“You are not alone, you can tell your story, and you are in a space that is survivor-centric, where we are all understanding and we are all here for you.”
This is the message that Safina Vesuna, the administrative coordinator of the Carleton University Students’ Association Womxn’s Centre, said she hopes survivors will take away from Survivors Speak, an ongoing series of events aimed at raising awareness of sexual violence.
Vesuna said the goal of Survivors Speak, which kicked off the year with an open mic event hosted on Nov. 1, is also to give survivors a space to voice their experiences.
Survivors of sexual violence were invited to read poems, sing songs, and perform monologues at Rooster’s Coffeehouse.
Victoria Naghavi, a first-year humanities student who performed a poem that night, said it’s important to have spaces dedicated to survivors.
“I was honestly very excited at first, because I didn’t know that there were events like that at Carleton,” Naghavi said.
“I feel like there are a lot of support networks on campus but having one that’s specifically for sexual assault is really important.”
Naghavi added that the event allowed her to create change in the process of sharing her story.
“It was a chance for me to share a poem I wrote, and having that creative outlet is really important for me in the process of healing,” she said.
“Having a chance to make my negative experiences into something positive that can help other people was really meaningful.”
Vesuna said this event focuses on “supporting those that are there and their stories.”
A larger-scale, week-long series centering around sexual violence will be held in January, with a broader focus on out- reach and education.
“For next semester, we’re bringing in partners from campus,” Vesuna said. “We want to really bring that awareness element in and the idea of more direct activism.”
Naghavi said she hopes participants leaving Survivors Speak have a better understanding of the prevalence of sexual assault.
“I really hope that participants were able to see that they’re not alone, and that it’s unfortunate, but that sexual assault is something that happens across the board.”
Heather Sutcliffe, a first-year humanities student, said the event was timely considering its social context.
“I think that there is, in a lot of places, an active effort to try to shut this kind of conversation down,” she said. “It’s really good to see people fighting back against that.”
Naghavi said the event also gave her hope for the future.
“There’s a lot of bad things and bad people, but there’s also a lot of good,” she said. “And there’s a safe space where that good can come together and just grow into something bigger.”
Graphic by Paloma Callo
