Vigil Speakers Recount Tales of Sexual Assault

Over 100 people stood in a candlelit circle outside Memorial Church last night to recount traumatic tales of rape and sexual violence.

Some speakers stepped into the circle to share stories about friends and family members, while others imparted their own experiences.

Participants said Take Back the Night’s candlelight vigil and rally marked an emotional high point in a week geared toward promoting awareness about sexual assault within the Harvard community.

“I thought it was really moving and powerful how brave everyone who came forward, who spoke, was. I found it really moving,” said Alex X. Berrio Matamoros ’02. “It just really saddened me to know that [sexual violence] always happens.”

Many of the vigil’s speakers expressed anger at Harvard’s response to their cases, echoing the subject of a panel discussion Wednesday on Harvard’s sexual assault policies.

One woman who spoke at last night’s vigil said that she took her case to Harvard’s Administrative Board but it did not take her case seriously. She said she will only feel safe when her attacker graduates this year.

Before the vigil, Sarah E. Tavel ’04, chair of Take Back the Night, said she thinks the week’s events helped raise awareness about sexual violence at Harvard.

Tavel said the Clothesline Project in Tercentenary Theatre, which displayed shirts decorated by survivors of sexual violence, has received the most positive feedback.

Some of the shirts, said Berrio Matamoros, shocked and surprised him.

“Overall, I thought it was really powerful and a really great thing for the community to see since I think that strong awareness doesn’t get to happen that often on campus,” Berrio Matamoros said.

While most of the week’s presentations went according to plan, technical difficulties delayed the Paine Hall showing of A Long Walk Home: The Story of a Rape Survivor, which preceded the candlelight vigil.

Though nearly an hour went by, more than 100 students stayed to watch third-year Harvard graduate student Salamishah Tillet’s story of recovery from rape.

The multimedia presentation, new to this year’s Take Back the Night, helped set the confessional tone that followed in the vigil.

Dance, poetry and song performances framed a photo slide show narrated by Tillet, detailing her healing process. Tillet said in the movie that she has been sexually assaulted three times—as a child, as a freshman in college and as a student abroad.

Today, counselors from the Bureau of Study Counsel will be available to meet with students to talk about the candlelight vigil. Take Back the Night will end Saturday with a river run at 2 p.m.

—Staff writer Nalina Sombuntham can be reached at sombunth@fas.harvard.edu.