Archive for the "Press Releases" Category
On September 12th, 2006, V-Day Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler’s edgy new political drama, The Treatment opened at The Culture Project in New York City. Starring Dylan McDermott and Portia and directed by Leigh Silverman, The Treatment is a searing account of torture and accountability that follows a traumatized soldier who seeks redemption from a military psychiatrist.
“Deeply unsettling, even haunting…“
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
“A gripping and provocative two-character play, expertly produced by The Culture Project, about the psychological aftermath of performing cruel acts in the service of one’s country… The 2006-07 theatre season may now begin its must-see list.”
BROADWAY WORLD
The Treatment is one of the exciting features of IMPACT, the Culture Project’s first-ever citywide festival of human rights, social justice, and political action. The Impact festival, which includes theater, music, dance, comedy, visual arts, film, and debate, will take place at venues across New York City from September 11th – October 22nd. Please check www.cultureproject.org for a performance schedule.
For Tickets: Culture Project is offering vday.org visitors a $40 special offer:
Go online to http://www.ticketmaster.com and use code JMANIA.
Call Ticketmaster at 212-307-4100 and use code JMANIA.
Bring a printout of this offer to the box office at 45 Bleecker Street. Check www.cultureproject.org for hours.
GLAMOUR magazine Editor in Chief Cindi Leive today presented GLAMOUR’s Top 10 College Women Award winners for 2006 at a luncheon ceremony in New York City. Now in its 49th year, the program honors 10 college women from across the United States for their campus leadership, community involvement and academic excellence, as well as their unique, inspiring goals.
This year’s honorees are: Yasmin Elhady, Emory University; Liz Healy, Southern Methodist University; Danielle Josephs, Rutgers University; Chikoto Mibenge, Wellesley College; Rebecca Lynn Mitchell, University of Minnesota; Christine Olivia Nguyen, University of Texas, Austin; Elizabeth Scoville, University of Kentucky; Maya Shankar, Yale University; and Dawn Smith, Julliard.
The 10 winners are profiled in October issue of GLAMOUR, which hits newsstands nationally on September 12th. Each winner receives a cash prize, a trip to New York, opportunities to meet with top professionals in a variety of fields, national recognition in the magazine and a gift basket from L’Oréal Paris. Over the years, the awards have gone to such movers and shakers as Martha Stewart, actress JoBeth Williams, and Dallas Mayor Laura S. Miller.
Speaking at the ceremony were GLAMOUR Editor-in-Chief Cindi Leive; GLAMOUR Vice President and Publisher William Wackermann; Carol Hamilton, President of L’Oréal Paris; and Eve Ensler, activist, performer and award-winning playwright.
“GLAMOUR and L’Oréal Paris share a commitment to celebrate accomplished, talented women and their achievements,” said Wackermann. “For the past seven years, L’Oréal has been the exclusive sponsor of our Top 10 College Women program, one of GLAMOUR’s most respected and notable programs. L’Oréal’s dedication continues to help these women inspire us all by achieving their goals of improving the world around them.”
Program sponsor L’Oréal Paris presented their sixth annual “Beauty of Giving” award, a $2,500 donation to the charity of the winner’s choice, to the one candidate whom L’Oréal felt exemplified the strongest charitable spirit: University of Minnesota’s Rebecca Mitchell.
GLAMOUR is the largest magazine published by Condé Nast Publications and has an average monthly circulation of more than 2.4 million copies, outselling 98 percent of all consumer magazines on the newsstand. GLAMOUR, the most award-winning women’s magazine, reaches one in every ten women in the U.S. or more than 14 million monthly readers nationally.
On June 2 and 3, 2006, V-Day Lusaka Organizer Sampa Kangwa-Wilkie staged the first V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues ever to reach a Zambian audience. The production, which raised over $4,700 for local groups working to end violence against women and girls received unprecedented support from the media and the community. Billboards, radio stations, newspapers and television stations freely and for the first time used the word vagina in promoting the benefit production. Women and men attended in numbers, selling old out both nights in advance sales, unheard of in Zambian theatre. The audience, including men, women, students as well as known members of parliament and prominent individuals within the community, participated in a post show discussion, bringing to light issues of Violence Against Women that have gone unspoken for generations.
V-Day wishes to congratulate Sampa Kangwa-Wilkie and the V-Day Lusaka team for organizing this incredible V-Day event, as well as the hundreds of people who made it a success by attending.
Audience responses:
“OUTSTANDING performance, I’m so glad I went to The Vagina Monologues last
night – and my husband, too. Well done congratulations. This was a very
VERY hard play to stage, and you pulled it off super-well…” Lucy Steintz FHI
——————–
“Thank- you for bringing the monologues to the Windhoek stage. They are so
well written, witty & wise and you did total justice to it, showing true
insight and capturing the essence at all times. Thanks for a much
appreciated evening’s entertainment and stimulation (intellectual and
otherwise!) ” Retha Louise – Cultural Director – MEC
——————————–
This is Moses of the Sakala brothers. The performance was incredible.
Hey, the VAGINA! I was a bit uncomfortable at first, asking myself what’s this??
But after attending your show, you helped me understand women and life in general.
I am now a better African man.
———————————–
“I thought you were TRULY FABULOUS. I thought it was important that it was
done as an African production and in a key which Namibians could relate to
(not only the local references, but also the tone was truly not European,
which was important). CONGRATULATIONS” – Jane Shityuwete -IBIS
————————————
“I thought Vagina Monologues (VM) was fantastic. Well done for taking on
what is a challenging play.
Civil Society Groups Demand End to Violence against Women
The candidates in Mexico’s July 2 presidential elections should publicly pledge to prevent and punish the mutilation and murder of women in Mexico, Human Rights Watch, V-Day and 65 other civil society groups said in an open letter (linked here) published today.
“Women are still being abducted, tortured and killed in Mexico despite some government efforts to investigate these brutal murders,” said José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch. “Before going to the polls, the Mexican people should know which, if any, of the presidential candidates will commit to do something to stop these horrendous crimes.”
Over the past 13 years, more than 400 women have been murdered or “disappeared” in Ciudad Juárez. In a number of these cases, the women had been mutilated or severely beaten before they were killed. Some had even had their nipples cut off, or their torsos were dismembered. In a majority of the cases, authorities have not determined who was responsible for the crimes and at least 34 of the victims remain unaccounted for today.
“It is scandalous that Mexican women are forced to live in fear of killers stalking them in the streets,” said Salma Hayek, the actress whose foundation supports efforts to prevent violence against women worldwide. “Mexicans deserve a president who will do all they can to stop the murders.”
In an open letter to Mexico’s presidential candidates published today, 67 civil society organizations from Mexico and the United States urged all presidential candidates to improve the security situation for women across Mexico immediately by taking seven concrete measures while in office. The measures include installing lighting in unsafe areas and implementing early warning mechanisms to prevent violence against women. The groups are asking for public pledges before the presidential election on July 2, 2006.
“The mothers of the missing and murdered women of Juárez work tirelessly for justice – we support their efforts and encourage the voters to hold their leaders accountable and consider the missing women when they go to the polls on the second,” stated Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls.
Today’s letter and the measures resulted directly from a meeting with playwright/V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, V-Day Executive Director Jerri Lynn Fields, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, and presidential candidate Patricia Mercado during V-Day’s May 9 Mexico City benefit that raised funds for women in Juárez, and featured performances by Fonda and Hayek.
“We are asking all candidates to meet our challenge before June 30,” said Vivanco from Human Rights Watch. “These measures are really the bare minimum needed to signal real government concern about the rampant brutality against women in Mexico.”
Click here to read the letter to candidates.
For further information, please contact:
In New York, Susan Celia Swan, V-Day, +1 212 253 1823
In New York, Marianne Mollmann, Human Rights Watch, +1 347 244 0090
In Washington D.C. Tamara Taraciuk Human Rights Watch, +1 202 494 5748
V-DAY ANNOUNCES CITYWIDE OUTDOOR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN THAT URGES NEW YORKERS TO ‘MAKE NYC THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS’
MESSAGING AND ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN WILL PROMOTE
UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC, A TWO-WEEK FESTIVAL BRINGING THE ISSUE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CENTER STAGE JUNE 12-27
Tickets From $10, On Sale NOW
New York, NY – May 18, 2006 – Today, NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joined with V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler to launch UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC and the messaging/advertising campaign in the Blue Room at NYC’s City Hall.
“Eve Ensler’s festival, Until the Violence Stops: NYC, takes the issue of violence against women out of the silence of the home and into the community, demanding all New Yorkers work to end violence against women,” stated Mayor Bloomberg. To view the press conference, visit: http://www.nyc.gov
From May 22 – late June, a citywide outdoor advertising campaign that will take over New York City’s buses, subway cars, subway platforms and street banners urging New Yorkers to “Make NYC The Safest Place On Earth For Women And Girls.” The campaign will appear throughout the five boroughs stopping all New Yorkers in their tracks and inviting them to join V-Day in the effort to end violence against women and girls.
The campaign will promote V-Day’s two-week festival that will bring together artists, community groups and city leaders for the very first festival of its kind: UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC. Taking place June 12 – 27, UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC is a festival of theater, spoken word, performance and community events created to bring the issue of violence against women and girls front and center in the culture and the community.
Featuring performances by Kathy Bates, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, Kerry Washington, Rosario Dawson, Diane Lane, Suheir Hammad, Marcia Gay Harden, Sarah Jones, Brittany Murphy, Rosie O’Donnell, Phylicia Rashad, Isabella Rossellini, Marian Seldes, Gloria Steinem, Marlo Thomas, Idina Menzel, and more. Jane Fonda’s involvement marks her first Broadway appearance since her 1963 role in Strange Interlude. Authors contributing original works written exclusively for the festival include Edward Albee, Tariq Ali, Maya Angelou, Edwidge Danticat, Anna Deavere Smith, Ariel Dorfman, Michael Eric Dyson, Dave Eggers, Nicholas Kristof, Azar Nafisi, Paula Vogel, Alice Walker, Nobel prize winner Jody Williams, Howard Zinn, and more. Start-up support for the festival provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Lead corporate support provided by Verizon.
With marquee events with performances by celebrated actors, original works by noted authors, community events throughout the five boroughs, and a citywide messaging campaign, UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC will take over New York City, putting women, their empowerment and safety directly on
center stage. UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC will issue a call to action to all New Yorkers, and to the world: Demand an end to violence against women and girls and become an active participant in ending it.
“Through V-Day, we have witnessed the power of art to transform and galvanize change. It’s time to be bold, to amplify our efforts and to take our movement to end violence against women to the next level. V-Day was born in New York City and UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC takes our message
directly to the people of New York. Together, we will make New York City the first safe place for women and girls,” stated Playwright/V-Day Founder and Artistic Director Eve Ensler.
Founded in 1998 on the principle that art inspires activism, V-Day benefit performances of Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues are now performed annually worldwide February – March, in thousands of colleges and communities, raising funds for local groups working to end violence against women and girls. V-Day events have taken place in all fifty United States and in over 81 countries from Egypt to Australia to Kenya to the Philippines, raising well over $35 million to date.
Today, V-Day is a model of empowerment philanthropy and public awareness, inviting women and men to use art and performance to raise funds and awareness in their own communities. This New York City-focused campaign will utilize the key elements of performance and theater to raise consciousness and funds and increase the dialogue about violence against women locally, nationally and globally.
Joined by artists and community organizations, V-Day will work to raise the awareness level in New York City concerning the issue of violence against women and girls, educate people about the issue, and encourage citizens to take action to end it. We are poised at a historic moment for women and girls around the world, and the festival is an unprecedented opportunity to create change around the issue of violence against women and girls.
MARQUEE EVENTS
Four marquee events produced by V-Day will include involvement from the following well-known actors: Kathy Bates, Kate Clinton, Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda,LisaGay Hamilton, Marcia Gay Harden, Salma Hayek, Suheir Hammad, Sarah Jones, Christine Lahti, Diane Lane, James Lecesne, Idina Menzel, Brittany Murphy, Kathy Najimy, Cynthia Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Phylicia Rashad, Shiva Rose, Isabella Rossellini, Gloria Steinem, Marlo Thomas, Marisa Tomei, Kerry Washington and others. Participation and event details to be confirmed.
Necessary Targets, By Eve Ensler (Monday, June 12th, Studio 54)
A once-in-a-lifetime reading of Necessary Targets, a groundbreaking play about women and war, the violence of dark memories, and the enduring resilience of the human spirit. With Academy Award winners Kathy Bates, Jane Fonda and Marcia Gay Harden, Shiva Rose, Tony Award winner Marian Seldes,
Kerry Washington, and more.
Tickets from $15 – $30: www.ticketcentral.com
or call 212.279.4200
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writers on Violence Against
Women and Girls (Monday, June 19th Hammerstein Ballroom)
World renowned writers including Edward Albee, Tariq Ali, Maya Angelou, Michael Cunningham, Ariel Dorfman, Michael Eric Dyson, Dave Eggers, Nicholas Kristof, Kathy Najimy, Anna Deavere Smith, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn and more, come together to address the issue of violence against women, contributing original pieces and bringing their particular vision, talent and take on the issue. Performances by La Chanze, Kate Clinton, Rosario Dawson, LisaGay Hamilton, Charlotte Martin, Brittany Murphy, Cynthia Nixon, Isabella Rossellini, Marlo Thomas, Marisa Tomei, and more.
Tickets $25 General Admission: www.ticketcentral.com or call 212.279.4200
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
Any One Of Us: Words from Prison (Wednesday, June 21st, Alice Tully Hall at
Lincoln Center)
Presented by V-Day, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union, this event will bring forth raw voices of fierceness and honesty written by women from prisons across the nation, moving forward toward healing, understanding, and change, ultimately impacting laws and the
treatment of incarcerated women. Performances by Salma Hayek, Mindy McCready, Rosie O’Donnell, Phylicia Rashad, Marisa Tomei, Kerry Washington, and more. Sponsored in part by The New York Women’s Foundation.
Tickets $15 General Admission: www.lincolncenter.org or call 212.721.6500
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
It’s Hard Out Here For A Girl: Brooklyn Represented in Language and Sound
(Sunday, June 25th, Brooklyn Museum)
Today’s hottest spoken word poets, comediennes, musicians, and dancers willspeak out, act out, and bring the community together to create a safe haven for women and girls. Performances by Toni Blackman, Suheir Hammad, Georgia Me, Ishle Park, and Maysoon Ziyad. DJ Reborn will spin.
Tickets from $10 – $15: www.ticketcentral.com or call 212.279.4200
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
TICKETS FROM $10, ON SALE NOW:
ALL ACCESS:
For an all access pass to all four marquee theater events, call
212-921-9070.
$150 VIP All Access Ticket. Includes a good seat at the 4 events, admission
to the AVA Lounge Party on June 12th and the backstage tour at Lincoln
Center.
$40 All Access Ticket. Includes one seat at all 4 events. Limited number
available!
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS:
For individual tickets to Any One of Us: Words From Prison only, call CenterCharge at
212-721-6500 or visit www.lincolncenter.org.
For individual tickets to Necessary Targets, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, and It’s Hard Out Here for a Girl, contact Ticket Central at 212.279.4200 or visit www.ticketcentral.com.
Visit www.vday.org for festival information, including links to all of the
above.
COMMUNITY EVENTS IN ALL FIVE BOROUGHS
A key element of the Festival is a grassroots campaign to bring anti-violence events directly into communities throughout the five boroughs. V-Day has convened a working group of local organizations working to end violence against women and girls in their communities. The working group is coordinating local events throughout the city. All community events will be listed on a master calendar available via the festival website. Sponsored by The Avon Foundation.
Run Until The Violence Stops, 5K Run (Tuesday, June 27th Prospect Park,
Brooklyn 7pm)
V-Day dreams of a world where there is no more violence, and women feel safe at any time of day or night. Women and men will run through the park, proudly demanding an end to the violence. For race information, please visit www.nyrr.org or call New York Road Runners 212-921-9070.
MEN & BOYS INVOLVEMENT
V-Day has convened a committee, V-Day Men, which includes Steve DiSalvo, Byron Hurt, David Jones, Jackson Katz, Don McPherson, Sanjay Rawal, Victor Rivers and Quentin Walcott. V-Day Men will develop and conduct a workshop for 200 young men from NYC, involving community leaders, activists,
multimedia tools, and celebrities. In addition to a core curriculum breaking down the issues surrounding the roots of violence toward women, a series of creative tools will be employed, including a writing/expression session, from which a small group of participants will be selected to present their pieces to the public at It’s Hard Out Here For A Girl/Brooklyn Represents: Language and Sound. The curriculum will be designed to be replicated in communities across the U.S. and around the world. Sponsored by The Avon
Foundation.
CITYWIDE MESSAGING CAMPAIGN
A messaging campaign will take over the city’s buses and subways, newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, websites, calendars, newsletters and magazines stopping all New Yorkers in their tracks and inviting them to join us in our effort to end violence against women and girls.
Education about the issue will be key to each element of the festival and messaging campaign. At each event, audiences will be given a declaration of facts about violence and actions they can take to end it. Young men participating in the men’s retreat will be educated on violence against women and girls and then given a creative space to take that information and transform it into spoken word. Anti-violence literature will be available at every UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC event including the high-profile performance events and the community events throughout the five boroughs.
With interest already growing, V-Day has designed the festival so that it may be replicated in other cities around the country and the globe, creating a model of empowerment philanthropy to raise funds and public awareness locally in those communities, featuring local talent and highlighting local groups.
# # #
About V-Day: V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. In 2006, more than 2700 V-Day events in 1150 communities and colleges took
place in the U.S. and around the world. To date, V-Day has raised over $35 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns including the Karama program in the Middle East, funded over 5000 community-based anti-violence programs, reopened shelters, and funded safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.
94 cents of every dollar goes straight to ending violence against women and
girls, not to covering administrative costs. V-Day keeps costs low by operating as a “virtual organization.” Incorporated as a 501(c) 3 charity in the state of California, the V-Day staff works in regions around the U.S. and world, primarily through volunteers and with a small paid staff. Eve Ensler, V-Day’s founder and artistic director, remains a volunteer. The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
In the June 2006 issue of Marie Claire, V-Day was listed as one of the ten best charities. Listed number two out of ten, the magazine note that 93% of V-Day’s funding going directly to ending violence against women and girls. Other organizations making the list include: AmeriCares; Polaris Project; International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN). The issue is available on newsstands across the country.
This Mother’s Day, give your mother a unique and heartfelt gift while supporting V-Day’s efforts to end violence against women and girls around the world.
(Translation of text originally in Spanish)
Brussels, 20 April 2006
EP hearing denounces femicide in Guatemala and Mexico
“No more deaths!”
At the two-day hearing and debate in the European Parliament there was a clear denunciation of the serious human rights violations in Mexico and Guatemala, where there have been thousands of violent murders of women over the last 10 years, in what has become a systematic practice that has, moreover, been subject to impunity.
In Guatemala, official statistics show that between the year 2000 and March 2006 there were 2,335 reported murders of women. Between 1 January and 6 April 2006, 170 women were killed. In 2005 just three cases resulted in prosecutions.
In Mexico, where Ciudad Juárez has become synonymous with atrocities and impunity for murders of women, the official figures for the period between 1993 and 2005 report 379 murders. This figure was surpassed in other Mexican states such as Chiapas, where official figures range between 1456 and 612 femicides between 1994 and 2004. In the state of Mexico, the figure for 2004 alone is 500 women murdered in the capital, Toluca, and 360 registered murders between January and September 2005.
The fact that the perpetrators were charged in only a very small number of cases shows the serious ineffectiveness of the legal and police authorities, as well as the lack of political will of successive governments to solve and eradicate these crimes as a matter or urgency.
On Wednesday 19 April in the morning the public hearing brought together the European Parliament’s Committee on Human Rights and its Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality to hear statements and testimonies from both countries and representatives of civil society in front of Yakin Ertürk, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its Causes and Consequences and Ruth Gaby Bermont, a Council of Europe Rapporteur.
The public hearing was followed by two intensive debates between Latin American and European politicians of various political affiliations and members of women’s and human rights networks, under the chairmanship of MEPs Raul Romeva, Greens/EF, and Elena Valenciano, PSE, with a view to forging strategic alliances and taking measures to help eradicate and punish these crimes against women in Mexico and Guatemala.
The final statement from the hearings calls on the governments of Mexico and Guatemala to honour the international agreements and treaties they have signed on human rights and against violence and discrimination against women. It also calls on the Mexican government to apply its national and constitutional laws and refrain from the detention of any person charged on the basis of confessions made under torture. It also calls on multinational companies to take steps to protect their women workers, since many of the young women who were murdered were working in maquiladoras.
The statement ends with a call on MEPs to adopt an emergency resolution on this issue. The MEPs at the hearing promised to send a letter to the Austrian Presidency chairing the 4th Summit of EU-ALC Heads of State in Vienna, asking for femicide to be included on the Summit’s agenda. They also agreed to enlarge the Interparliamentary Group on Femicide of Mexico, Guatemala and Spain to include the European Parliament and the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. It also approved a schedule of similar events to be held in the parliaments of EU Member States. Lastly, the participants asked the MEPs to set up a sub-chapter on “Femicide” in the EP Network on Disarmament.
Signatories
Copenhagen Initiative for Mexico and Central America (CIFCA)
Grupo Sur
ICFTU
European Network of Oscar Romero Committees
Network combating violence against women, Guatemala
Mexican Commission for Defence and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH)
Terre des Femmes
International Federation for Human Rights Leagues (IFHR)
MAKE NEW YORK CITY THE FIRST SAFE PLACE FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS
V-DAY ANNOUNCES UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC, A TWO-WEEK FESTIVAL BRINGING THE ISSUE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CENTER STAGE JUNE 12-27
FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY KATHY BATES, JANE FONDA, SALMA HAYEK, ROSARIO DAWSON, KERRY WASHINGTON, SUHEIR HAMMAD, MARCIA GAY HARDEN, SARAH JONES, BRITTANY MURPHY, ROSIE O’DONNELL, ISABELLA ROSSELLINI, IDINA MENZEL AND MORE
NEW WORKS BY EDWARD ALBEE, TARIQ ALI, MAYA ANGELOU, ARIEL DORFMAN, DAVE EGGERS, NICHOLAS KRISTOF, AZAR NAFISI, PAULA VOGEL, ALICE WALKER, AND MORE
Tickets On Sale NOW
(Updated May 16, 2006) – V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls founded by playwright/ performer/activist Eve Ensler, brings together artists, community groups and city leaders for UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC. Taking place June 12 – 27, UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC is a festival of theater, spoken word, performance and community events created to bring the issue of violence against women and girls front and center in the culture and the community.
Featuring performances by Kathy Bates, Jane Fonda, Salma Hayek, Kerry Washington, Rosario Dawson, Diane Lane, Suheir Hammad, Marcia Gay Harden, Sarah Jones, Brittany Murphy, Rosie O’Donnell, Phylicia Rashad, Isabella Rossellini, Marian Seldes, Gloria Steinem, Marlo Thomas, Idina Menzel, and more. Jane Fonda’s involvement marks her first Broadway appearance since her 1963 role in Strange Interlude.
Authors contributing original works written exclusively for the festival include Edward Albee, Tariq Ali, Maya Angelou, Edwidge Danticat, Anna Deavere Smith, Ariel Dorfman, Michael Eric Dyson, Dave Eggers, Nicholas Kristof, Azar Nafisi, Paula Vogel, Alice Walker, Nobel prize winner Jody Williams, Howard Zinn, and more.
Start-up support for the festival provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Lead corporate support provided by Verizon.
With marquee events with performances by celebrated actors, original works by noted authors, community events throughout the five boroughs, and a citywide messaging campaign, UNTIL THE VIOLENCES STOPS: NYC will take over New York City, putting women, their empowerment and safety directly on center stage. UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC will issue a call to action to all New Yorkers, and to the world: Demand an end to violence against women and girls and become an active participant in ending it.
“Through V-Day, we have witnessed the power of art to transform and galvanize change. It’s time to be bold, to amplify our efforts and to take our movement to end violence against women to the next level. V-Day was born in New York City and UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC takes our message directly to the people of New York. Together, we will make New York City the first safe place for women and girls,” stated Playwright/V-Day Founder and Artistic Director Eve Ensler.
Founded in 1998 on the principle that art inspires activism, V-Day benefit performances of Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues are now performed annually worldwide February – March, in thousands of colleges and communities, raising funds for local groups working to end violence against women and girls. V-Day events have taken place in all fifty United States and in over 81 countries from Egypt to Australia to Kenya to the Philippines, raising well over $35 million to date.
Today, V-Day is a model of empowerment philanthropy and public awareness, inviting women and men to use art and performance to raise funds and awareness in their own communities. This New York City-focused campaign will utilize the key elements of performance and theater to raise consciousness and funds and increase the dialogue about violence against women locally, nationally and globally.
Joined by artists and community organizations, V-Day will work to raise the awareness level in New York City concerning the issue of violence against women and girls, educate people about the issue, and encourage citizens to take action to end it. We are poised at a historic moment for women and girls around the world, and the festival is an unprecedented opportunity to create change around the issue of violence against women and girls.
MARQUEE EVENTS
Four marquee events produced by V-Day will include involvement from the following well-known actors: Kathy Bates, Kate Clinton, Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Marcia Gay Harden, Salma Hayek, Suheir Hammad, Sarah Jones, Christine Lahti, Diane Lane, James Lecesne, Idina Menzel, Brittany Murphy, Kathy Najimy, Cynthia Nixon, Rosie O’Donnell, Phylicia Rashad, Shiva Rose, Isabella Rossellini, Gloria Steinem, Marlo Thomas, Marisa Tomei, Kerry Washington and others. Participation and event details to be confirmed.
Necessary Targets, By Eve Ensler (Monday, June 12th, Studio 54)
A once-in-a-lifetime reading of Necessary Targets, a groundbreaking play about women and war, the violence of dark memories, and the enduring resilience of the human spirit. With Academy Award winners Kathy Bates, Jane Fonda and Marcia Gay Harden, Shiva Rose, Tony Award winner Marian Seldes, Kerry Washington, and more.
Tickets from $15 – $30: www.ticketcentral.com
or call 212.279.4200
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writers on Violence Against Women and Girls (Monday, June 19th Hammerstein Ballroom)
World renowned writers including Edward Albee, Tariq Ali, Maya Angelou, Michael Cunningham, Ariel Dorfman, Michael Eric Dyson, Dave Eggers, Nicholas Kristof, Kathy Najimy, Anna Deavere Smith, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn and more, come together to address the issue of violence against women, contributing original pieces and bringing their particular vision, talent and take on the issue. Performances by Kate Clinton, La Chanze, Rosario Dawson, LisaGay Hamilton, Charlotte Martin, Brittany Murphy, Cynthia Nixon, Isabella Rossellini, Marlo Thomas, Marisa Tomei, and more.
Tickets $25 General Admission: www.ticketcentral.com
or call 212.279.4200
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
Any One Of Us: Words from Prison (Wednesday, June 21st, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center)
Presented by V-Day, the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union, this event will bring forth raw voices of fierceness and honesty written by women from prisons across the nation, moving forward toward healing, understanding, and change, ultimately impacting laws and the treatment of incarcerated women. Performances by Salma Hayek, Mindy McCready, Rosie O’Donnell, Phylicia Rashad, Marisa Tomei, Kerry Washington, and more. Sponsored in part by The New York Women’s Foundation.
Tickets $15 General Admission: www.lincolncenter.org or call 212.721.6500
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
It’s Hard Out Here For A Girl: Brooklyn Represented in Language and Sound (Sunday, June 25th, Brooklyn Museum)
Today’s hottest spoken word poets, comediennes, musicians, and dancers will come together to speak out, act out, and bring the community together to create a safe haven for women and girls. Performances by Toni Blackman, Suheir Hammad, Georgia Me, Ishle Park, and Maysoon Ziyad. DJ Reborn will spin.
Tickets from $10 – $15: www.ticketcentral.com or call 212.279.4200
VIP and All Access Tickets – 212.921.9070
TICKET SALES:
ALL ACCESS:
For an all-access pass to all four marquee theater events $40, call 212-921-9070.
$150 VIP All Access Ticket. Includes a good seat at the 4 events, admission to the AVA Lounge Party on June 12th and the backstage tour at Lincoln Center.
$40 All Access Ticket. Includes one seat at all 4 events. Limited number available!
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS:
For individual tickets to Words From Prison only, call CenterCharge at
212-721-6500 or visit lincolncenter.org.
or individual tickets to Necessary Targets, Monologues from the World, and
It’s Hard Out Here for a Girl, contact Ticket Central at 212.279.4200 or
visit ticketcentral.com.
COMMUNITIES IN ALL FIVE BOROUGHS
V-Day has convened a working group of local organizations working to end violence against women and girls in their communities. The working group is coordinating local events throughout the five boroughs. All community events will be listed on a master calendar available via the festival website and at all events. Sponsored by The Avon Foundation.
Following is an early snapshot of the many community events that will take place: The Until The Violence Stops: NYC Women’s Film Festival will take place on June 17-18 at the Museum of the City of New York and the Museum of TV and Radio respectively. [June 17th at Museum of the City of New York will feature films centered on the theme of violence against women and girls, June 18th at the Museum of TV and Radio “Bring a Guy” will feature a series of TV shows looking at father-daughter relationships, a panel, and a showing of V-Day’s award winning documentary “Until the Violence Stops,” followed by a Q &A with Eve Ensler.] The Vibe Theatre Experience is putting together a youth arts day to highlight young people’s response and challenge to violence in their community called “Girls Against Violence!” On June 20th, Verte is presenting POMED: Protect Our Mother Earth Daughters, a cocktail party/fundraiser in Manhattan with a fashion and photo auction and a raffle of great “Green and Sustainable” products and services at Element 225 East Houston Street. In Williamsburg, RightRides and Find Your Light will be co-hosting a block party, tentatively scheduled for June 17th. Women Against Violence will host a self-defense demonstration in Cannon Ball Park, Brooklyn on June 24th and on June 15th, NiteStar will present “Everybody’s Doin’ It,” an educational theatre piece for adolescents about growing up and coping with bullying, gender disparity, and prejudice.
Run Until The Violence Stops, 5K Run (Tuesday, June 27th Prospect Park,
Brooklyn 7pm)
V-Day dreams of a world where there is no more violence, and women feel safe at any time of day or night. Women and men will run through the park, proudly demanding an end to the violence. For race information, please visit www.nyrr.org or call New York Road Runners 212-921-9070.
MEN & BOYS INVOLVEMENT
V-Day has convened a committee, V-Day Men, which includes Steve DiSalvo, Byron Hurt, David Jones, Jackson Katz, Don McPherson, Sanjay Rawal, Victor Rivers and Quentin Walcott. V-Day Men will develop and conduct a workshop for 200 young men from NYC, involving community leaders, activists, multimedia tools, and celebrities. In addition to a core curriculum breaking down the issues surrounding the roots of violence toward women, a series of creative tools will be employed, including a writing/expression session, from which a small group of participants will be selected to present their pieces to the public at It’s Hard Out Here For A Girl/Brooklyn Represents: Language and Sound. The curriculum will be designed to be replicated in communities across the U.S. and around the world. Sponsored by The Avon Foundation.
CITYWIDE MESSAGING CAMPAIGN
A messaging campaign will take over the city’s buses and subway cars, newspapers, TV stations, radio stations, newspapers, websites, calendars, newsletters and magazines stopping all New Yorkers in their tracks and inviting them to join us in our effort to end violence against women and girls.
Education about the issue will be key to each element of the festival and messaging campaign. At each event, audiences will be given a declaration of facts about violence and actions they can take to end it. Young men participating in the men’s retreat will be educated on violence against women and girls and then given a creative space to take that information and transform it into spoken word. Anti-violence literature will be available at every UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS: NYC event including the high-profile performance events and the community events throughout the five boroughs.
With interest already growing, V-Day has designed the festival so that it may be replicated in other cities around the country and the globe, creating a model of empowerment philanthropy to raise funds and public awareness locally in those communities, featuring local talent and highlighting local groups.
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About V-Day: V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. In 2006, more than 2700 V-Day events in 1150 communities and colleges took place in the U.S. and around the world. To date, V-Day has raised over $30 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it, crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns, funded over 5000 community-based anti-violence programs, reopened shelters, and funded safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.
94 cents of every dollar goes straight to ending violence against women and girls, not to covering administrative costs. V-Day keeps costs low by operating as a “virtual organization.” Incorporated as a 501(c) 3 charity in the state of California, the V-Day staff works in regions around the U.S. and world, primarily through volunteers and with a small paid staff. Eve Ensler, V-Day’s founder and artistic director, remains a volunteer. The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
NPR
3/14/2006
Essay Examines Ensler’s Belief in the Power of Words and Language
March 14, 2006, Washington, D.C. — In the This I Believe segment airing on All Things Considered on March 20, playwright Eve Ensler describes the power of words to overcome taboos and denial.
Recalling the sexual abuse she had endured as well as atrocities against women by the Taliban, during the Bosnian war or after the Sri Lanka tsunami, she notes, “Naming things, breaking through taboos and denial is the most dangerous, terrifying and crucial work. This has to happen in spite of political climates or coercions, in spite of careers being won or lost, in spite of the fear of being criticized, outcast or disliked. I believe freedom begins with naming things. Humanity is preserved by it.”
The NPR weekly series This I Believe is a contemporary version of Edward R. Murrow’s landmark 1950s project, which features prominent and everyday Americans voicing their core beliefs and values in short, personal essays.
Ensler is best known as author and star of The Vagina Monologues, which won an Obie Award for “Best New Play” in 1996. It has been translated into 35 languages and was performed more than 2,500 times in 2005 alone. She is currently on tour in her newest play, The Good Body. Ensler is also an activist on behalf of women’s rights and is founder of V-Day, a worldwide campaign to stop violence against women and girls.
Ensler joins an impressive list of well-known essayists who have contributed to the series since it made its premiere April 4, 2005; they include former Secretary of State Colin Powell; Senator John McCain; Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates; magician Penn Jillette; activist Gloria Steinem; author John Updike; psychologist Kay Redfield Jamison and scientist Brian Greene.
This I Believe also features the work of NPR listeners who have submitted more than 11,000 essays. Their essays have been revelations about parents, personal struggles, race and identity, and even the importance of feeding monkeys. They have been serious and, at times, poignant, as well as unabashedly funny.
This I Believe essay writing has been incorporated into the activities of schools, community groups, places of worship and even birthday celebrations, and essays have also been read or played at weddings and funerals. The series is a collaboration between NPR and This I Believe, Inc., Dan Gediman and Jay Allison, producers.
Check www.NPR.org for stations and times of All Things Considered. To date, This I Believe essays have ranked among the top e-mailed stories on NPR.org. To listen or to read past essays please visit www.npr.org/thisibelieve.