Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

One Billion Rising

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By Kendra Corbin, SSH Intern

One Billion Rising at Shenandoah University, Via SU’s Facebook page

Traditionally, Valentine’s Day is a holiday dedicated to love and romance. Restaurants become crowded with happy couples while social media sites are littered with photos of flowers and candy. But Valentine’s Day is more than just a chance to show off your wonderful significant other to the world. It’s an opportunity to take a stand for every woman that may not have the ability to stand up for herself.

Annually on February 14, or V-Day, women across the world participate in One Billion Rising. This international event is a reminder that 1 in 3 women will be abused or raped during her lifetime. The campaign’s mission is to end violence against women and girls. Last V-Day, 207 countries took part in One Billion Rising. The campaign states:

ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE is a global call to women survivors of violence and those who love them to gather safely in community outside places where they are entitled to justice – courthouses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes, or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not.  It is a call to survivors to break the silence and release their stories – politically, spiritually, outrageously – through art, dance, marches, ritual, song, spoken word, testimonies and whatever way feels right.

One of the greatest attributes of One Billion Rising is that it encourages women to channel the pain of sexual assault into creativity. Whether through dance, music, art, performance, etc., women and their male allies can include a serious message in an event that is both empowering and entertaining.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending the One Billion Rising event on my college campus. Students, faculty, and community members gathered to perform a flash mob to the song “Break the Chain” at Shenandoah University. Before the event started, I bumped into one of my female professors. She asked if I was planning to dance. I awkwardly giggled and replied, no, that I would not be participating because I’m not a very coordinated dancer. She laughed and said that if I was looking for fantastic dancers then I came to the wrong place, but that I would see many happy women out on the floor dancing with each other.

When the flash mob started, the words that my professor said made perfect sense. There were some fantastic dancers on the floor while others looked more clumsy and nervous, but every woman (and a few men, too!) smiled and laughed as they shook their bodies. As the music faded out, the group screamed with excitement while they embraced in a group-hug. Seeing that much female power in one room was inspiring.

It doesn’t matter if a person is the greatest dancer on the floor or if they dance like Elaine from Seinfeld. As long as someone chooses to participate in a movement that cares about ending violence against women, then that is a beautiful thing. One Billion Rising has proven that the pain and heartache of sexual assault can be channeled into empowerment. Valentine’s Day flowers and candy are fantastic, but compassion for our sisters is an even better gift to the world.

Kendra Corbin is senior at Shenandoah University. She is majoring in Mass Communications and minoring in Women’s Studies.

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Art Exhibit: “This Is Not Hello”

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Nicole Capobianco is hosting an exhibit of photography and other media focused on street harassment next week in Brooklyn, New York.

Here’s more information about it from Nicole, if you’re in the area, I hope you can attend!

“This Is Not Hello” examines street harassment through various street art applied by women. Too often our voices are silenced and dismissed as street harassment continues to be trivialized in our culture and in public policy. This work bridges the connection between public space and the female body, as this art is surfacing on city streets for a reason.

Our presence in public signifies our independence, and thus we are so often reduced to mere sexual objects when we enter it. The contradiction in street harassment lies with our bodies being treated as public property while the behavior simultaneously reinforces that public space is not a space we are allowed to occupy safely. I hope this project allows for men to learn what it means to be an ally to our struggle and how important it is that they too participate in dismantling these behaviors.

This is about finding our voice, and finding the strength in ourselves, alongside others, to speak out fearlessly against patriarchal belittlement and abuse in all aspects of our lives. We will resist your culture and produce another.

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USA: Empowering, Educational Event in Chicago

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By Phaydra Babinchok, Chicago, IL, USA, SSH Safe Public Spaces Mentee

In addition to creating three short films as part of the Stop Street Harassment’s Safe Public Spaces Mentoring Program, we created a fun event for screening the films. With the $250 stipend provided I was able to book a performance space at Studio Be a nonprofit theatre. The screening was held on the afternoon of Sunday October 13.

I wanted to create a comedy event about street harassment. Because it is such a serious issue I feel it needed a light-hearted touch to make it a more approachable subject. My friend Alicia Sowisdral is a feminist comedian and host of Pop Goes Alicia a live monthly pop culture show about gender. I reached out to her and she gladly agreed to be the host for the event.

Stop Calling Me Baby, a comedy event about street harassment, still needed a few performers before it would be complete. The lineup was rounded out with two stand-up comedians and a spoken word performer. As I said before, I feel it is important to include men in the discussion so one of the stand-up comedians was a man.

The stand-up comedy was interspersed with a powerful spoken word performance. The performances ended with a hilarious stand-up set about street harassment by Marla Depew. Who knew street harassment could make one laugh so hard.

Then it was time to debut the films. They were projected onto a large screen and I stayed behind the curtain during the screening because I was nervous that the films wouldn’t go over well. I had anxiety that the films might possibly upset people because we are in a way making fun of a serious issue. However, my anxiety was quickly alleviated by the audience’s laughter.

Once the films were done screening Alicia led a Q&A with the audience and writers of the films. Again I was nervous that there would be a critical or judgmental question about the films, but the audience really liked them. We were able to talk with the audience about how street harassment is a daily issue that most women have to deal with. People in the audience shared personal stories of experiences of street harassment.

Overall, the event turned out exactly as I had wanted. It was empowering, educational, and fun for all.

Phaydra Babinchok is a feminist activist based in Chicago. She is the Director of SlutWalk Chicago and Chapter Leader of Chicago’s Women, Action, and the Media. She works at Sarah’s Circle, a program that helps homeless women.

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Youth Event in Cameroon

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Zoneziwoh Mbondgulo, founder of Women for a Change Cameroon and Stop Street Harassment’s Safe Public Spaces Mentee in Cameroon, held a successful final event today. More than 20 youth (boys and girls, including several youth with hearing impairment) came together to talk about gender-based violence, gender equality, and street harassment in their communities. They all wore orange as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

Zoneziwoh will write more about the event, but I wanted to post this quick note because I’m excited about how the event went and want to congratulate Zoneziwoh on her hard work!

 

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Philadelphia City Council Hearing Recap

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Philadelphia City Council Hearing, Nov. 7, 2013

Today, the second-ever city council hearing on street harassment was held in Philadelphia! The first was held in 2010 in New York City.

This hearing came about because Council Member James Kenney read tweets by Hollaback! Philly about street harassment, researched the issue and he decided he wanted to address it. When he reached out to Hollaback! Philly over Twitter to ask what he could do, Hollaback! Philly’s director Rochelle Keyhan requested a city council hearing. While it took seven months to get it scheduled, today it happened.

During the morning hearing in Philadelphia’s City Hall, nine people testified (some represented organizations like FAAN Mail and Women Bike PHL, others were simply there as citizens), and Rochelle played a video of teenage girls sharing their stories, since they couldn’t attend due to school. Most people courageously and passionately shared their street harassment stories during their testimonies, Rochelle presented Hollaback! Philly’s new survey data, and I put the issue into a global context and explained why it’s a human rights violation. (Stay tuned, I will post everyone’s testimonies soon.)

SSH Board Member & Philly Resident Nuala Cabral Testified

The main ask of the City Council is to help Hollaback! Philly organize community safety audits, a type of action created by METRAC, which the United Nations uses around the world and which activists in Washington, D.C. (co-led by SSH and Collective Action for Safe Spaces) and NYC (co-led by city council members and several activist groups) have already used. Hollaback! Philly needs help from the City Council in connecting with diverse community groups and churches in neighborhoods throughout the city to ensure that volunteers conducting the audit come from a range of backgrounds and perspectives.

The four male city council members who heard us were very sympathetic and strongly against the issue. This is HUGE progress. They were also interested in seeing the issue brought up to kids in schools and working with police officers to train them to know how to help with street harassment incidents.

After the hearing, Council Member Kenney met with us and assured us this was not a “one and done day,” but that he was committed to working with Hollaback! Philly and other groups to address the issue. Great!

Congrats to Hollaback! Philly, and in particular to Rochelle, for doing all the leg work and follow-up and organizing to make this happen and to make it successful!

Some of the people who testified or attended the City Council Hearing

 

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