Documenting Survival

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and if you can’t make it to New Orleans for Eve Ensler’s “V to the Tenth” festivities, a number of local events are scheduled to remind you that nearly every two minutes, someone in this country is sexually assaulted.Charles Stonewall, a graduate student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, exhibits his take on the subject with New Moon, between 5 and 8 p.m. tonight at the UMKC Gallery of Art (5015 Holmes). For his thesis project, Stonewall interviewed victims of what he breezily calls “private or intimate violence.” He describes New Moon as a collection of photographs that he hopes express the range of thoughts and emotions experienced by victims after an assault. The Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault — a group that educates, counsels and advocates for victims of sexual assault — has also scheduled events. Programs include an April 14 self-defense class at the Westport-Roanoke Community Center (3601 Roanoke); “Take Back the Night” events on April 17 at UMKC and Kansas City, Kansas, Community College (7250 State Avenue in KCK); and an April 29 poetry reading at the Kansas City, Kansas, YWCA (1017 North Sixth Street). For details, see mocsa.org or call 816-931-4527.

April 10-30, 2008