Take Back the Night Philly

dear all,

this year’s Take Back the Night Philly was one of the biggest, most beautiful, intensely powerful, intentional, and connecting ones to date. each year seems to grow & become more inclusive and more amazing than the last. in our fifth year, we doubled our supporting organizations, our number of marchers & “Bust the Myths” participants, and the number of brave, strong, brilliant people who risked their vulnerability & their silence and traded it for safety and support; i am truly humbled and inspired by your strength & your stories of struggle, survival, resiliency, unpacking, reclaiming, & growth.

thank you to all who came out and participated, who spoke & shared, who made signs and art, gave donations, promoted & shared about it, bought t-shirts, and supported and created a safer space for each other. you made your burden and the burdens of others a little less heavy with your presence. 5 hours of powerful humans sharing their stories and energy and lives together. thank you all for supporting my and your ever-changing, always evolving process.

it means more than you could ever know.

it was:

honesty. passion. love.
support. brutality. resistance.
resiliency. growth. unlearning.
unpacking. believing. seeing.

growing. hearing. healing.
being.
transforming.
realizations.
community. bonding. vulnerability.
boldly and bravely believing this life can be more.
building power through presence and intention.

you are strength. you are power. you are loved.

thank you for believing and manifesting that this world can be stronger, better, and safer for survivors. thank you for trusting our organization, our dedicated volunteers & organizers, and the safer space we created, to share with us and grow with us.

please take care of yourself in the weeks to come. process, write, run, purge, sleep, eat well, exercise, draw, yell, share more – do whatever you need to do to feel safe, seen, heard, and supported. talk with your friends and loves about your experiences listening & sharing and feel free to write to us at phillytbtn@gmail.com with any feedback, questions, comments, concerns, excitements, or other thoughts you have.

we hope to see you – and five of your friends – next year.

keep loving. keep fighting.

amanda spitfire.