Speak About It
August 30, 2018
On Thursday, September 6, Speak About It, a national sexual assault prevention organization, will bring their empowering and enlightening show about consent and healthy relationships to students at the University of New Mexico at 7:00 PM in the SUB Ballroom C. Please note: The show is not open to the public and students must show their UNM or CNM Student ID to attend.
Speak About It uses true stories written by real young adults to talk openly and honestly about healthy relationships and sexual assault, making an often taboo topic comfortable and accessible for students. With #MeToo at the forefront of students’ and administrators’ minds as a new school year begins, Speak About It provides students with the tools to have conversations about sex and relationships, to advocate for themselves, respect each other’s’ boundaries, and intervene in unsafe situations.
Speak About It is excited to bring the show to UNM for the first time. They look forward to being a part of UNM’s ongoing effort to build a culture of consent on their campus. Speak About It offers an inclusive, informative, pleasure-centric view of healthy sexuality, while also providing students with tangible and concrete ways to ask for consent, support survivors, and prevent sexual violence. Their dynamic show is able to speak to students with a diversity of experience. “Theatre works because folks empathize with what's happening right in front of them, they see themselves in the range of true stories we tell. We use humor and humanity to help students focus on positive sexual choices that work for them,” says Executive Director, Olivia Harris. “We open conversations about consent, pleasure, and communication so that students continue to speak about it with friends, peers, and partners even after we leave campus."
While this has been a landmark year for raising awareness about sexual assault nationwide, Speak About It brings the expertise from almost a decade of peer-to-peer consent education with college students. Over 300,000 students at some of the top universities in the country have seen a Speak About It show or participated in a program. From Harvard, to Stanford, to Yale’s satellite campus in Singapore, Speak About It has brought their trademark humor, candor, and inclusivity to the subject of sexuality, consent, and communication. 99% of students surveyed said that the show increased their understanding of consent, and 91% said the show challenged their assumptions about sexual assault on their campus.
UNM is one of over fifty stops on Speak About It’s college orientation tour this August. Twenty-five actors from the organization will travel across the United States and Canada, engaging almost 50,000 students in these vital conversations about consent and healthy sexuality. The UNM appearance is sponsored by the LoboRespect Advocacy Center, the UNM Division of Student Affairs, UNM Campus Safety Committee, the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico, and Central New Mexico Community College.
You can learn more about Speak About It at www.speakaboutitonline.com, and follow them as they tour the country on social media at @wespeakaboutit. For media inquiries for the Speak About It touring company, please contact Catherine Buxton, Communications Coordinator at catherine@speakaboutitonline.com, 978-382-2629.
For media inquiries for UNM or more information about UNM’s part in this presentation, please contact Nash Jones, from the LoboRESPECT Advocacy Center at 505-277-2911.
