Chanting "Women Unite! Take Back the Night," about 500 students, faculty and local residents tonight will march by candlelight through campus in an annual effort to increase awareness of violence against women.

Before the march, area feminist leaders will speak at a rally on the steps of Memorial Church. Leaders of undergraduate women's groups will also speak at the 8 p.m. rally.

Jennifer Jackman, the president of the Boston chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Professor of Biology Ruth Hubbard, and Martha Friend of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center are among the rally's featured speakers. In addition, an unannounced local recording artist will perform for the gathering, said organizer Linda S. Garber '86.

Sponsored by the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), the evening's events form part of a national effort to protest rape and violence against women. Similar events occur at colleges nationwide every spring.

About 500 people from Harvard the community and more than 35 college groups are expected to participate in the rally and march, RUS organizers said.

This year marks the fifth year of Take Back the Night marches at Harvard. Last year, RUS organizers chose not to hold the march because they feared that it would be overshadowed by an April 4 divestment rally which drew 5000 to hear the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson speak.

This year, the marchers will go up beyond the Science Center, across the Cambridge Common, continue past the river houses along the Charles and conclude in the Yard. Traditionally, the march has covered "dangerous, frightening places" which are unsafe for women to travel in alone at night, said Garber, who is also RUS secretary.

The march route includes the river houses in order to stress the the most common form of rape at Harvard--date or acquaintance rape--according to Garber. Several speeches will also focus on date rape.

"This is not an angry feminist thing," she said. "There's a real positive emotional attachment to it. For some people it gets near to a spiritual thing."

"It's a means of solidarity. Women are coming together and making a positive statement," she said.

"Part of it is to make people more aware of the facts," said RUS President Gina Cattalini. She said that the rally and march also allows people to show solidarity for the cause.