Friday, September 2, 2008 9pm, earlier today women dressed in wedding gowns, along with approximately 100 other women dressed in white and men dressed in black, marched through the streets of Manhattan and the South Bronx to raise awareness about the devastating effects of domestic violence on our families and communities, and to remember Gladys Ricart and the many other battered women, children and others who have lost their lives to acts of domestic violence.

Despite the heavy rain and high winds predicted, members of the Ricart family and several family and friends of other victims of domestic violence along with scores of survivors of domestic violence and domestic violence service providers gathering at the Fort Washington Heights Presbyterian Church. We heard from community activists and city and state officials and after the Invocation, the six-mile march began at 10:30am under a light rain—just as the Reverend Carmen Rosario prayed for during the Invocation.

We marched south on Broadway chanting in Spanish and English “No More Violence Against Women” and “Men Who Matter Never Batter”. We stopped and heard from various speakers, amongst them survivors of domestic violence, at 161 Street and Grand Concourse and at the Harlem State Building Plaza. Along the route we were joined by several community based groups, and several bystanders also joined in the March for a couple of blocks—each with their own personal story of domestic violence and its impact on their lives.

At approximately 2 pm, just as the mist that had accompanied us for most of the day was becoming intense rain—more like a downpour—we reached El Taller Boricua/Julia de Burgos Cultural Center in East Harlem for the closing ceremony and a prayer for an end to domestic violence related homicides.

We invite all those who denounce domestic violence to join us next year—Saturday, September 26, 2009 to raise awareness and remember the victims of domestic violence www.BridesMarch.com