Time & Date
Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
Event Location
WBUR CitySpace890 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, MA 02215Open in Google Maps
Every year, nearly one in four women will experience sexual violence on college campuses, but research shows that empowerment self-defense programs reduce these assaults by 50% or more. Join us for a self-defense class where you will learn practical skills and tips on how to stay safe.
We’ll kick off the evening with remarks from Diane Rosenfeld, founding director of the Gender Violence Program and lecturer at Harvard Law School. Then, executive director of IMPACT Boston Meg Stone will lead a high-energy, hands-on self-defense training. You’ll learn assertive communication, bystander skills and simple, powerful ways to protect yourself and others — no matter your gender, ability, background or experience.
We’ll end the evening with dance music and networking. Copies of Rosenfeld’s book “The Bonobo Sisterhood” and Stone’s book “The Cost of Fear” will be available to purchase from our bookstore partner Brookline Booksmith and both authors will sign following the event.
CitySpace Tickets
General: $20.00
BU Faculty/Staff: $15.00 (must present a valid BU ID upon arrival)
Student: $10.00 (must present a valid student ID upon arrival)
Ways To Save
WBUR’s Legacy Circle, Murrow Society, Sustainers and Members save $5.00 on tickets to this event. To apply the discount to your ticket purchase online, you’ll need to enter a promo code. You can get your code by emailing membership@wbur.org.
Registrants may be contacted by CitySpace about this or future events.
About “The Bonobo Sisterhood”
“The Bonobo Sisterhood” is a revolutionary call to action for women and their allies to protect one another from patriarchal violence. Internationally recognized legal expert Diane L. Rosenfeld introduces us to a groundbreaking new model of female solidarity; one that promises to thwart sexual coercion.
Urgent, timely and original, “The Bonobo Sisterhood” harnesses the power of the #MeToo movement into a road map for sex equality in humans. Our closest evolutionary cousins, the bonobos have a unique social order in which the females protect one another from male aggression. The takeaway? Evolutionarily, bonobos have eliminated sexual coercion and enjoy a more peaceful, cooperative, and playful existence. We have much to learn from them.
Rosenfeld explores the implications of the bonobo model for human societies and systems of governance. How did law develop to elude women’s rights so consistently? What difference does it make that we live in a patriarchal democracy? And what do bonobos have to offer as living proof that patriarchy is not inevitable? Most important, how can women break down barriers among themselves to unleash their power as a unified force? Rosenfeld has answers.
“The Bonobo Sisterhood” takes us through real-life stories from the courtroom to the classroom and beyond, charting a new vision of a collective self-defense among women and their allies. It offers an action plan accessible to everyone immediately. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to challenge the status quo. It starts with the power inherent in each of us knowing that we have selves worth defending, and awakening that power for ourselves and for our sisters. We now have a new model for real change, Rosenfeld reminds us. It’s time to use it.
“The Bonobo Sisterhood” forges a path to create and discover a new meaning of equality, liberty and justice for all.
About the “The Cost of Fear”
Personal safety shouldn’t mean living in fear, nor should it come at the expense of political progress.
Questionable advice to avoid violence, like “don’t go shopping alone,” comes mostly from the police or other men in authority. But gender-based violence is often enacted in the most intimate spheres of our lives, not when we’re out grocery shopping. To stop this violence, we need strategies that are just as intimate.
In “The Cost of Fear,” nationally recognized violence prevention expert Meg Stone helps readers separate fact from fiction. It’s full of practical, research-based strategies that readers can use to keep themselves and their communities safer. Increased safety comes from developing the skills to resist coercive control, especially from people we know or people in authority, not from complying with rigid rules or avoiding homeless people on the street.
This deeply researched book draws timely connections between personal safety and political change — from Latina organizers in California working to stop sexual violence against night shift janitorial workers to teenage girls who call out double standards.
Work to change laws and change people’s minds is essential, but without practical strategies, the change is incomplete. “The Cost of Fear” will show us how we can make safety choices that expand our worlds and contribute to the fight for social justice.