Santa Rosa Junior College students and community members reclaimed Santa Rosa March 28 during the anti-violence event “Take Back The Night.”

The event began with speakers in Newman Auditorium, followed by a march to Julliard Park for a candlelight vigil. The event ended with art, poetry and music at the Arlene Francis Center.

The first “Take Back The Night” took place after a young microbiologist, Susan Alexander Speeth, was stabbed to death while walking home alone in the United States in October 1975. Since then, the event has been celebrated internationally to raise awareness about sexual violence.

Santa Rosa’s “Take Back the Night” was coordinated by the Trans and Womyn Caucus. SRJC student and caucus member Marisa Mancillas said the caucus serves as a safe place where members can talk about gender inequality and sexual abuse through decompression meetings. The caucus also organizes events to confront and raise awareness of issues in their community.

The local group was formed seven months ago by friends who felt they needed a space to talk about gender oppression and their experiences as female, transgendered and gender-ambiguous people. Before organizing the Trans and Womyn Caucus, some of the members were active in other organizations they found were primarily run by men.

“Take Back The Night” began in Newman Auditorium where the speech and video portion of the event took place. Jacqueline Nugent, a volunteer at Positive Images, a Sonoma County lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, questioning and intersex (LGBTQQI) support and advocacy group, spoke about her experience as a transgendered woman.

Nugent was born and lived as a male for 54 years until March 2004 when she legally changed her gender from male to female. Two years ago Nugent said she was walking alone in San Francisco when a stranger grabbed her breast.

“I was still in my old male habits where you don’t pay attention to anything. You just look around and enjoy the scenery. As a woman you can’t do that,” Nugent said. “I hadn’t realized that I have to protect myself.”

Nugent discussed receiving advice from other women on how to protect herself from being hurt or attacked. Nugent proposed that instead of changing women’s actions, men should change their attitudes about how to treat women.

The group of around 40 people marched from SRJC to Julliard Park while chanting and holding signs. Attendees held a minute of silence, during a candlelight vigil at Julliard Park, to acknowledge incidents and honor the victims of sexual assault.

“Take Back The Night” ended at the Arlene Francis Center where attendees shared poems, stories and musical performances. The event also presented an artwork display and a workshop about consent.

SRJC student Matt Waltz attended “Take Back The Night” and said he was “just really happy to see people that weren’t cis-males perform.” Cis is a term used to describe people who identify with the gender assigned to them at birth but does not imply “normalcy” in comparison to transgendered people. Waltz said he has attended other events in Santa Rosa where the majority of performers are men.

Bianca Licata is a member of the Trans and Womyn Caucus who wrote a fictional story for the event. The story explored a woman’s comedic night after watching pornography and her inner struggle with her sexuality. Licata said she attended “Take Back The Night” while in high school and left feeling empowered. “We want people to feel empowered and feel like they can walk safely in the night, or the day or wherever they go.”