UIC women’s center hosts sexual assault awareness month activities

UIC’s Women’s Leadership & Resource Center, along with the Campus Advocacy Network, are collaborating to focus attention on sexual violence as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The programs will focus on educating and engaging the campus community about the pervasive nature of sexual violence, the problem of rape culture, how sexual violence informs other systems and practices of oppression, and the ways that individuals, communities and institutions respond to the problem.

Events include:

April 5 to May 15
“Take Back the Fight: Resisting Sexual Violence from the Ground Up”
PUJA (Pop Up Just Art) Gallery
1344 S. Halsted St.
Exhibition features feminist and queer organized responses to gender and sexual violence, highlighting creative and powerful grassroots and non-institutional justice and healing practices. The exhibition features material from the early 1970s to the present and invites the audience to consider the ways that people have responded to sexual violence.

April 5
Opening reception and panel discussion
5:30 – 8 p.m.
PUJA Gallery
An opening reception will feature a panel discussion involving scholars and activists. including Jennifer Brier, director of the gender and women’s studies department and associate professor of history and gender and women’s studies at UIC.

Other events at the PUJA Gallery include:

• “After Rosa, Before #MeToo: Panel on Black Women’s Anti-Rape Organizing,” 6:30 p.m. April 11
• Quilt-making sessions, a collaboration between The Monument Quilt project and Chicago-based groups. 4 p.m. April 11, 26 and May 9
• Viewing and discussion of the film, “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” 3-5 p.m. April 18.
• Textiles workshop with Aram Sifuentes and Lou Najjar-Rub, 1-4 p.m. April 24.

The exhibition gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday from April 10 to May 15. Anyone interested in scheduling class visits or group tours may also email can.wlrc@gmail.com or call 312-413-1025.

In addition, Sangi Ravichandran, associate director of the Arab American Cultural Center will be moderating the Race/Sex/Power conference at Roosevelt University April 6-7. The conference is a follow up to the Race/Sex/Power conference held at UIC in 2008. Natalie Bennett, director of the Women’s Leadership and Outreach Center, is organizing the event. It is free and open to the public.