Coinciding with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the University of Connecticut Women’s Center held an evening of origami in an event called Mindful Creases on April 21.
The event took place in the Women’s Center program room on the fourth floor of the Student Union at 5 p.m. Attendants were provided with sheets of squared colored paper, scissors and instruction sheets on how to make a fox, a pigeon, a crane and an iris flower.
The event was organized by Marie Sajaw, a sixth-semester student studying allied health sciences, with a minor in women’s gender and sexuality studies. She has been working at the Women’s Center since the fall of her sophomore year but is currently in her first semester as a Violence Against Women Prevention Program ambassador, alongside fellow ambassador Nala Davis.
“We each do like an event that we kind of fully run and fully plan,” Sajaw said. “And this is mine, which is an origami workshop! So, it’s been fun. It’s been a new experience planning an event myself, but it’s been cool.”
Sajaw picked origami for her event because to her, it matched the Women’s Center goal of healing during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
“Origami is like a long process, but like, kind of when you finish it, it’s very fulfilling and rewarding in a sense,” Sajaw said. “And also just like, how origami lines up with hope and healing and things like that.”
The Women’s Center program room is on the smaller side but easily feels comfortable to anyone walking in. Purple couches line the back wall and Sajaw placed cookies at the room’s front table. She also played music throughout the event — all by female artists, of course, such as Mitski or The Marias.
“I just wanted something fun that, you know, you could play music, you know, enjoy some snacks,” Sajaw said. “And just like chat, connect with other people. All through an activity, because I know when I get frustrated, like making something, I’m like, ‘Oh my God! I need to talk to someone about this!’”
Although the origami event was low in attendance, Sajaw still got her wish. Those attending the event soon congregated at one table together — mostly to bond over the difficulty of folding a paper crane.
One of the attendants of the event was Eduen Smith, a senior who has been studying at UConn for the past four semesters. They are an English major with a minor in women’s gender and sexuality studies.
“I think for me, healing doesn’t necessarily need to be a conversation or anything that you need to say out loud,” Smith said. “It can just manifest through different life forms, like origami, in order for you to kind of focus on where you need to heal in your body. Because stress tends to live in your body a lot.”
Sajaw viewed healing in a similar way — not as a conversation, but as a slow effort to find that works for you.
“Hope and healing means to me just kind of taking that space for yourself, taking that time for yourself,” Sajaw said. “I know everyone has like, the five stages of grief, and this and that. But really, healing’s not a linear process.”
According to Sajaw, the Women’s Center wanted to focus on these ideas of hope and healing during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The origami event was held in anticipation of the organization’s annual Take Back the Night event on April 22.
“It’s not linear,” Sajaw said. “And it can happen in so many ways. You’re going to have to take ahold of that process for yourself.”