Upper 6 Pupil, Sophie Hough, tells us about FemSoc's Reclaim The Night vigil;
"Leading up Friday 24th November, Norwich School’s Feminist Society were busy preparing for our third annual vigil for the elimination of violence against women.
The protest Reclaim the Night was first held in Leeds in 1977, as a march with the aim of making our streets safer for women and girls, and it has since expanded into a worldwide affair. This is in part due to the “Me Too” movement of 2017, which empowered women all over the world, especially vulnerable young women, but also high-profile celebrities, to speak out about the gender-based violence they had experienced. On Friday after school, we held our own vigil in honour of Reclaim the Night.
Our FemSoc meetings had been focused on organising Reclaim the Night for several weeks, and FemSoc member Alethea (Lower 6) designed a poster for the event.
To mark the occasion, we made more signs and placards, printed T-shirts with the design from Alethea’s poster, and got creative with our poetry, with contributions from Writer’s Bloc, the school’s creative writing society. Some beautiful poems came from Grace (Lower 6), Ryan (Lower 6), and Allegra and Nia (Lower 5). We also heard readings of pieces by Maya Angelou and the Queen Consort, as well as an extract from the play ‘Prima Facie,’ which is about sexual assault and the law. While we had to battle with the wind and rain on the evening, the turn-out was as we had hoped and everyone read very well.
Next term, FemSoc are planning an exhibition to display our placards and poetry from the last three years of the vigil. This will be an opportunity for more people to see the work we have done and we hope that it will be well-attended. After this, we will be turning our attentions to International Women’s Day in March, and hopefully an event to celebrate Women in STEM."
Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to the vigil. Violence against women is such a major issue in today’s society and as more and more young people stand up to it, one day we may be able to eliminate it in its entirety."
