
can be a permeating thing. To see
someone you know, or that you do
not know, be the victim of violence
affects me so deeply.”
Candles lit, the group marched
through downtown Asheville to
prove that they should no longer
. have to be afraid of the night.
Film Screening
The Mass Commu
nication Department
will have their Spring
Screening on May 3
in Lipinsky Audito
rium at 7 pm.
The screening will
include several stu
dent films.
The event is free
and open to the pub
lic.
Bums toast.
J
Bri^klens fulxires.
Some Gifts
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A public service of this newspaper ^
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^1^
' featuring sward winnin0 storytellers i
Heather Forest * Connie Regan-Blal(e • Jay O'Callahan
Friday-6unday, April 27-29,2001
UNCA • Asheville, North Carolina
Two Evenings of Storytelling for Adults
8 p.m.* UNCA Lipinsky Auditorium
Friday, April 27 • Jay O'Callahan, Heather Forest,
Connie Regan-Blake
Saturday, April 28 • Heatherforest, Jay O'Callahan, Connie Regan-Blake
Daytime Festival for Families
Saturday April 28 ■■ 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Jay O'Callahan, Heather Forest, Connie Regan-Blake, Diane Williams,
Nancy Shapiro-Pikeiny, Lloyd Arneach, Douglas Haynes
Sacred Tales for Adults
Sunday, April 29*11 a.rT).* Carol BelkTheatre
Jay O'Callahan, Nancy Shapiro-Pikeiny, Diane Williams,
Douglas Haynes, Elijah Liebowitz, Heather Forest,
Lloyd Arneach and Connie Regan-Blake
For information and tickets, call 828/251-6584
i
PUBLIC RADIO
SPR NPK, UASSICAl music iUOR-
Co-sponsored by the Cultural and Special Events Committee
Ti fF;Usi\Tft«fry vf Cak^?:csa
ASHEVILLE
Book signing to
follow reading
Li'Young Lee, born in Indonesia to Chinese parents,
writes about family, culture and history, drawing on the
language and stories of American and Southeast Asian
people. Lee burst onto the American literary scene in
1986 with the publication of Rose, which received the
New York University Delmore Schwartz Memorial
Poetry Award. He has received grants and awards from
the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and
the National Endowment for the Arts. His second book,
The City in Which I Love You, was named the 1990
Lament Poetry Selection of the Academy of American
Poets. His latest book, Winded Seed: A Remembrance, is
Lee’s personal account of childhood exile and his father’s
political imprisonment.
Monday, April 23 • 7:30 p.m^
Highsmith University Center Lounge
/ THq Winged fieed:
World of Li-Young Lee
Poetry reading with commentary
C'o'.spon.sored hy:
UNCA Cultural and Special Events Committee • Creative Writing Program
P.B. Parris Visiting Writers Series • Multicultural Student Programs • ASIA
FREE to UNCA students
$5 all others at the door
For more information, call 251-6584.
The Univeksity df North CabolW
In CGlebration of Asian-Pacific Anriorican Heritage Month ASHEVILLE