Disclaimer: Some of the material could be a trigger so please take care of yourself.

This first monologue is to honor the refugee women from Bosnia and Kosovo who were sent to rape camps in 1993.

My vagina is angry

King County Sexual Assault Resource Center

To talk with someone immediately, please call our 24-Hour Resource Line at 888.99.VOICE (888.998.6423). 

KCSARC is a victim-advocacy organization that provides critical support, tools, and direct services to children, teens, women and men who are victims of sexual assault. KCSARC works with clients of all ages and from all backgrounds.

KCSARC has the expertise to help victims heal and become survivors. Our philosophy is to provide services to victims and their families in a holistic and coordinated way so that victims and their support networks have the skills and knowledge needed to heal. Over half of KCSARC’s clients are under the age of 18, and it is not uncommon for a family to receive multiple services which may include:

Crisis Response
Every hour of the day, KCSARC has trained advocates ready to help you via its 24-Hour Resource Line. You can get help by calling 888.99.VOICE. Our advocates will answer your call, provide crisis intervention, information and referrals, and on-going support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

https://www.kcsarc.org/

Campus Law Enforcement Has a Significant Role in Addressing and Responding to College Sexual Assault

• 86% of sworn campus law enforcement officials have legal authority to make an arrest outside of the campus grounds.
• 86% of sworn campus law enforcement agencies have a staff member responsible for rape prevention programming.
• 70% of campus law enforcement agencies have memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with local law enforcement.
• 72% of campus law enforcement agencies have a staff member responsible for survivor response and assistance.
• Among 4-year academic institutions with 2,500 students or more, 75% employ armed officers, a 10% increase in the last decade.

https://www.rainn.org/

Sexual violence on campus is pervasive.

• 13% of all students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation (among all graduate and undergraduate students).
• Among graduate and professional students, 9.7% of females and 2.5% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.
• Among undergraduate students, 26.4% of females and 6.8% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.
• 5.8% of students have experienced stalking since entering college.

Student or not, college-age adults are at high risk for sexual violence.

• Male college-aged students (18-24) are 78% more likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault.
• Female college-aged students (18-24) are 20% less likely than non-students of the same age to be a victim of rape or sexual assault.

https://www.rainn.org/safety-students

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence

(Disclaimer: This may cause an emotional trigger for those who have been traumatized by sexual assault)

https://www.denimdayinfo.org/why-denim

The Denim Day story begins in Italy in 1992, when an 18-year old girl was raped by the 45-year old driving instructor who was taking her to her very first driving lesson. He took her to an isolated road, pulled her out of the car, removed her jeans and forcefully raped her.

She reports the rape and the perpetrator is arrested and prosecuted. He is then convicted of rape and sentenced to jail. Years later, he appealed the conviction claiming that they had consensual sex. The Italian Supreme Court overturned the conviction and the perpetrator was released. A statement from the Court argued that because the victim was wearing very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was not rape but consensual sex. This became known throughout Italy as the “jeans alibi.”

Enraged by the verdict, the women in the Italian Parliament launched a protest wearing jeans on the steps of the Supreme Court. This protest was picked up by international media which inspired the California Senate and Assembly to do the same on the steps of the Capitol in Sacramento. Patti Occhiuzzo Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, saw this in the media and thought everyone should be wearing jeans to protest all of the myths about why women and girls are raped. Denim Day in LA was born. The first Denim Day in LA event was held in April of 1999, and has continued annually since.

For more information on the case, visit The New York Times’ coverage.

Learn about the importance of CHamoru indigenous communities more dates to follow.

Tuesdays, North Seattle College’s Pacific Islander Affinity Group meets at 4pm at the Affinity Student Lounge:

https://tinyurl.com/nscslounge

E.P.I.C. Film Screening

Thursday, April 8th from 12noon-1pm

RESOURCES for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Abuse

King County Sexual Assault Resource Center 

https://www.kcsarc.org/

Phone Hotline: 888-99-VOICE (888-998-6423) available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 

 NSVRC – National Sexual Violence Resource Center 

https://www.nsvrc.org/saam

https://www.nsvrc.org/find-help

 

RAINN – Rape Abuse Incest National Network  

https://www.rainn.org/articles/sexual-assault

Phone Hotline: 800-656-HOPE (4673) available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 

 RAINN Support for LGBTQ Survivors of Sexual Violence 

https://www.rainn.org/articles/lgbtq-survivors-sexual-violence

 RAINN Weekly Online Support Groups for Men Who Have Been Sexually Abused or Assaulted 

https://supportgroup.1in6.org/#/terms-of-service

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani Activist, University of Oxford 2020 Graduate, and Youngest Nobel Prize Laureate 

https://malala.org/malalas-story

https://malala.org/our-work?sc=header

Malala Yousafzai’s lived experience of being targeted and shot in the face and surviving is a story of great courage. Her continued advocacy for safe and free education for girls around the world earned her a Nobel Prize. The Malala Fund has raised $22 million to fund girls’ education who otherwise would be prevented from going to school in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Brazil, Turkey, Ethiopia, Lebanon, and Nigeria. Education for Girls

Celebrating Women’s Firsts

“In 1961, a time of segregation and rampant racism and sexism, three African-American women overcame every challenge they faced and helped NASA in the early days of the Space Race. The record of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson is a story that was ignored until now.”

Hidden Figures Book Read for Children, read by the book’s illustrator, Laura Freeman.

https://online.maryville.edu/blog/women-of-color-in-stem offers a list of amazing scientists for us to honor their contributions in STEM fields.

•  https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison 
• “As a doctor, engineer, and NASA astronaut, Mae Jemison has always reached for the stars. In 1992, Jemison became the first African American woman to travel in space. She has also written several books and appeared on many television programs including an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In addition to her many awards, Jemison has been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame.”

•  https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/queen-liliuokalani 
• “Growing up in a royal family, Queen Lili‘uokalani was trained to be a monarch. Even though becoming queen was probably not a surprise to her, she may not have known that she would also become the last sovereign monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Unfortunately, she was only able to reign for three years because the United States overthrew the Hawaiian monarchy. However, Lili‘uokalani published her side of the story in a memoir that became the only autobiography written by a Hawaiian monarch.”

• North Seattle College’s new Pacific Islander Affinity Group begins Spring Quarter
• Tuesday, April 6 from 4pm-5pm via Zoom
• Zoom Link: https://tinyurl.com/nscslounge
• to celebrate the diverse peoples of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (in the U.S. Jurisdictions & Territories): Carolinian, Chamorro, Chuukese, Fijian, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Kosraean, Marshallesse, Native Hawaiian, Niuean, Palauan, Pohnpeian, Papua New Guinean, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan, Yapese.
• https://www.api-gbv.org/resources/census-data-api-identities/#:~:text=Native%20Hawaiians%20and%20Pacific%20Islanders,%2C%20Tokelauan%2C%20Tongan%2C%20Yapese.

Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, or Pasefika, are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. It is a geographic and ethnic/racial term to describe the inhabitants and diaspora of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania (Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia). It is also sometimes used to describe inhabitants of the Pacific islands (i.e. citizens of Pacific states who are of Asian and European descent who call the Pacific their home).

New Zealand has the largest concentration of Polynesian Pacific Islanders in the world—during the 20th century and into the 21st century the country saw a steady stream of immigration from Polynesian countries such as Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, and French Polynesia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islander

 

North Seattle College is excited to announce it’s first-ever Pacific Islander Affinity Group!

Anna Bungag, PIA’s logo artist and North Seattle College Graduate

TRiO Navigator Jeff Bermudes (he/his), Pacific Islander Affinity Group Advisor is a descendant of the Chamorro people indigenous to the Mariana Islands. Sabrina Malialani (she/her), Student Leader is a descendant of King Kamehameha V indigenous from the Hawaiian Islands. In celebration and identification of the Pacific Islander Affinity Group, we would like to introduce our brand-new logo designed by North Seattle College Alumnus, Ana Bungag. 

Pacific Islander Affinity Logo Artist- Ana Bungag (She/Her, Fillipino- American):

I am Ana Bungag and my pronouns are she/her. I immigrated from the Philippines to the US when I was a teenager, but I just recently became a US citizen and so I now identify as Filipino-American. I graduated at North Seattle College with a bachelor’s degree in International Business and now I am studying Graphic Design at Seattle Central College.

How was your experience going to NSC? 

For me, the classes that I took at NSC shaped me in the career path that I wanted to take. My Digital Arts class sparked my interest in becoming a graphic designer and digital artist. My classes in International Business helped me understand even more about the cultures and practices of people from different countries which I feel I should keep in mind when I am working or interacting with someone. 

Right now, my art and designs are focused on my community, especially Asian/Pacific Americans. I want to help and show my support for them especially now with all the hardships they have to face since the beginning of the pandemic.

In 1911, Japanese immigrants Shoji and Matsuma Kumasaka founded Green Lake Gardens on the spot where the College stands today. The whole area around Green Lake was farmed by Japanese immigrants and their families. By the 1920s, Japanese-American farmers supplied 75% of King County’s vegetables and half its milk supply, and more than half of Pike Place Market’s farmers were Japanese. The Kumasaka family used greenhouses to grow flowers and vegetables, and they built a small Japanese Language School and Community Center that stood on the southeast corner of the property, so second and third generation folks could bring their kids to learn the culture. This entire area was a thriving hub of Japanese-American community, up until World War II. 

 On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, leading to the forced removal & incarceration of more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast. They were taken from their homes and sent to internment camps for the “crime” of looking like the enemy. The vibrant Japanese-American community that had lived and farmed here for decades was  gone in a matter of days. This happened here, less than 80 years ago, on the land where our college is now built. 

Akira Kumasaka (the son of the original owners) and his wife Sayo and their children were interned at camps in Puyallup and Minidoka, Idaho. After the war, the Kumasakas came home to find their greenhouses seriously damaged, and the community school burned to the ground. The Kumasakas were one of the few families who chose to stay and try to rebuild their farms. The neighborhood was changing as the city of Seattle expanded, with Northgate Mall being built in 1950. 

In 1952, Akira was driving the family’s garden truck and suffered a stroke. Police assumed he was driving drunk and threw him in jail, and he died days later. Sayo was pregnant at the time. She had never driven a truck or written a check. But she learned fast because she had to. She managed to take over running the farm while providing for her kids.  

In 1968, when the State went to buy the land where North would be built, they offered people pennies on the dollar to buy their property. Sayo Kumasaka was still alive then. She died in 2007 at age 90—again, this wasn’t long ago. She got all the residents organized to negotiate, and in the end, the State was forced to offer them all a fair price. All the homes that were there got bulldozed and plowed over, and the College opened in 1970. Today you can still see what’s left of those homes, out by the north parking lot. They look like weird mounds under the grass that don’t look like the rest of the land. Now it’s just the ghost of what used to be there, and it’s possible to pass by them hundreds or thousands or times and never know.    

Today, we stand in solidarity with all humans who are being detained because of race, religion & national origin. We learn the history, hoping we can stop it from happening again. 

Sources: 
We have done our best to tell this story accurately and respectfully with the information that is available to us, using a combination of oral histories and conversations on campus, and the following sources. If you have more information or would like to offer a correction, please email us at StudentLeadershipNorth@seattlecolleges.edu  

https://densho.org/ 
http://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-134/ 
https://www.historylink.org/File/298 
https://historylink.org/File/3447 
https://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Sayo-Kumasaka-Harmeling-1916-2007-Gardens-1228100.php 

Additional stories and education about Japanese Internment can be found on this YouTube Channel curated by Densho:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChP_ZwM13TCNSqNJl5SDlsA

And this resource list curated by North Seattle Library:
https://libguides.northseattle.edu/dayofremembrance

Lunar New Year is a celebration based on the Lunar calendar system that originated from China. This year, the first day of the Lunar New Year falls on February 12th of the Gregorian calendar (the regular version we use everyday which is based on the sun). 

Much like the International/Gregorian New Year, Lunar New Year is the time for family reunions and a series of never-ending feasts with friends and family (not during this pandemic of course!). However, there is a twist– we get red envelopes filled with $$$! 

There are similar ideas between the Western and Eastern world which revolves around the zodiac. While the Western Zodiac signs (such as Capricorn, Aquarius or Leo) change roughly every 30 days, the Chinese zodiac is a cycle of 12 animals that changes every year: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

To find out about the original story of Lunar New Year, watch this video:

To find out what your animal is, try this website here.

To find out what your animal says about you, click here.

Lunar New Year is a holiday celebrated by many Asian cultures. Below is the list of countries that celebrate Lunar New Year:

• China
• Hong Kong
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Mongolia
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• Thailand
• Vietnam

And many more!

Different countries have different celebratory practices, but the main theme of this holiday is to gather with family members, and reach out to those in your life that you haven’t touched base with in a while, to wish them good luck!

On behalf of the North Seattle Student Leadership and Multicultural Programs, we wish you a prosperous new year of the Ox!