Archive for the "Press Releases" Category
V-DAY AND CULTURE PROJECT TO LAUNCH THE BOOK WITH TWO READINGS IN NYC WITH MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM, KATHY ENGEL, EVE ENSLER, CAROL GILLIGAN, HAZELLE GOODMAN, CAROLE MICHELE KAPLAN, MICHAEL KLEIN, JAMES LECESNE, LYNN NOTTAGE, MARK MATOUSEK, WINTER MILLER, PATRICIA BOSWORTH, ELIZABETH LESSER, SUSAN MILLER, MARISA TOMEI, OLIVIA WILDE
Readings to Take Place in Over 80 Cities
New York, NY – May 30, 2007 – Random House will release A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writing To Stop Violence Against Women and Girls, a groundbreaking collection of monologues by world-renowned authors and playwrights, edited by Eve Ensler and Mollie Doyle and commissioned by V-Day for the first V-Day: UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS festival, which took place June 2006 in New York City.
These diverse voices rise up in a collective roar to break open, expose, and examine the insidiousness of violence at all levels: brutality, neglect, a punch, even a put-down. The volume features such authors and topics as: Edward Albee on S&M; Maya Angelou on women’s work; Michael Cunningham on self-mutilation; Dave Eggers on a Sudanese abduction; Edwidge Danticat on a border crossing; Carol Gilligan on a daughter witnessing her mother being hit; Susan Miller on raising a son as a single mother; Sharon Olds on a bra; Patricia Bosworth on her own physically abusive relationship; Jane Fonda on reclaiming our Mojo; and many more.
These writings are inspired, funny, angry, heartfelt, tragic, and beautiful. But above all, together they create a true and profound portrait of how violence against women affects every one of us. The book includes information on how to organize V-Day events and readings of the book. A MEMORY, A MONOLOGUE, A RANT, AND A PRAYER is a call to the world to demand an end to violence against women.
In NYC, V-Day and the Culture Project will present two readings with world-renowned authors, playwrights and actors, beginning with the June 4 launch at the Culture Project’s new space, 55 Mercer Street in New York City, and followed July 5.
The Monday, June 4 event will feature readings from contributors Patricia Bosworth, Michael Cunningham, Kathy Engel, Eve Ensler, Hazelle Goodman, Carol Michele Kaplan, Michael Klein, James Lecesne, Lynn Nottage, Mark Matousek, and Olivia Wilde. On July 5, contributors Abiola Abrams, Nicole Burdette, Carol Gilligan, Elizabeth Lesser, Susan Miller and Marisa Tomei among others will read their works.
A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer
June 4th and July 5th at the Culture Project
Doors: 7:00pm
Curtain: 7:30pm
Tickets $20: http://www.cultureproject.org or call 212.925.1900.
Four Women Nobel Prize Winners, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, Natalie Merchant and many other prominent women from diverse fields gather to make peace and powerful change in the world
RHINEBECK, N.Y., May, 2007 – All over the globe, women are forging new paths to peace and sustainability, using new strategies, partnerships, and power structures. For three historic days in September, The Omega Institute and V-Day will host a gathering of visionary leaders, authors, actors, and members of the public to examine the relationship between women, power, and peace.
The forward-looking conversations and inspiring presentations will be shaped and guided by four women Nobel Peace winners, V-Day founder and award-winning author of The Vagina Monologues Eve Ensler, Omega’s co-founder Elizabeth Lesser, Jane Fonda, Natalie Merchant and a host of other activists and celebrities in attendance, and will seek answers to the questions: how do women redefine power, create peace in their daily lives and make change in the world?
“In order to achieve peace in the world—and in our families, communities, and businesses—we need the voices and values of women. In order for this to happen, women need to trust what they already know: that humankind is not doomed to greed and violence; that war is a lack of imagination; and that our time has come. At this conference you will meet many women who are doing this. Let their courage, their stories, and their experiences teach and inspire you,” said Elizabeth Lesser.
There will be time allotted between keynote speakers and performances for participants to join in smaller workshops and discussions to gain valuable skills for cultivating and sustaining peace. The conference begins on Friday at 8pm and ends Sunday at 4pm. Evening entertainment will include a solo acoustic concert by Grammy Award-winner, Natalie Merchant and a theatrical reading of “Necessary Targets,” a play written by Eve Ensler.
Sponsors
The Omega Institute for Holistic Studies is the nation’s largest holistic learning center. Omega is celebrating its 30th Anniversary of providing innovative, educational programming for the mind, body and spirit. The Women’s Institute at Omega, a dynamic new component of Omega, is dedicated to empowering women around the world. To learn about Omega’s diverse programs, wellness retreats and social activism, visit www.eomega.org.
V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Founded by Eve Ensler in 1998, V-Day has raised over $40 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded over 5000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. For more information about V-Day’s important work, visit www.vday.org.
The Nobel Women’s Initiative was established in 2006 by Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi, Wangari Maathai, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, Betty Williams, and Jody Williams. Representing North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, their extraordinary experiences unite in a goal for peace with justice and equality. Please visit them online at, www.nobelwomensinitiative.org.
Help End Honor Killing Iraq: A Letter from Yanar Mohammad President of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
Dear Friends in V-Day,
We have launched our international campaign against honor killings in Iraq, and specifically about the current killing of Doa in the Kurdish part of Iraq. Although these crimes are committed all over the country and in dozens of killings every week, this particular one was committed in a public space and documented/video taped by the male-chauvinist viewers and observed cold-bloodedly by police staff.
Houzan Mahmoud, one of the strong leaders of OWFI, is the campaign coordinator. She is collaborating with Amnesty International in order to gain their voices for the campaign.
We are gathering signatures on our petition for the current time, in order to present them to the Kurdish regional authorities, whose top official is the president of our “democratic” Iraq. Houzan will be presenting them to the Kurdish authorities while I will be meeting the central Iraqi officials in the prime minister’s office, the Ministry of interior, and Ministry of justice to remove the article, which protects honor killing from the penal code (strangely enough, the authorities did not agree to remove it so far after four years of “liberation”).
Please circulate this petition among your members and make us stronger in our local campaign. A women’s solidarity is most needed at this point in Iraq. Our lives do not need this extra danger, which is rising tremendously in the chaotic times under occupation.
Visit our campaign at: http://www.petitiononline.com/kurdish/petition.html
In Solidarity,
Yanar Mohammed
Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, president OWFI
www.equalityiniraq.com
New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, and Repaving Waverly speak out against Quentin Tarantino’s “Rape Doll”
http://www.nycagainstrape.org/event_683.html
The New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault and VAW activist Marnie Goodfriend (Repaving Waverly) are calling on activists to speak out against the “Rapist Number One” doll released by NECA in conjunction with the Quinton Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez film Grindhouse.
The doll, which is modeled after filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s character in the film has been displayed widely on talk shows such as The Jimmy Kimmel Show, and is available online and at selected toy stores across the nation.
To speak out against this doll and to demand the removal of the toy from the airwaves and outlets, you can send letters to:
NECA
603 Sweetland Ave
Hillside, NJ
(908) 245-8100
The Weinstein Company
345 Hudson
New York, NY 10014
(212) 352-0022
For additional information please contact Marnie Goodfriend of Repaving Waverly at marnie@marniegoodfriend.com
Following is an update from Casa Valentina on the opening of their first house for young women in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Casa Valentina: From Dream To Reality
Just over two years ago, Casa Valentina was an idea, a dream. It came about in the fall of 2004 when a group of concerned women came together and acknowledged the immense challenges faced by young women in Miami-Dade County who age out of foster care at age 18 without the life experience, financial stability and support they need to survive on their own. Facing numerous transitional challenges, these young women are vulnerable to prostitution, incarceration, pregnancy, violence, sexual abuse and homelessness.
This group of concerned women, now known as the Casa Valentina Executive Board, pledged to do something about these dire circumstances, and Casa Valentina quickly became a vision of safe, affordable housing and comprehensive support services to help foster girls successfully transition to independent living. That is where Casa Valentina and V-Day intersected. A beautiful friendship afforded Casa Valentina the opportunity to introduce Eve Ensler to the crisis facing these young women. A year later in November 2005, Casa Valentina produced a sold-out benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues. Despite a major hurricane that forced the play to be rescheduled, more than 1,000 people filled the historic Gusman Theater for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami to see the show that starred a long list of local celebrities, activists and dignitaries, and Eve Ensler herself.
V-Day Miami was an incredible springboard for Casa Valentina and the start of a magical journey towards mobilizing a community of support and turning Casa Valentina from a dream to a reality. Today, Casa Valentina is a fully functioning residential and support services program that addresses the unique gender-specific needs of young women transitioning from foster care to independent living. On February 24, 2007, we commemorated our biggest milestone yet – the Grand Opening of our first apartment building. In all, we have two residential properties with room for 14 young women, and a comprehensive social service program provided by staff and volunteers that wraps each girl with the support, skills and resources she needs to ultimately achieve independence.
Casa Valentina is grateful to V-Day and Eve Ensler for embracing our cause, sharing our passion and offering unconditional love and support for our mission.
Sincerely,
Lisa Schejola Akin, Sharon Socol, Jen Gregory,
Casa Valentina
www.casavalentina.org
The news that Hannah Levinson, Megan Reback and Elan Stahl’s suspension has been lifted is a vagina victory and an indication of the students’ intelligence, grace and integrity and bravery. It is a victory for free speech and for girls knowing that they have vaginas and that it’s a healthy thing, not something to hide or call by a different name.
I hope that this will further the discussion and will secure what the students have begun – they have highlighted how important it is to honor literature and for girls and boys to use the word vagina comfortably.
I believe that we should encourage girls and boys of all ages to speak comfortably and without reductive or infantilizing nicknames about their bodies, that they should be part of a dialogue about their bodies and their rights so they have agency over their bodies.
Through V-Day, “The Vagina Monologues” is performed annually as a benefit to raise awareness and funds towards ending violence against women in thousands of colleges and communities, including about 20 high schools each year. I hope that this victory opens the door for high schools around the country to present the play.
– Eve Ensler, playwright and V-Day Founder
Speaker: Amal Mahmoud Fayed
When: Friday, March 2, 2007
What time: 3:00 – 6:00 pm, General Debate
Organization:
Yanar Mohammed, President of Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, released this statement in response to the increasing cases of sexual assault on the women of Iraq, and the exploitation of these women’s sufferings.
Misogynist Parties Exploiting Women’s Suffering For their Political Purposes
The Iraqi society was shocked with an unprecedented issue of a woman stepping forward voluntarily and admitting to have been sexually assaulted by Iraqi security forces. Instead of pursuing further investigation into this assault allegation, or empowering the victim with moral support, the opponent Islamist sectarian factions competed to exploit the matter politically preparing the ground for bloody sectarian conflict. They symbolized Sabrine’s rape as an assault against the whole “Sunni religious group”.
Meanwhile, the heads of Shia Islamist parties – who are the top officials in the government- immediately scorned and disbelieved the victim and rewarded the accused rapists. Moreover, they indulged in raising moral suspicions about the victim’s reputation. All of this was publicized before knowing for sure that the assault did not take place, as the reports were contradictory and it is impossible in the first place to cancel out the possibility of a rape by clinical check ups. This matter has revealed a misogynist tendency where most spokesmen started to scorn and discredit the victim, wishing that no woman should ever dare to speak out the details of her sexual humiliation. On the contrary, a few of these male-chauvinist reports declared clearly that they preferred that she ends her life or live a lifetime of pain and misery without even thinking of punishment for her rapists.
This kind of assault was repeated again in the northern city of Tal Aafar, where Wajida Muhamad Amin was group-raped by security forces. In this case, it was not possible to deny or discredit the victim as there were witnesses.
Raping Iraqi women by the police force is not an unbelievable or a new matter. OWFI has located six confirmed cases of women raped by police, inside and outside detainment centers. The youngest of these raped females is 14 year old. OWFI activists have raised reports of these cases to the officials in the Ministry of Interior and the presidency of ministries and no answer has arrived so far.
The matter to be questioned at this point is not whether these assaults happened or not, neither about Sabrine’s credibility. The rapes take place daily under the chaotic situations resulting from the occupation. The occupation authorities handed over the power to uncivilized forces which have no respect for women’s rights and dignity. On the contrary, they have promoted sectarian hatred to be applied in tribal barbaric ways where women of the other clan are “sexual hostages” to be exploited, while the women of their own clan are “valuables to be protected”. In all cases, these uncensored forces will always regard women as property of the clan and a tool of political vengeance, but never an independent human worthy of respect.
Who protects Iraqi women in these barbaric situations? And who will guarantee their dignity, their privacy, and right to a decent future.
Women of Iraq can not live secure under the occupation and the government of ethnic and sectarian division which has no respect for human and women’s rights. The only hope lies in the people’s strive to create the other alternative which liberates all from the repression of the religious, sectarian, and ethnic parties. Our alternative of freedom and equality is the only guarantee to ending gender inequality and all kinds of social discrimination.
Yanar Mohammed
President of Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI)
On Wednesday, February 21st in Los Angeles, powerful women in entertainment will band together to champion the personal stories of “women in conflict/women of peace” at a pre-Oscar event hosted by Eve Ensler, Cindi Leive, and Paula Wagner. Co-hosting the event in support of V-Day’s global movement to end violence against women and girls are Rosario Dawson, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, Marisa Tomei and Kerry Washington.
While war exponentially increases crimes of violence against women and girls, it also draws attention to the strength and resilience among women rebuilding communities and leading governments to peaceful solutions. V-Day is dedicating its 2007 Spotlight campaign to Women In Conflict Zones to communicate these stories to global audiences and media. Introduced by V-Day star supporters, women who have persevered through conflict will share their personal stories of uprising:
Margaret Jayah, A Survivor, Sierra Leone
At merely 13 years old, Margaret Jayah was abducted by rebels in Sierra Leone. A sex slave for nine months, she was ganged raped, and to this day does not know who fathered her seven year old son. Margaret persevered through this horrific experience and is currently in high school at 20 years old.
Myriam Merlet, Chief of Staff of the Ministry for Women, Haiti
Like many who sought exodus from poverty and repression, she fled Haiti in the 1970’s. After a politically active life in the Haitian Diaspora, Myriam returned to Haiti with her young family in 1986. As both a political activist and professional, Myriam remains committed to the process of social and political change in Haiti. Myriam is also a published author on women’s rights, race and gender issues.
Zoya, Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), Afghanistan
Born in Kabul in 1976, Zoya grew up during the wars that ravaged Afghanistan and took the lives of her parents who were murdered by Muslim fundamentalists. Today, Zoya works in refugee camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and represents RAWA globally, speaking out for the plight of Afghan women. Zoya is the subject of the 2002 book “Zoya’s Story: An Afghan Woman’s Struggle for Freedom.”
“V TO THE TENTH: NYC – KICKOFF TO NEW ORLEANS” AT THE HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM
WITH JANE FONDA, GLENN CLOSE, BROOKE SHIELDS, EVE ENSLER, KERRY WASHINGTON, AND MORE