Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo Credit: @obrjakarta
Kibera-Nairobi, Kenya. Photo Credit: One Billion Rising Kenya
Taos, NM, USA. Photo Credit: Morgan Timms / The Taos News
Our new liberation anthem, “We Are Rising,” is a global hit! The video has been viewed over half a million times and the song has been featured at the center of risings around the world!
We keep rising like the fire of the sun…
One for a billion a billion for one
– Taína Asili, “We Are Rising”
The song is a call to action and a call to RISE against the tides of violence against all women, climate crisis, racism, and corporate greed. The anthem has resonated with activists, with footage already coming in from Myanmar, Italy, US Virgin Islands, Thailand, Philippines, Swaziland, Mexico, Canada, and the United States showing activists, survivors, and community members dancing to it.
Two years after survivors broke the silence around Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior, Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of criminal sexual acts and rape in New York.
On Monday, 24 February, a New York jury found Weinstein guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. Weinstein will have to register as a sex offender and could face up to twenty-five years in prison. He will be sentenced on 11 March.
Now, Weinstein is due to face a criminal case in Los Angeles, where prosecutors filed charges for two incidents that happened over a two-day period. Weinstein is accused of forcible rape, sexual penetration by use of force, and sexual battery by restraint. These crimes carry a potential 28-year prison sentence. While the specifics of the trial are not yet clear considering that Weinstein is now a convicted rapist in New York, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office reported that they were still moving forward with the case. (“Harvey Weinstein to face charges in Los Angeles after guilty verdict in New York”, Sam Levin, The Guardian, 25 February 2020).
With gratitude to every woman who broke the silence, to everyone who said #MeToo, to everyone whose case didn’t make it this far – we see you, we believe you, and we love you. Your voice, your bravery changed the tide and moved us ever closer to justice. We will stand with you and we will fight #UntilTheViolenceStops.
(L) Hamburg, Germany. @one_billion_rising_hamburg (R) Bihar, India. @Sahyogi Ngo
Across the globe, One Billion Risingactivists are RAISING THE VIBRATION through music, chanting, dance, drumming, original monologues, and more, staging actions and events that reflect the intersecting challenges, needs and desires of all women and girls and their communities.
Risings are taking place during the month of February and leading up to 8 March, #InternationalWomensDay. The Risings are grassroots and global, led by youth, survivors, artists, and activists, who determine how and why they rise, with and for their communities.
The One Billion Rising movement is vast and textured, and each year it grows, deepening a grassroots commitment to end all forms of violence – against women and girls and our planet.
NEW: Tell Us The Story Of Your Rising – Raise the Vibration Blog Series
Through One Billion Rising, you shook the earth through the massive RISINGS in which over ONE BILLION people danced to end the epidemic of violence, we have shifted consciousness and broken the deadly silence. And every day, you stage art in your community for social change, you RISE, you are in the streets rising against racist patriarchy. You have made ending sexual violence a front-page issue, never to be silenced again.
Beginning today, we are inviting OBR activists worldwide to write blogs about their events and submit them for publishing on onebillionrising.org, amplifying the voices of the movement.
Some prompts to get your started, keep in mind as you write your piece –
What inspired you to Rise and get involved?
What issues did your Rising spotlight? How?
What are critical issues affecting women and girls in your community?
How did you Raise the Vibration?
Did the theme infuse new energy, raise the stakes artistically and politically?
What was the impact on the community, the organizers, your fellow activists?
Where did you rise, why did you pick that location?
Please keep your piece to under 1000 words. Submit your piece HERE. Thank you, we cannot wait to read your stories!
DOCUMENT & SHARE YOUR RISINGS
One Billion Rising Zimbabwe
Over the past years, on or around 14 February, thousands of Risings took place around the world, in hundreds of cities, in virtually every country on earth. We have made history. In 2020, we RISE and RAISE THE VIBRATION and we want the world to witness every sight and sound of this extraordinary global action. HERE’S HOW!
Share everything you do for One Billion Rising. Share your photos, video and audio updates with the global audience!
For your RISING event(s), please share your photos, video and audio updates with the global audience so they can experience it as it happens – or as close to it! Before and during the events, utilize social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
Tell the story of what’s happening using these channels. Be sure to tag us and use the official hashtags #1BillionRising #RaiseTheVibration #RiseInSolidarity and #RiseResistUnite to include your posts on our digital hub at onebillionrising.org and across our social channels for the world to see. The more we share, we spread the word and trend on social media platforms around the world, reaching even more people.
Activists, survivors and youth around the globe are Raising the Vibration for #1BillionRising 2020.
This is a snapshot of the thousands of One Billion Rising creative resistance events. Risings are taking place during the month of February and leading up to 8 March, #InternationalWomensDay. Over a hundred cities in Italy, Poland, Germany, and the Philippines respectively are Rising. Every state in India. Over 500 V-Day Risings in the United States. The Risings are grassroots and global, led by youth, survivors, artists, and activists, who determine how and why they rise, with and for their communities.
One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. One Billion Rising activists worldwide mobilize, engage, awaken and join people across the planet to end violence against all women and girls. 1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we Rise – in countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We Rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We Rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.
The rise of misogynist, authoritarian regimes the world over – from the United States to the Philippines, India to Brazil – has recalibrated work of the movement, further escalating the urgency with which we feel compelled to fight for gender, climate, economic and racial justice.
Activists are Rising up, through artistic and political resistance actions to end rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual, gender and reproductive oppression, violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities.
RAISING THE VIBRATION through action, art, connection, imagination and love.
Ready to RISE? Join us! #RaiseTheVibration
Plan a RISING, a V-Day benefit production, or a CITY OF JOY screening or house party in your college or community.
One Billion Rising activists are taking to the streets across the globe amplifying some of the most pressing issues that intersect with violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence). Risings are Raising the Vibration, amplifying the voices of survivors, youth, and communities globally, making lasting impact through creative vision and voice.
Risings are planned in over 180 countries. India is rising in all 29 states, hundreds of risings are planned in Poland, Germany, Italy and the Philippines respectively. Across Europe, the European Women’s Lobby has launched a massive OBR social media campaign. Activists are amplifying local issues and across the board are making the connections to climate change and violence against women and girls.
We’ve begun a global schedule of events, and will be adding more – check it out here(list in formation).
How are you RISING? Tell us on social media and tag us – #RaiseTheVibration and #1BillionRising so we can share your Rising with the world!
Women Workers ROSE in NYC This Week
Photo Credit: Kisha Bari
Joining the thousands of One Billion Rising creative resistance actions happening all over the world, on 3 February, restaurant workers, Eve, Times Up members and actresses Carmen LoBue and Alysia Reiner, social justice artist/musician Taína Asili, One Billion Rising, One Fair Wage, allies, and 25+ other groups RAISED THE VIBRATION and staged a public self defense training in response to Governor Cuomo’s New Year’s Eve announcement that he would enact One Fair Wage – a full minimum wage with tips included – for all tipped laborers except restaurant workers.
It is the first in a series of WOMEN WORKERS RISING mass self-defense actions, organized by One Billion Rising and One Fair Wage. In New York, restaurant workers are primarily women of color who suffer from three times the poverty rate of workers in non-tipped industries. Because restaurant servers have to rely on customer tips to pay their rent and feed their families, these women endure the highest rates of sexual harassment in any industry.
“When I worked in a Michelin Star restaurant, I would have some customers who would ask me to sit on their lap. I would have male co-workers, who were also my superiors, who would flirt or try to get me to sleep with them,” said Carmen LoBue, actress and member of Time’s Up.
A letter signed by nearly 30 advocacy and women’s rights organizations was delivered to the Governor, urging him to eliminate the subminimum wage for restaurant workers in New York. Organizations who co-signed the letter include One Fair Wage, One Billion Rising, Make the Road New York, Citizen Action of New York, National Employment Law Project, National Women’s Law Center, New York Civil Liberties Union, The New York Women’s Foundation, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and more.
NEW! Mujer Valiente/Like A Woman Spanish Language Video Released
The video to MUJER VALIENTE, the Spanish language translation of “Like a Woman” by singer songwriter Ryan Amador performed by Kike Jiménez (finalist on The Voice Mexico) and Sean O’Connell (Singer/Songwriter and translator of Mujer Valiente and Spanish Language version of Break The Chain), has been released today! Produced by One Billion Rising Mexico global coordinator Andrés Naime and featuring testimonies about the women in their lives by comedian Manu NNa, playwright Victor Barba, personal trainer Cisse Occean Andoeza, actor Andrés Durán, chef Andrés De León, activist Quique Galdeano, artist and activist Thomas Fléchel, politician Alejandro Orozco, and Andrés Naime.
“Mujer Valiente/Like a Woman” are part of V-Day’s initiative to create provocative art pieces that inspire people to act.
“Many of us young people believe there’s no such thing as misogyny or gender-based violence anymore, when really it’s as strong as ever. Every day there are new cases of missing women, many sold, murdered, or victims of violence at home. It is so important that we create consciousness and awareness that these are real and actual problems that cannot be ignored. It’s an honor to be a voice for this amazing cause.” – Kike Jiménez, singer of “Mujer Valiente.”
We invite men everywhere to join the campaign, upload your own “Like a Woman” and “Mujer Valiente” tributes, reflecting your appreciation for the women in your life while also considering what it means to be a man in a world where one in three women are directly affected by sexual violence.
