Last Thursday marked the launch of Harvard’s newest student publication, “Saturday Night: Untold Stories of Sexual Assault at Harvard.” The first issue to appear at Harvard contains various poems and brief narratives from anonymous authors that reveal chilling, first-hand accounts of sexual assault. Such a collection of stories insinuates that this kind of crime is much more prevalent than the average student would believe, which is exactly what the editors had in mind.
“Sexual assault does happen at Harvard,” says Saturday Night editor Azeemah Kola ’10. “It’s not something that happens to other people that we never hear of.”
Although the style and format differs from piece to piece, each article comes together into a cohesive message about sexual assault. “We’re hoping that by raising awareness, and creating a forum for victims of sexual assault, more people will realize what the issue is,” says Alexandra “Sandy” N. Bolm ’09, one of the magazine’s editors. “It’s strange to me how many people think it doesn’t happen.”
But it does happen. “Saturday Night” sets out to prove that sexual assault needs to be addressed on a much larger scale. The concept behind the publication originated at Duke University back in 2003. For Harvard’s spin on the idea, editors teamed up with the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (OSAPR), and Saturday Night includes resource materials on the final pages.
While each anonymous submission takes a unique approach to this touchy subject, reading the magazine from cover to cover in one sitting can have an overwhelming effect. Each piece addresses an experience with sexual assault with varying degrees of subtlety, often with graphic depictions of the horrific crimes. Neagheen Homaifar ’10, founder of Saturday Night, says that this variation is what makes the publication so powerful. “The stories demonstrate that sexual assault is not only something affecting the assault victim, but also significantly affecting the sons, daughters, boyfriends, and fathers and friends,” Homaifar says.
The writing does shed light on a topic often excluded from polite conversation, but does not seem to offer a solution to this growing problem. Each story walks a fine line between portraying a powerful message and sinking into a familiar trope. But occasional clichés aside, the reader is intended to gain inspiration and hope from these stories of survival. “People can survive this,” says editor Karolina M. Lempert ’09.
By putting these difficult topics into a more public forum, Saturday Night aims to jump-start a campus-wide discussion on sexual assault. “Saturday Night gives these survivors and friends and family affected by sexual assault a chance to share their emotions and their stories anonymously, thus giving them a venue in which to heal,” Homaifar says. While publishing these experiences may not solve this problem directly, it is sure to get some attention.
