Correction: TBTN 2014 is on April 24.

Have you ever been to Wesleyan’s annual Take Back the Night Event? If you haven’t, you absolutely should. The event is organized by the group Students for Consent and Communication (SFCC), and this year’s event will be held on Thursday, April 24 at 7 pm on Foss Hill. I recently caught up with the Co-Presidents of SFCC, Caillin Puente ’15 and Nina Gurak ’16, to learn more about Take Back the Night. If you think that you have more important things to do at 7 pm on Thursday, hopefully this post will change your mind.

The co-presidents informed me that Take Back the Night (TBTN) is a global movement, as annual demonstrations are held in thirty countries worldwide. In fact, the event is organized by the Take Back the Night charitable foundation that was established in 1999. Puente described the organization’s mission in broad terms: “Take Back the Night is a global movement to end sexual violence. Also, it aims to stop the silence and eliminate the shame surrounding crimes of sexual assault and sexual violence. It’s been around since the 1970s.” In fact, the first Take Back the Night event was held in Philadelphia in 1975 after a female scientist was murdered while walking home alone. Puente stated that the event now occurs annually on college campuses, cities, and in other settings. “It’s about shedding some light on the subject and bringing communities together.”