By By Erin Kelly, News Staff

Many have seen the photos splattered across the Internet and magazines of pop star Rihanna’s swollen face after she was allegedly attacked by boyfriend Chris Brown. With domestic violence in the media spotlight, Northeastern student groups attempted to educate students about dating and gender-based violence last week with the school’s first-ever No Violence Week.
The week was co-sponsored by the Feminist Student Organization, Latin American Student Organization (LASO), the Resident Student Association, the Campus Center for Violence Against Women and the Northeastern Black Student Association (NBSA). Some of the events included a self-defense demonstration, an educational conference concerning cultural violence in Africa and Latin America, a carnival emphasizing the need for students to take action in violent situations and a play presented by Acting Out, an interactive education theatre company that addresses issues like dating violence, stalking and sexual assault.
Freshman international business major and LASO president Arzoris Hernandez said he hoped to raise awareness for the various forms of violence that often go unnoticed on college campuses.
‘I want students to know the different sides of violence,’ Hernandez said. ‘There’s not only physical violence, there’s psychological and sexual violence. I want individuals to know they can do something about it and know their resources on campus and in Boston.’
The self-defense demonstration held Monday in the West Addition of the Curry Student Center and led by the Department of Defense Academy aimed to teach students how to react if they are attacked and how violence affects both the victim and the attacker psychologically, Hernandez said. For the last half hour of the demonstration, students could practice the defense moves they had learned earlier in the session.
Cindy Retamozo, a middler behavioral neuroscience major, said the event was interesting because it combined psychology and knowledge of fighting practices.
‘He talked about getting into the mind of the attacker,’ Retamozo said. ‘It definitely taught me what to do if I get approached by an attacker.’
The series continued on Tuesday night when NBSA held a conference concerning gender-based violence and cultural aspects of violence in Latin America and Africa in the West Addition of Curry Student Center, Hernandez said. Among topics discussed were rape used as a tool of war in Africa, the trafficking of women in the Dominican Republic, and services available in those communities for victims of violence, she said.
Marques Crosby, president of NBSA, said the current Chris Brown-Rihanna scandal has brought dating violence into the spotlight of public attention.
‘When it happens on a larger scale like that, more people definitely do notice,’ Crosby said. ‘[The event] helped raise awareness for the cause at the same time we’re holding the events for No Violence Week.’
Crosby said that while the conference held Tuesday was more of an information session, Thursday’s Bystander Carnival attempted to lighten the mood by offering activities that were both fun and educational. The carnival in Centennial Commons offered food, music and games, like the ‘protect your victims’ game, where bystanders threw balls at dummies and participants had to protect the dummies from getting hit.
‘The big thing we’re hoping students take away from these events is that if you’re witnessing violence and not doing anything about it, you’re still participating in it,’ Crosby said. ‘We’re providing ways for students to know how to remedy a [violent] situation and provide ways for people to get help if they’re in a bad situation.’
The play, presented Friday night by Acting Out in the Amilcar Cabral Center in the John D. O’Bryant African-American Institute, was the capstone of the week’s events. Afterwards, audience members were allowed to ask questions about the characters in the play to better learn what to do in an abusive relationship, Hernandez said.
With the collaboration of different organizations, No Violence Week was a success, Crosby said.
‘We hope that students take away the information and take away the importance of [violent] situations and severity of them, learn and don’t turn their back on ignorance, because that does happen often,’ Crosby said.