This year’s Take Back the Night march takes place following 28 incidents of sexual assault or rape, a number significantly higher than last year, said Vicky Basra, director of Project Safe.

The march, sponsored by Project Safe and Vanderbilt Student Government, will allow men and women to come together to show support for people who have survived or been affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence. Members of the Vanderbilt and Nashville communities are invited.

Basra emphasized the importance of the event in light of the increased number of rapes.

”The rape alerts are down, but it doesn’t mean violence against women has stopped,” Basra said. “Eighty percent of campus (rape survivors) are people who know their assailants. It’s important to remember that these rapes are up as compared to last semester.”

National statistics are equally startling, said Kacy Silverstein, associate director of Project Safe.

“Every 18 seconds a woman is beaten by her partner, and every two minutes in this country a woman is raped,” Silverstein said. “These realities let us know that this cycle of abuse must be stopped.”

Last year’s march drew close to 450 people with more than 55 of them sharing their story of how they have been affected by domestic violence.

The event will start with speaker Naomi Tutu and Nashville jazz vocalist and pianist Teri Reid. Afterward, participants will march to Centennial Park, where there will be an open forum for victims of domestic violence to share their trials and triumphs with the audience.

People can also see displays from The Clothesline Project, where women affected by violence express their emotions by decorating a shirt and hanging it on a clothesline to be viewed by others at the event as testimony to the problem of violence against women.

Continuing the march each year is important, Basra said.

“It is important for people in the Vanderbilt community to come together to show solidarity in the fight to end violence against women,” she said. “We must continue to march for this issue, so that one day we will never have to march again.”