Bemidji Take Back the Night moves to Rail River Folk School

Bemidji’s annual Take Back the Night gathering moved off the Bemidji State University campus this year and into Rail River Folk School, a change that put the sexual violence awareness event at 303 Railroad St. SW and away from the familiar Lower Lakeside Student Union, American Indian Resource Center and Hobson Memorial Union fire pit sites used in past years. The free event, held from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, April 23, kept the same purpose even as the setting changed: public awareness, survivor support and a visible reminder that sexual violence remains a live issue in Beltrami County.

Organizers kept the program packed with the pieces that have long defined Bemidji’s version of Take Back the Night. Val Steeprock of MMIW218 served as guest speaker, and the evening included a solidarity walk, survivor speakout, candlelight vigil, honor song, food, a potted plant project and a jewelry-making station. The event was co-sponsored by Support Within Reach, Bemidji State University and BSU’s It’s On Us organization, tying the new venue to both campus partners and the local advocacy group that works with survivors across the region.

The venue shift mattered because it changed where the event sat in the community. Instead of being anchored to a university building or campus landmark, the gathering took place in a public arts space used by a wider mix of Bemidji residents. That change did not alter the event’s practical mission: it still aimed to bring survivors, advocates and neighbors into one place to talk openly about violence, healing and accountability. It also kept the focus on access, since Support Within Reach serves Beltrami, Cass, Hubbard and Clearwater counties from its Bemidji office at 1510 Bemidji Ave. N., Suite 13.

Support Within Reach provides 24-hour crisis intervention, legal advocacy, SANE services, medical accompaniment, counseling, support groups and prevention education. Those services sit at the center of why events like Take Back the Night continue to matter locally. The need is clear in the numbers organizers cited: Minnesota recorded 1,838 rape reports in 2025, and Beltrami County accounted for 36 reported cases, with 31 listed without clearances in the Minnesota Crime Data Explorer figures referenced by organizers.

Bemidji Mayor Jorge Prince proclaimed April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in 2026, the same month the national campaign marked its 25th anniversary under the theme “25 Years Stronger: Looking Back, Moving Forward.” Take Back the Night says it now reaches more than 1,400 communities in the United States and around the world, and Bemidji’s version showed why the event still has traction here: it connects a local support network, a campus partnership and a county still confronting sexual violence in plain view.