kick-off & poetry slam

Kick-off for Take Back the Night entailed walking to the Baker Center coffee house, sitting down in a chair, and gazing stupidly at all the cookies and cupcakes in front of me until Emily sat down and told me she liked my hair. Good start, perhaps. After texting Kaitlin about how much I fail at social things, I finally found some people I know and we all sat down together and created posters. Fun posters (uh...). Perhaps my favorite was 'Put the sensual back in consensual.' Have you ever wanted to hug a poster? Well, I didn't. But I could have.

Other phrases:
'Stop violence against women'
'Stop the violence'
'1, 2, 3, 4 - I am not your fucking whore!'
'Fight for the right to take back the night'
'Take back our bodies - Take back the night'

et cetera. Mine was 'Let's take back OUR BODIES - Let's take back THE NIGHT' >_>

I think the effect will be cool when we're marching through Athens...

The poetry slam was short. :P I could write more about it, but the problem is, I read something. Ever since high school, whenever I speak in front of people I sort of temporarily black out. I shake. I can't remember actually reading and I didn't fully come back until Emily's final poem. I said this would be worth blogging about, and in the hands of a more competent writer it probably would be, but I'm still processing a lot of it.

What can I take away?

I can take away the fact that I don't know if I'm really prepared to actually act on my activism. Wait a minute, what? No, really. I can rant and rave in my blog and at people who understand and agree with me. But some things are just too big. For now, I am happy to sit back and watch, speaking in that compulsively painful way of mine and trying to make friends.