The Wake

“Help stop violence?” asks Jenny Strand, before thrusting small yellow fliers into the hands of two polo-clad students crossing the stretch of pavement bridging the University of Minnesota’s East and West banks. “Eat pancakes for dinner,” the papers exclaim in bold black type over an illustration of a super-size stack of flapjacks.

The fundraiser (at greasy-spoon favorite, Al’s Breakfast) is a playful ploy to promote a serious event: Take Back the Night, a rally denouncing violence against women. And it works. By 5:15 p.m. on Friday, every bar stool beneath the long yellow counter is occupied by students in tees and tanks. Strand shouts orders (“wheat-chip and mozz-eggs”) over the Queen song echoing throughout the oblong restaurant, as university junior Bridget Becker plops chocolate-filled pancake batter onto the grill, next to a woman scrambling eggs in a pan.

At $6 a meal, the girls hope to raise enough money to help fund the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group’s ninth annual TBTN.

The event has empowered survivors and supporters since 1978, when crowds first swept the streets in TBTN marches across the United States. Most occur in April—Sexual Assault Awareness month—and the same is true for this year’s rally, scheduled for April 27.

Last year, over three hundred activists stormed through Uptown, halting traffic as they flooded onto Hennepin Avenue from Loring Park. Hand-painted signs hoisted into the air beamed their message to Minneapolis: “We are women. We are strong. Violence against us has gone on too long.” Volunteers with megaphones lead deafening chants of, “What do we want? Safe streets. When do we want them? Now!”

“By the time you hit the heart of Uptown, everyone is cheering at the top of their lungs,” Kate Suchomel,MPIRG’s program director, says. Several hot pink streaks are woven into her coiled ponytail, and her frequent smile exudes an innocence that belies her age. But bubbling just beneath this cheerful exterior is a community activist who will shout until her voice grows hoarse to break the silence surrounding the vastly underreported crimes of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

“Two big reasons people don’t report what happened to them are, (a) they feel ashamed, and (b) they feel they’re alone in the experience,” Suchomel says. “One of the goals of TBTN is to show people they’re not alone.”

Suchomel certainly isn’t alone when it comes to organizing the march. She delegates tasks to around 20 student volunteers from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Macalester and The Collge of St. Catherine. Four of these students, including university juniors Michael Eisberner and Jenny Strand, became involved in the demonstration to fulfill class requirements for the University’s activist-oriented social justice minor.

“Each class has 30 hours service learning,” says Professor Lisa Albrecht, who teaches Introduction to Social Justice. “Central in the class is getting involved, not just discussing theoretical ideas.”

Since her first rally in 1978, Albrecht has lost count of the number of TBTNs she’s participated in. Albrecht does recall her first march in Minnesota in the 1980s. “A big TBTN happened in the community. We marched from South Minneapolis towards downtown, on streets where there were pornography theaters.”

Today, the movement is more centered on giving a voice to survivors of abuse and allowing them to overcome the fear of darkness by joining in solidarity and reclaiming public spaces. Speakers rally the marchers before they set out, sharing stories and offering support.

This year, Anna Odegaard will lend her voice to the cause. She works with battered women every day, as an advocate at the Alexandra House, a women’s shelter dedicated to ending domestic violence. “A real change can only happen as society reacts differently to violence against women,” she says. “We need to hold men accountable … Domestic violence should be as inconceivable as cannibalism.”

The sole male working with MPIRG on TBTN, Eisberner has done everything from designing the event’s Web site to e-mailing fraternities in an attempt to educate local men’s groups about the power they have to affect women’s rights issues.

“I’m planning on marching,” he says, from the comfort of a booth butted against the Purple Onion’s Fourth Street-facing windows. Reaching into his backpack, the soft-spoken student pulls out a small gopher gold hued flier. On it, gruesome statistics reflect the urgency of TBTN’s mission.

“Every two minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted. One out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lives. About 44 percent of rape victims are under age 18. Forty-three percent of rapes occur between 6 p.m. and midnight.”

This last fact is central to TBTN’s mission. “As women, we always have to think about going out alone, what time it is, what neighborhood we’re in. We have to be aware of people on the street and who’s around us,” says Albrecht. “It’s important for men to be aware of this.”

The Take Back the Night pre-rally will begin at 6 p.m. on April 27, in Loring Park, with the march through Uptown commencing at 7:30 p.m. For more information, go to , or call (612) 627-4035.