IYEOKA OKOAWO recites poetry at a candlelight vigil in front of Widener Library last night. The vigil was part of 'Take Back the Night' week, which ends tonight with a benefit concert in Memorial Church.

Take Back the Night (TBTN) week reached its culmination last night with a candlelight vigil at which survivors of sexual assault spoke in front of the Widener steps about their experiences.

For nearly two hours, a steady stream of people stepped forward into a circle of 200 people to recount personal stories of sexual assault.

Men and women, many in tears, talked about the effect of sexual assault—including date rape and childhood sexual abuse—on their lives.

Every year, the vigil is the focal point of Take Back the Night week, an annual series of events designed to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus.

“I think this is the most important event,” said Margaret C. Anadu ’03, who is in charge of organizing the week’s events, before the vigil. “This is where the silence is broken and we come face to face with the tragedy and other people’s pain.”

TBTN has always gotten support from feminist groups like Coalition Against Sexual Violence and the Radcliffe Union of Students, and peer counselling groups like Room 13 and Response.

But this year, a wide range of groups including fraternities and religious organizations, have taken a visible role.

Anadu and co-organizer Ellenor J. Honig ’04 noted the presence of men, particularly the Sigma Chi fraternity, which helped bring in a speaker and staffed tables at the Science Center throughout the week.

“Having men’s groups involved was so central this year,” said Anadu. “I was looking out at the audience at one of our events and it’s the most diverse I’ve ever seen.”

Every day, T-shirts made by survivors of sexual assault hung on a long clothesline spanning a corner of Tercentenary Theater.

In the Science Center, a poster exhibit told a few stories of sexual assault at Harvard, including one written by a man.

On Sunday night, Sigma Chi co-sponsored a talk by Harvey Kimmel, a social scientist and author, on the connection between masculinity and sexual violence.

The talk was an examination of perceived gender differences that focused in on how society’s construction of “manhood” can lead to sexual violence.

“Violence against women depends on men’s silence,” Kimmel told the group.

More than 20 members of the fraternity attended that event and both they and the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi are listed as sponsors of the week as a whole.

“I personally think that it is important for male groups, particularly male social groups, to be involved to express that sexual assault is not just a women’s issue,” Jared M. Slade ’03, an Alpha Epsilon Pi member who has helped spearhead the group’s involvement in TBTN, wrote in an e-mail.

According to Slade, members of the fraternities have been helping to poster and table for TBTN all week.

On Monday night, the Black Students Association, the Black Men’s Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women co-sponsored a viewing of the film “No!” a documentary about sexual assault within black communities, and held a panel with the film’s producer, Aishah Shahidah Simmons, afterwards.

On Tuesday night, a large crowd came to hear Katie Koestner—whose experience going public with her story of date rape in the early 90s brought the issue to national attention—speak in Science Center C.

This year, the issue of sexual assault on campus is a particularly charged, since the Leaning Committee—charged with issuing recommendations on Harvard’s sexual assault policy—is due to issue its report as early as this month.

“We want to make our audiences aware of what is going on,” Honig said. “We feel that if the people were willing to come to the events, they’d also be interested in other sexual assault issues and particularly campus sexual assault issues.”

—Staff writer Sarah M. Seltzer can be reached at sseltzer@fas.harvard.edu.