Candlelight flickered around Wait Chapel on Oct. 23 as women from all over campus gathered to speak out against domestic violence and rape.

"Take Back the Night," was sponsored by Women's Initiative for Support and Empowerment and was held at Wait Chapel.

"Usually, here at Wake, students and faculty meet outside the chapel," senior Stacy Gomes said. "Some people read poetry or stories involving violence and those kinds of things. We then have a candlelit march around campus."

About 20 women gathered in front of the chapel on Oct. 23, exchanging different accounts and stories of violence against women.

Linda McKinnish-Bridges, assistant dean of the college and interim director of women's studies, presented a passage from Toni Morrison's book Beloved.

"(The passage) is about, after emancipation, the kind of work that needs to be done to African-Americans whose body has been despised and not loved by white masters, abused and broken by slavery," she said.

"And so I read it tonight because in some ways, women's bodies have been abused and broken by patriarchy and by the domination like that of white domination to blacks, male domination to women. I also read it for the purpose of restoration and bringing back to life for those which have not been loved or accepted."

At the event, Bridges questioned why "so much of what we are taught still teaches us of either obedience or domination over other groups. You have to wonder why coexisting with one another has to be such a revelatory experience."

"Take Back the Night" was WISE's primary event for the fall and comes directly after the Clothesline Project that took place throughout the week.

Women designed T-shirts speaking out against domestic violence and rape. The shirts hung in the Benson rotunda all week.

The project also takes place on college campuses across the country.

"Over the years WISE supplies T-shirts, and anybody can go and make a T-shirt. It's kind of a creative response to violence," Gomes said. "These are personal stories of women who have been raped or are victims of domestic violence. We accumulate the T-shirts over the years, and we hang those up."

These events are part of WISE's annual recognition of "Domestic Violence Awareness Month."

According to Gomes, WISE is open to everybody.

Working hard not to exclude any member of the campus, the group promotes causes that affect everyone in one way or another.

"I think domestic violence and rape are important issues," junior Ashley Bumgarner said. "I especially think it's important to be aware of these dangers on college campuses, where they can be sometimes prevalent. I attend most WISE events because I'm both on the steering committee, and because I get perspectives here that I don't usually get on campus."