Archive for the "Press Releases" Category
Tune In:
See the first documentary about V-Day “Until The Violence Stops” on Lifetime Television February 17, 2004 at 10:00PM ET/PT.
“Until the Violence Stops” is a one-hour documentary that follows the grassroots impact of V-Day in five international communities while
exposing the pervasive and cultural forms of violence that women experience all over the world. By first time director Abby Epstein, the
story begins at a star-studded V-Day benefit at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and travels to regional events in Ukiah California, the Philippines and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, culminating in the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls in Kenya. What emerges is an alternately devastating and hopeful look at the global and grassroots efforts in motion to stop violence against women and girls. Featuring appearances by Tantoo Cardinal, Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Rosie Perez, and Isabella Rossellini among others.
Log On:
Tampax invites you to meet Eve live online and hear her talk about what it means to be a “vagina warrior,” share stories of the amazing women and girls who make up V-Day, and answer your questions! Visit http://www.tampax.com to participate in the free webcast at 11:00PM ET.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
V-Day: email: press@vday.org, phone, +1 917 865 6603
Amnesty International: phone: +442074135706 in London,
or, Amnesty International Mexican Section on +525555747139
On Saturday, February 14, 2004,V-Day and Amnesty International are organizing a march to honor the over 300 missing and murdered women of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, their families, and all groups that have worked tirelessly on their behalf.
“Last year when V-Day joined the local organizers and activists for a meeting with Prosecutor Of Justice, Lic. Oscar Valadez in Juarez, we promised him if there was not justice we would come back with the world in one year. It is one year later – we are marching on the 14th to say the time has come, we will wait no longer,” stated V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler.
“Hundreds of young women have been murdered with impunity in the past decade in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua. Many were abducted and sexually
assaulted. Many others remain missing. We are joining with the women of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua and their families to demand the end to impunity and the prevention of further violence against women,” Kate
Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International, said today.
The day will also include a discussion on gender violence by Mexican feminist, Marcela Lagarde; an ecumenical remembrance of the victims and honoring of their mothers and families at the Benito Juarez Monument; and lunch provided by local vendors. The day will culminate with a special V-Day performance of Ensler’s “TheVagina Monologues,” featuring performances by Lilia Aragon, Marinitia Escobedo, Laura Flores, Monica Alicia Juarez, Ensler, Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Christine Lahti, and Shiva Rose.
A schedule for February 14 follows at the end of this release. For more
information, visit vday.org/juarez.
Many local and international women’s and human rights groups, political leaders, and celebrities will take part in the event in Ciudad Juarez.
V-Day has been working to raise awareness of this issue throughout Mexico via “The Vagina Monologues” and direct support to Casa Amiga and other
grassroots groups on the ground, as well as internationally through its thousands of activists. Juarez is the focus of V-Day’s 2004 Spotlight placing the issue in front of millions in the U.S. and internationally
via the March and the over 2000 V-Day benefits taking place this February – March. V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler’s essay on the missing and murdered women of Ciudad Juarez entitled “The City Of Murdered Women” appears in the March issue of Marie Claire magazine.
Together, V-Day and the US section of Amnesty International have held an educational roundtable in Los Angeles and have worked with media outlets
to draw attention to the issue. In August 2003 Irene Khan, Secretary General of Amnesty International, met Mexican President Vicente Fox to raise concerns about the lack of progress in solving the murders in Ciudad Juarez and the organization released a report on Ciudad Juarez in September 2003. For the text of Amnesty International’s report on Ciudad Juarez, please go to:
“Intolerable Killings:Ten years of abductions and murders of women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua”,please see:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr410262003 (English)
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/eslamr410262003 (Spanish)
and foradditional information, please see:
“Mexico:Increased international scrutiny for violence against women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua” http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr410452003
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/
Activist/V-Day Founder Eve Ensler’s award-winning play “The Vagina
Monologues.” In 2004, more than 2000 V-Day events will take place in the
U.S. and around the world. To date, V-Day has raised over $20 million
and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the
efforts to end it, crafted national media and PSA campaigns, funded over
2000 community-based anti-violence programs, reopened shelters, and built
safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq.
About Amnesty International:
Amnesty International is a world wide movement of people who campaign
internationally for human rights to be respected and protected. Over 1.5
million members and supporters, in more than 150 countries and
territories in every region of the world, share the vision of a world
where every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International is
independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest or
religion. On 5th March this year Amnesty International will launch its
global campaign “Stop Violence Against Women”.
For more information about Amnesty International, please go to:
http://www.amnesty.org
March on Juarez
Saturday, February 14, 2004
On V-Day, Saturday, February 14, we invite you to join us in our march
to take back the streets and demand justice for the 300 murdered and
missing women and girls in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua.
The details for Saturday’s events are as follows:
*Join us in our march to take back the streets and demand justice for the
300 murdered and missing women and girls in Juarez and Chihuahua. The
details for Saturday’s events are below:
*10:00 a.m. “Gender Violence,” a lecture given by Mexican feminist,
Marcela Lagarde, will be held at Sala de Usos Multiples del Centro
Cultural Universitario (CCU). The lecture will be moderated by Elena
Ramos. Entrance-free. (Location: corner of Plutarco Elias and Hermanos
Escobar streets).
*11:00 a.m. Marchers staying in El Paso will meet at San Jacinto Plaza
in El Paso (from there they will meet marchers from Juarez at 12:45 p.m.
on the Mexican side of the Lerdo Bridge).
*11:15 a.m. Press Conference at the Sala de Usos Multiples del Centro
Cultural Universitario (CCU). (Location: corner of Plutarco Elias and
Hermanos Escobar streets).
*12:45 p.m. Marchers staying in Juarez will meet marchers from El Paso at
the Lerdo Bridge on the Juarez side, with a welcome address by Professor
Monica Alicia Juarez Correa.
*1:00 p.m. The March commences at the Lerdo Bridge on the Juarez side.
Marchers will walk to the Benito Juarez Monument. (Location: At Vicente
Guerrero and Constitucion streets).
*2:00 p.m. An ecumenical service to remember and honor the missing and
murdered women of Juarez and Chihuahua will be held at the Benito Juarez
Monument. (Location: At Vicente Guerrero and Constitucion streets). There
will be a moment of silence.
*2:45 p.m. Go to local dance hall, Morocco’s, located at the Jardines
Carta Blanca (#1688 Ave. Reforma, Col. Barreal).
*3:00 p.m. Lunch will be available at Morocco’s, with music provided by
musicians from Juarez. Local vendors will be participating and selling
their food at reasonable prices. Information from different local
women’s and human rights groups will be available. (Located at #1688
Ave. Reforma, Col. Barreal).
*4:15 p.m. A group of University students from El Paso and Juarez will
read poetry at Morocco’s. (Located at #1688 Ave. Reforma, Col. Barreal).
*4:30 p.m. A special V-Day benefit performance of “The Vagina
Monologues” will take place at Morocco’s performed by Lilia Aragon,
Marinitia Escobedo, Laura Flores, Monica Alicia Juarez, Eve Ensler, Sally
Field, Jane Fonda, Christine Lahti, and Shiva Rose. (Located at #1688
Ave. Reforma, Col. Barreal). Entrance free.
Events are subject to change. Please check http://www.vday.org/juarez
for the most up to date information.
Mexico: Marcha sobre Ciudad Juarez
(Ciudad Juarez) 2 de Febrero de 2004. El sabado 14 de febrero de 2004,
V-Day y Amnistia Internacional organizaran una marcha en memoria de todas
las mujeres de Ciudad Juarez y Chihuahua, sus familias y todos los grupos
que han trabajado incansablemente en su nombre.
“El ano pasado, cuando V-Day se unio con organizaciones y activistas
locales para una reunion con la Fiscal Especial sobre Juarez, le
prometimos que si no habia justicia, volveriamos con el mundo en un ano.
Un ano ha pasado — estamos marchando el 14 para decir que el dia ha
llegado, no esperaremos mas tiempo” dijo Eve Ensler, fundadora de la
organizacion y autora de la Obra V-Day.
“Centenares de jovenes han sido asesinadas impunemente en los ultimos
diez anos en Ciudad Juarez y Chihuahua. A muchas las secuestraron y las
agredieron sexualmente. Otras siguen en paradero desconocido. Nos unimos
a las mujeres de Ciudad Juarez y Chihuahua y a sus familias para exigir
que se ponga fin a la impunidad y se impidan nuevos actos de violencia
contra las mujeres”, ha dicho hoy Kate Gilmore, Secretaria General
adjunta de Amnistia Internacional.
El dia de la marcha, la feminista mexicana Marcela Lagarde hablara de la
violencia de genero y se celebrara un acto ecumenico en recuerdo de las
victimas y un homenaje a sus madres y familias en el lugar del monumento
a Benito Juarez. Tambien habra un almuerzo, que correra a cargo de
proveedores locales. El dia culminara con la representacion de la obra de
Eve Ensler, autora teatral y fundadora de V-Day, Los monologos de la
vagina. En esta funcion especial actuaran Lilia Aragon, Marinitia
Escobedo, Laura Flores, Monica Alicia Juarez, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda,
Sally Field, Christine Lahti y Shiva Rose.
Un calendario completo de actividades a realizarse el 14 de febrero se
incluye al final de este comunicado.
Informacion General
Al acto de Ciudad Juarez asistiran muchos grupos de mujeres y de derechos
humanos locales e internacionales, dirigentes politicos y celebridades.
V-Day ha estado trabajando para llamar la atencion sobre este tema en
todo Mexico por medio de la obra “Monologos de la vagina” y en apoyo
directo a Casa Amiga y otros grupos locales, asi como de forma
internacional a traves de sus miles de activistas. Juarez es el centro de
atencion del V-Day 2004 Spotlight poniendo el tema en frente de millones
de personas en Estados Unidos y el mundo a traves de mas de 2000 actos
V-Day a beneficio que se llevaran a cabo durante febrero y Marzo
proximos. La monografia de Eve Ensler, fundadora de V-Day, acerca de las
mujeres desaparecidas y asesinadas en Ciudad Juarez, llamado “la ciudad
de las mujeres asesinadas” aparecera en el numero de marzo de la revista
Marie Claire.
V-Day y la seccion norteamericana de Amnistia Internacional han llevado a
cabo una mesa educativa en Los Angeles y han trabajado con medios de
comunicacion para llamar la atencion sobre el tema. En Agosto de 2003,
Irene Khan, Secretaria General de Amnistia Internacional, mantuvo una
reunion con el presidente de Mexico Vicente Fox para comentar su
preocupacion acerca de los lentos progresos en resolver los asesinatos en
Ciudad Juarez. Asi mismo, la organizacion lanzo un informe sobre Ciudad
Juarez en Septiembre de 2003. Para una copia del Informe de Amnistia
Internacional sobre Ciudad Juarez, por favor, vea:
Muertes intolerables: Diez anos de desapariciones y asesinatos de mujeres
en Ciudad Juarez y Chihuahua, puede verse en:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/eslamr410262003
Si desean mas informacion, consulten:
Mexico: Aumenta la atencion internacional a la violencia contra las
mujeres en Ciudad Juarez y Chihuahua
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engamr410452003
Mas informacion sobre V-Day:
V-Day es un movimiento global para acabar con la violencia contra mujeres y ninas que reune fondos y llama la atencion de personas a traves de presentaciones a beneficio de la produccion de la escritora, activista y fundadora de V-Day “Monologos de la vagina”. En 2004, mas de 2000 eventos de V-Day se llevaron a cabo en Estados Unidos y alrededor del mundo. Hasta la fecha, V-Day ha reunido mas de $20 millones y ha educado a millones sobre el tema de violencia contra la mujer y los esfuerzos para acabar con ella, ha trabajado con medios de comunicacion nacionales, ha fundado mas de 2000 programas contra la violencia a nivel de la comunidad, ha reabierto refugios y ha construido casas seguras en Kenya, Dakota del Sur, Egipto e Irak.
Para mas informacion sobre V-Day, por favor, vea: http://www.vday.org
Sobre Amnistia Internacional
Amnistia Internacional es un movimiento internacional de personas que llevan a cabo campanas en todo el mundo con el fin que los derechos humanos sean respetados y protegidos. Mas de 1.5 millones de miembros y simpatizantes en todo el mundo, en mas de 150 paises y territorios en cada region del mundo, comparten la vision de un mundo en el que cada
persona disfruta de todos los derechos consagrados de la Declaracion Universal de Derechos Humanos. Amnistia Internacional es independiente de todo gobierno, ideologia politica, interes economico o religion. El 5 de marzo de este ano, Amnistia Internacional lanzara la campana global “No mas violencia contra las mujeres”
Para mas informacion sobre Amnistia Internacional, por favor, vea:
http://www.amnesty.org
PROGRAMA:
10:00 A.M. Conferencia “Violencia de Genero” por parte de Marcela Lagarde. Lugar Sala de Usos Multiples del Centro Cultural Universitario (CCU). (Plutarco Elias Calles y Hermanos Escobar) Moderadora Ma. Elena Ramos. (Entrada Gratuita)
11:00 A.M. Las personas en El Paso van encontrar al Plaza San Jacinto.
11:15 A.M. Rueda de Prensa, Lugar Sala de Usos Multiples del Centro Cultural Universitario (CCU). (Plutarco Elias Calles y Hermanos Escobar).
12: 45 P.M. Reunion en Puente Internacional Lerdo, bienvenida a la gente que nos acompana de la Cd. de El Paso, por Profra. Monica Alicia Juarez Correa y comision.
1:00 P.M. Inicio Marcha, partiendo del Puente Internacional Lerdo (Ave. Lerdo) a el Monumento a Benito Juarez. (Calle Vicente Guerrero y Constitucion).
2:00 P.M. Celebracion Ecumenica. Lugar Monumento a Benito Juarez (Vicente Guerrero y Constitucion). Se pedira en el transcurso de la Ceremonia “UN MINUTO DE SILENCIO POR LA PAZ”.
2:45 P.M. Traslado a los Jardines Carta Blanca Salon “Moroccos” (Ave. Reforma # 1688, Col. Barreal).
3:00 P.M. Modulos informativos en los que contaremos con la participacion de distintas ONG’s, Instancias que colaboran en la Prevencion y Atencion a la Violencia en Cd. Juarez.. Lugar Jardines Carta Blanca (Ave. Reforma # 1688, Col. Barreal), habra musica y comida a precios modicos.
4:15 P.M. Poesia Coral de Estudiantes Universitarios de Cd. Juarez – El Paso. Lugar Salon “Morocco’s” de Jardines Carta Blanca (Ave. Reforma # 1688 Col. Barreal). Entrada gratuita.
4:30 P.M. Obra de teatro ” Los Monologos de la Vagina”, con la participacion de las actrices mexicanas: Lilia Aragon, Laura Flores y Marintia Escobedo, y en Ingles por Sally Field, Jane Fonda, Christine Lahti y Eve Ensler. Lugar Salon “Morocco’s” de Jardines Carta Blanca (Ave. Reforma # 1688, Col. Barreal).
In 2002, eight hundred cities participated in V-Day, which grew out of Ensler’s play, “The Vagina Monologues.” “Until the Violence Stops” is a one-hour commercial-free documentary that follows the grassroots impact of V-Day in five international communities while exposing the pervasive and cultural forms of violence that women experience all over the world. Directed by Abby Epstein, the story begins at a star-studded V-Day benefit at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and travels to regional events in Ukiah California, the Philippines and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, culminating in the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls in Kenya. What emerges is an alternately devastating and hopeful look at the global and grassroots efforts in motion to stop violence against women and girls. Featuring appearances by Tantoo Cardinal, Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Rosie Perez, and Isabella Rossellini among others.
“Until The Violence Stops” will world premiere at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival on January 17 (6:00PM, Yarrow Theater) launching the film and the V-Day 2004 season. The Sundance premiere will be followed by a series of V-Day private benefit screenings in San Francisco, CA January 28); Ukiah, CA (January 30); Miami, FL (February 1); White Plains, NY (February 6); Atlanta, GA (February 11); and Santa Fe, NM (January 26).
The documentary will have its commercial free television broadcast premiere on Lifetime Television February 17, 2004 at 10:00PM ET/PT.
Tickets are still available for the Westchester and Atlanta screenings, information follows:
White Plains, NY
Friday, February 6th
For tickets, call 914-422-4069 or 914-422-4424
Atlanta, GA
Wednesday, February 11th
For tickets, call the Ticket Hotline at 404-248-5449
V-Day applauds the V-Day organizers and the administration at Amherst High School for educating their students about the issue of violence against women and girls and joining our efforts to end this violence.
This high school performance is part of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls, through which – in February and March 2004 – nearly 2,500 benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” will take place in the U.S. and around the world, to raise funds and awareness to end violence against women and girls. Each V-Day chooses a local group in its community that is working to end violence against women and girls as a beneficiary. In addition, most local V-Day benefits in 2004 will donate up to 10% of their proceeds to V-Day’s International Spotlight on Juarez, Mexico, where in the past decade over 300 women have gone missing or been murdered.
Several press outlets have reported Amherst High as the first high school to put on a V-Day benefit of the play. For the record, Amherst High is not the first high school sanctioned to perform a V-Day benefit performance of “The Vagina Monologues.” High school students have applied and put on benefit performances of the play; however, since V-Day does not have a specific high school campaign, there are not numbers available for the number of high school V-Days where the administration has supported their efforts.
(V-Day offers information for high school students who are interested in participating in V-Day’s efforts to end violence against women and girls online at www.vday.org/youth).
As an example of another high school V-Day where the administration supported the event, in 2002, Ethical Culture Fieldstone School in Riverdale, NY presented a V-Day benefit with the support of the administration. In fact, faculty and staff were part of the production: the principal and a lunchroom employee were part of the cast and the event raised over $3000 for a local anti-violence group. At commencement, the principal mentioned the V-Day as something they were very proud to have participated in.
V-Day media contact:
Susan Celia Swan
press@vday.org
(917) 865-6603
New York, NY – February 2004 – Makeup artist and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown, has created the V-Day Lip Palette, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The V-Day palette was created in support of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. “My mission is to empower women and help them find a voice,” said Bobbi Brown. A $50,000 minimum of all net proceeds of the V-Day Lip Palette will be donated to the V-Day Organization.
The Bobbi Brown V-Day Lip Palette contains three shades of red lip colors: Burnt Red, Scarlet and Red; complete with a mini lip brush and mirror.
About V-Day: Inspired by Playright Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues,” V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day is a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls.
Bobbi Brown V-Day Palette will be available in February at Saks Fifth Avenue, Bobbi Brown counters nationwide, and www.bobbibrown.com/vday.
Suggested Retail Price: $27.00
Press Contact:
Jacquie Baetiong
Bobbi Brown Cosmetics
646-613-6556
Karen Versoza
Dan Klores Communications
212.981.5214
First V-Day Documentary UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS to world premiere at 2004 Sundance Film Festival on January 17 at 6:00PM.
Broadcast Premiere on Lifetime Television on Tuesday, February 17 at 10:00 PM ET/PT.
“Until the Violence Stops,”the first documentary on V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls, will world premiere as a special screening at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, January 17 at 6:00 PM. The film will have its commercial free broadcast premiere on Lifetime Television on Tuesday, February 17 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT).
In 2002, eight hundred cities participated in a movement to end violence against women and girls called V-Day, which grew out of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues.” “Until the Violence Stops” is a one-hour documentary, that follows the uplifting/empowering impact of V-Day in five international communities, while exposing the pervasive and cultural forms of violence that women experience all over the world.
Directed by first-time director Abby Epstein, the story begins at a star-studded V-Day benefit at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, travels to regional events in Ukiah, California, the Philippines and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near Rapid City, South Dakota, and culminates in the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls in Kenya. What emerges is an alternately devastating and hopeful look at the global and grassroots efforts in motion to stop violence against women and girls.
The documentary features appearances by Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, Glenn Close, Isabella Rossellini, Mary Alice, Queen Latifah, Rosie Perez, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Rosario Dawson, Hazelle Goodman, and Tantoo Cardinal.
Download the official Sundance press release .
FIRST DOCUMENTARY ABOUT V-DAY, “UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS,”
TO PREMIERE AT THE 2004 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL AND SIX LOCAL BENEFITS: BROADCAST DEBUT ON LIFETIME TELEVISION FEBRUARY 17, 2004 10PM ET/PT:
V-DAY 2004 SPOTLIGHT ON THE MISSING AND MURDERED WOMEN IN JUAREZ, MEXICO; V-DAY MARCH ON JUAREZ TO BE HELD FEBRUARY 14, 2004
Over 2000 community-based V-Day benefit events of “The Vagina Monologues” to take place February – March 2004 in the U.S. and around the world
December 2, 2003 – V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls founded by playwright Eve Ensler, announces its 2004 theme: Celebrating Vagina Warriors.
The theme will be reflected throughout the movement’s campaigns, special events, documentary (“Until The Violence Stops”) and media building on the momentum of V-Day’s 2003 season during which over 1,000 V-Day benefit events were presented by volunteer activists around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls, raising $4 million and benefiting over 1000 organizations. V-Day 2003 events took place in cities as far reaching as Ukiah, CA; Islamabad, Pakistan; Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina; Lubumbashi, Congo; and Nairobi, Kenya where the proceeds went to the re-opening of a women’s shelter that had closed its doors due to lack of funding.
V-DAY 2004: CELEBRATING VAGINA WARRIORS
Since V-Day launched its very first event in 1998, the movement has encountered incredible women working to end violence against women and girls in their communities. These women have often experienced violence personally or witnessed it within their communities and dedicated themselves toward ending such violence through effective, grassroots means. They have been the very heart of V-Day since it was conceived as a worldwide movement to empower and enable local activists to raise awareness and funds locally through V-Day benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues.” This year, V-Day’s 2004 events and campaigns will celebrate these women whom Founder/Artistic Director Eve Ensler has dubbed ‘Vagina Warriors.’ Each V-Day production will select and honor up to three Vagina Warriors in its own community.
In every community there are humble activists working every day, beat by beat, to undo suffering. They sit by hospital beds, pass new laws, chant taboo words, write proposals, beg for money, demonstrate and hold vigils in the streets. Every woman has a warrior inside waiting to be born. In order to guarantee a world without violence, in a time of danger and escalating madness, we urge them to come out.
-Eve Ensler
The season will launch at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT with a special benefit premiere of “Until The Violence Stops,” the first documentary about V-Day (date and location details TBA). V-Day 2004 benefit productions of “The Vagina Monologues” are currently being planned in over 900 cities and colleges around the world, with over 2000 events to attend in 41 countries. In Los Angeles, a V-Day for and by the transgender community is being produced. To date, locations include Madras, Bombay, & New Delhi, India; Antwerp, Belgium; Esch-Sur-Alvette, Luxembourg; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso; Beirut, Lebanon; Lubumbashi, Congo; Brno, Czech Republic; Helsinki, Finland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Denpasar and Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Vilnius, Lithuania; Bilboa, Spain; Vienna, Austria; and colleges including Harvard University, Whittier College, American University in Cairo, University of Delaware, University of Georgia; Notre Dame University; Tulane University; University of Southern Maine, MIT, Sarah Lawrence; University of Wyoming; and Cal State Polytechnic, to name a few.
This fall, V-Day has launched an evolving series of gatherings and events in NYC entitled “V-Day: Celebrating Vagina Warriors.” The first event featured an intimate evening with prominent leaders and media for Pakistani activist Shahnaz Bukhari, on the eve of her receiving the Civil Courage Prize. Ms. Bukhari is a recent V-Day beneficiary and the Founder and Director of the Progressive Women’s Association (PWA), a grassroots organization in Pakistan which protects abused women, raises awareness of their plight, and pushes for legal and societal reform. This was followed by an evening on November 17 at Culture Project@45 Bleecker Street featuring Iraqi activist, Founder of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, Yanar Mohammed interviewed by Eve Ensler. On Monday, December 15 at 7PM ET, the series continues at Culture Project with “Palestinian and Israeli Women Uninterrupted: An Evening Of Compassionate Listening,” featuring Israeli and Palestinian writers Liana Badr, Yvonne Deutsch, Rema Hammami, Rela Mazali interviewed by Eve Ensler, with a reading by Suad Amiry.
In 2004, outreach will expand and continue via two of V-Day’s fastest growing campaigns: the Indian Country Project and Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Over 25 tribal communities held V-Day benefits in 2003. The Indian Country Project, directed by Suzanne Blue Star Boy, focuses on raising the awareness of V-Day as a model for education about the issue of violence against Native women and communicates to the Native and Canadian First Nations communities through the V-Day College and Worldwide campaigns throughout the U.S. and internationally. Spearheaded by V-Day’s Special Representative Hibaaq Osman, awareness of the issue of violence against women grows daily in Africa, Asia and the Middle East via key events such as V-Day Islamabad 2003; the funding of the first women’s shelter in Egypt in Cairo; and the first V-Day events in India around International Women’s Day March 8, 2004.
VISIBILITY 2004
First Documentary about V-Day: Until The Violence Stops
In 2002, eight hundred cities participated in V-Day, which grew out of Ensler’s play, “The Vagina Monologues.” “Until the Violence Stops” is a one-hour commercial-free documentary that follows the grassroots impact of V-Day in five international communities while exposing the pervasive and cultural forms of violence that women experience all over the world. Directed by Abby Epstein, the story begins at a star-studded V-Day benefit at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and travels to regional events in Ukiah California, the Philippines and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, culminating in the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls in Kenya. What emerges is an alternately devastating and hopeful look at the global and grassroots efforts in motion to stop violence against women and girls. Featuring appearances by Tantoo Cardinal, Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Rosie Perez, and Isabella Rossellini among others.
“Until The Violence Stops” is slated to have its debut at a benefit premiere in January at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival launching the film and the V-Day 2004 season. The Sundance premiere will be followed by a series of V-Day benefit premieres in San Francisco, Ukiah (CA), Miami, Westchester, Atlanta, and Santa Fe.
The documentary will have its commercial free television broadcast premiere on Lifetime Television February 17, 2004 at 10:00PM ET/PT.
V-Day 2004 Spotlight on Women in Juarez
In the past decade, over 300 women and girls have been killed or disappeared in Juarez, immediately across the border from El Paso, Texas. Many of the victims were raped, mutilated and tortured. One of the victims was a six-year-old girl. Despite the fact that these murders have persisted over the past decade, there has not been significant progress in providing protection to the women of Juarez or in bringing the perpetrators to justice. For its 2004 benefit season and awareness campaign, V-Day will make Juarez its ‘Spotlight,’ placing the issue in front of thousands of people in the U.S. and around the world and working closely with Amnesty International. Last month, Ensler traveled to Juarez for a story on the missing young women in Juarez to appear in Marie Claire’s March issue. On February 14, 2004, V-Day will mount a mass action – a V-Day March on Juarez – to make clear that we can wait no longer, we cannot stand by as more bodies appear.
V-Day Juarez 2004: THE END OF VIOLENCE TOWARDS ALL WOMEN BEGINS IN JUAREZ.
We invite all citizens of the world to join us in a global action in Juarez, Mexico. We invite you to take back the streets, demand justice in the murders of the 300, hear the stories of mothers, openly dance for freedom and justice. Bring your mothers, your sisters, your brothers, your best friends. Stop the violence in Juarez and let it be the beginning of ending violence around the world. BE RESOURCEFUL – TAKE A PLANE, TRAIN, BUS, CAR, VAN, TAXI, TRUCK. GET THERE. THE NEW PARADIGM BEGINS IN JUAREZ WITH YOU.
V-Day NYC 2004
V-Day’s annual NYC fundraiser will be a 200 person, $1000 per ticket event featuring select pieces from Eve Ensler’s upcoming play “The Good Body” followed by a larger $150 per ticket after-party at BARNEYS NEW YORK. Gleaned from her travels around the world, Eve Enslers’s “The Good Body” investigates with honesty and humor how women of all backgrounds hide, mutilate, shrink and transform their bodies in order to fit into their cultures or “be good.” BARNEYS NEW YORK will celebrate V-Day in the windows of their flagship Madison Ave. store in early February.
V IS FOR VOTE
“V Is For Vote” is a grassroots voting campaign created with and by the thousands of local V-Day activists and organizers in the U.S. V-Day women and girls will mount local register and get out the vote efforts using their February/March 2004 V-Day events as anchors. V-Day is outreaching to all of the political candidates of all parties urging them to make Violence Against Women a central issue of their campaign platforms, not a sideline or women’s issue. Ultimately, V-Day will mobilize its activism into political power through “V Is For Vote” as V-Day supporters “Vote to End Violence.” Get your pussy posse to the polls! This campaign is part of Women Elect The Future, a collaborative effort with The White House Project, to inspire women to vote, participate fully in democracy as citizens and as leaders, and to create a platform around the central issue of security – personal, national, and international.
PSA Campaign – Print and TV
V-Day will extend its premiere PSA campaign through 2005. In 2003 in conjunction with renowned portrait photographer Joyce Tenneson (Wise Women) and Lifetime Television, V-Day created and executed its first ever print and television PSA campaign featuring celebrities and activists articulating their vision of a world without violence. Funded with a budget of $15,000, the campaign has run in over 20 national magazines including TIME, Spin, O, Marie Claire, Bazaar, Redbook, CosmoGirl, Elle Quebec, Velvet Park, Pennsylvania Health & Fitness, American, Nylon and Razor. The companion TV campaign premiered on Lifetime Television in February 2003 and began airing this Fall on ABC Network, Bravo, USA and numerous local stations nationwide. The campaign has become self-generating as with each new media placement; magazines, newspapers and local anti-violence groups request PSAs for publication. The campaign is featured and available via vday.org.
SPONSORS
V-Day is proud to announce our 2004 sponsors who have generously contributed to our efforts to end violence against women and girls: BARNEYS NEW YORK, Bobbie Brown, Dramatist Play Service, Eileen Fisher, Fairmont Hotels And Resorts, Hearst, Lifetime Television, Luna, Marie Claire, Tampax, Time Inc. and Vosges Haut Chocolate.
About V-Day:
V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual slavery.
V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films, and programs to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women. These include the upcoming 2004 documentary “Until The Violence Stops”; community briefings with Amnesty International on the missing and murdered women of Juarez, Mexico; the December 2002 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan; the Afghan Women’s Summit; the Stop Rape Contest; and the Indian Country Project.
Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. In 2003, over 1,000 V-Day benefit events were presented by volunteer activists around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls and raising US$4 million to combat it.
The V-Day movement is growing at a rapid pace throughout the world. V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to end violence against women and girls. In its first year of incorporation (2001), V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine’s “100 Best Charities.” In its first six years, the V-Day movement has raised over $20 million.
The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
Palestinian and Israeli Women Uninterrupted:
An Evening Of Compassionate Listening
Featuring Israeli and Palestinian writers Liana Badr, Yvonne Deutsch, Rema Hammami, Rela Mazali Interviewed by Eve Ensler And A Reading By Suad Amiry. At Culture Project@45 Bleecker Street
As part of the evolving series of gathering and events “Celebrating Vagina Warriors”, V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman invites you to “Palestinian and Israeli Women Uninterrupted: Evening of Compassionate Listening” featuring Palestinian and Israeli writers Liana Badr, Yvonne Deutsch, Rema Hammami, Rela Mazali, and Suad Amiry and V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler at Culture Project@45 Bleecker Street.
V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler will interview Liana Badr, Yvonne Deutsch, Rema Hammami, Rela Mazali. There will be no Q&A, the evening will focus on listening and the spontaneous dialogue that results from intimate conversations held in a public forum. Each of the women participating in this evening ” Liana Badr, Yvonne Deutsch, Rema Hammami, Rela Mazali, and Suad Amiry – is a respected writer and activist, with compelling perspectives on the political, social, religious and historic origins of the age-old conflict, and, perhaps most important, insight into the possibility of just peace in the region.
Introduction by V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman. Suad Amiry will read from her novel.
Monday, December 15, 2003
7:00pm
Culture Project@45 Bleecker Street, NYC.
Doors open at 6:30pm
-Open to the Public and by Special Invitation-
Admission is FREE (Donations to V-Day are welcomed)
RSVP rsvp@vday.org or 212-645-8329 (VDAY)
About Palestinian and Israeli Women Uninterrupted: An Evening Of Compassionate Listening: This evening grew out of V-Day’s visit to the Middle East December 2002. The purpose of that trip was to bring the mission of V-Day. ending violence against women and girls. to the region, and in so doing, to listen to Israeli and Palestinian women as they discussed their urgent need for security, equality, justice and peace. Like previous V-Day visits, including those in Afghanistan, Kenya, Rome, the Philippines, Brussels and Kosovo, a series of meeting were held with a diverse group of women, in an attempt to fully understand the issues they faced. Since that trip, V-Day delegation members have exchanged and explored ideas with the activists and artists they met.
About V-Day: V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. After her play The Vagina Monologues struck such wide and resonant chords, Eve decided to use it as a vehicle for change and founded V-Day in 1998. V-Day promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing organizations throughout the world that work to end violence against women.
SUAD AMIRY
Suad Amiry was born in Damascus, and grew up in four intense and fascinating cities; Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo. Her academic endeavors were even more far-flung. Amiry began studying architecture at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and went on to achieve her MA from the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. Throughout her career she has been a lecturer in Architecture for the University of Jordan, Assistant Professor of Architecture for Birzeit University, Director General and Assistant Deputy Minister for the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. In 1991, she founded the Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah, Palestine. In November of 2001, Suad Amiry and her husband were compelled to flee Ramallah as a result of the Israeli occupation of the city. In the days leading up to that moment, Amiry began to better understand her parents” experience of fleeing their Jaffa home in 1948. The diary she kept was eventually published under the title of War Diaries: Sharon and my Mother in Law. The diary compellingly expresses the moment-to-moment hardships of living as a Palestinian under curfew in an Israeli occupied territory. Themes in her scholarly discourse on architecture include traditional/vernacular Palestinian architectural styles and elements; conservation; city planning, particularly historic cities; and landscape design. Amiry never regards any architecture in isolation; she manages always to explore architecture’s intimate relationship to the people who dwell within, and its legacy of vibrant, complicated social histories. Amiry has published a number of monographs, articles, books, and manuscripts in Arabic and English. She has been involved in two exhibitions; in one she was showcased as a female artist, in the other she was the sole participant in an exhibition of Palestinian village architecture. She continues to live in Ramallah and work as director of Riwaq.
LIANA BADR
Liana Badr was born into a politically active family in Jerusalem. During the 1967 war, she and her family fled to Amman, Jordan. They thought return to Jerusalem would be possible within a few hours. However, some in her family never saw their home again. Most of the others eventually dispersed to several different countries. Forced out by the political situation in Jordan, Badr moved to Lebanon in 1971, where she resumed completion of her BA in philosophy and psychology. In Lebanon, refugees and refugee camps became an intimate part of Badr’s life and work, as she traveled the path of journalist, activist, and teacher. Her talents and passion for women’s rights and the written word were given outlet while writing for Lebanese magazines, working with a PLO women’s organization, and teaching refugee women how to read and write. Badr married a refugee and activist from Jerusalem. Liana Badr has written three novels, a collection of novellas, three collected short stories, six children’s books, a book of interviews, and a book of poetry, many of which have been translated. She has also written and directed four films, two of which have won awards. Badr’s compelling talent is to communicate her message through documentation of ordinary peoples” daily lives. She highlights their individual perspectives, and explores and examines their strategies for keeping courage while coping with war and hardship. She is the general director of arts at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture in Ramallah, and is currently working on a new film documenting the lives of Palestinians under curfew in that city.
YVONNE DEUTSCH
Yvonne Deutsch was born in Timisoara, Romania to a Jewish Hungarian speaking family. She immigrated to Israel with her mother when she was 8 years old. While she was a student in the Hebrew University in the late 70s she joined the Jewish-Palestinian activist group Campus. Here, for the first time, she participated in direct conversations with Palestinian students from Israel and she became more aquatinted with the Palestinian experience. In the early 80s she became an organizer in The Israeli Committee of Solidarity with Bir Zeit University. With the outbreak of the Lebanon war in 1982 she became an organizer of the Committee against the War in Lebanon, which was the first group to protest the war. With the outbreak of the first Intifada in December 1987, Yvonne joined Women in Black and became an organizer. At the same time she co-founded Women and Peace, the first women’s coalition for peace in Israel. In 1994 she became the founding director of Kol ha Isha, (The Woman’s Voice) the multicultural feminist center in west Jerusalem. She turned to body soul therapy studies while continuing her involvement in Kol ha Isha as a volunteer and counselor. Yvonne is now ready to come out again in the public feminist arena. The new manifestation of her undying commitment combines her activism, which is focused on the creation of political and social transformation, with her professional therapeutic skills and her wish to bring realization to the ideas of alternative feminist peace organizing. Yvonne shares her life with Andre Rosenthal, who is a Jewish Israeli lawyer and defender of Palestinians’ rights, and their two children.
REMA HAMMAMI
Rema Hammami achieved a BA in political science from the University of Cincinnati and then went on to Temple University for completion of her MA and PhD in cultural anthropology. After that accomplishment, she became research supervisor for the Nablus Women’s Affairs Center, then research director for the Gaza Strip FAFO Household Survey, director of the Women’s Affairs Research and Training Center, Gaza Strip, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Birzeit University, and is now the chairperson of the gender studies master’s program at Birzeit University Women’s Studies Institute. She volunteers on a number of boards and steering committees that are dedicated to women’s affairs and human rights. She spreads her talents further as member of two editorial boards. She has published extensively, and her work includes articles, compilations, collaborations and books. Common subjects in her writings consist of social attitudes and their relationship with gender, labor, family law, citizenship, political activism and NGO’s.
RELA MAZALI
Rela Mazali was raised in both the United States and Israel. She is a founder of the New Profile Movement, in which she is working to de-militarize Israeli civil society and end the occupation of the Palestinian territories. The Association of Israeli Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights was fortunate to have Mazali lend her talents as Director of Projects and Development, culminating in her planning and directing the 1993 Tel-Aviv conference on the International Struggle Against Torture and the Case of Israel. She went on to help expose the Israel Defense Force’s usage of Depleted Uranium Ammunition. She is credited for creating the slogan first used by the Coalition for Women of a “Just Peace in Israel,” and was keynote speaker at the 2001 Jewish Unity for a Just Peace Conference, which organized Jews in the United States to speak out against the occupation. Beyond her diligent and influential work as a feminist peace activist, she is also an accomplished writer in Hebrew and English. She has published a number of short stories, articles, essays and educational curricula, a novel, and a children’s book. Subjects of in her fictional and documentary work include experiences of soldiers suppressing the Palestinian uprising and children struggling to negotiate the blurry line leading to adulthood. Mazali is persistent in her commitment to peace education, children’s rights and gender equality. The beautiful union of her love of children and experience as activist and educator can be seen in her most recent work, co-authored with Haggith Gor, My Book of Rights, which introduces the International Convention on the Rights of the Child to children and their parents.
Academy Award winning Actor/Activist Jane Fonda And V-Day Executive Director Jerri Lynn Fields To Introduce The Evening
V-Day is hosting Iraqi activist Yanar Mohammed of Organization Of Women’s Freedom In Iraq who can offer first hand report on the status and conditions for women in Iraq NYC and DC November 16-18th.
Ms. Mohammed is the Director of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, a group that works to stop atrocities against Iraqi women and defend their rights. One of their main projects is the development of a battered women’s shelter in Baghdad to protect women who are fleeing from violence and “honor killings.” In addition, she serves as the Editor in Chief of the newspaper Al-Mousawat (Equality) which is available in Baghdad and beyond.
While in the U.S., Ms. Mohammed will meet with funders, supporters, and media including CNNi Weekend World News (Nov 16), BBC World Service (Nov 17), Democracy Now (November 18).
On Monday, November 17 as part of an evolving series of events and gathering reflecting V-Day’s 2004 theme “Celebrating Vagina Warriors,” V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler will Interview Ms. Mohammed at the Culture Project@45 Bleecker Street. Introduction by Academy Award winning Actor/Activist Jane Fonda and V-Day Executive Director Jerri Lynn Fields.
V-Day will sponsor Ms. Mohammed’s U.S. visit the purpose of which is threefold:
- To raise awareness of the plight of women in Iraq today.
- To gather political support for her movement, the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and for Defense of Iraqi Women’s Rights, an organization working to improve the status of women through active involvement in the political debate over Iraq’s future and other groups.
- To secure resources to assist Iraqi women in their struggle against violence and oppression, both politically and literally.
Media contact: Susan Swan (917) 865-6603, press@vday.org
— Featuring appearances by Tantoo Cardinal, Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Amy Hill, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini —
V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls will release its first documentary entitled “Until the Violence Stops” in February 2004 on Lifetime Television.
In 2002, eight hundred cities participated in a movement to end violence against women and girls called V-Day, which grew out of Eve Ensler’s play, “The Vagina Monologues.” “Until the Violence Stops” is a one hour commercial-free documentary that follows the grassroots impact of V-Day in five international communities while exposing the pervasive and cultural forms of violence that women experience all over the world. Directed by Abby Epstein, the story begins at a star-studded V-Day benefit at Harlem’s Apollo Theater and travels to regional events in Ukiah California, the Philippines and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, culminating in the opening of the first V-Day Safe House for girls in Kenya. What emerges is an alternately devastating and hopeful look at the global and grassroots efforts in motion to stop violence against women and girls.
Featuring appearances by Tantoo Cardinal, Rosario Dawson, Eve Ensler, Jane Fonda, LisaGay Hamilton, Salma Hayek, Amy Hill, Rosie Perez, Isabella Rossellini.
“Until the Violence Stops” will premiere on Lifetime as part of the Network’s ongoing, Emmy Award-winning campaign “Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Violence Against Women,” which includes extensive on-air original programming, online content and community outreach to change lives and laws for the better.
Expect more details about the documentary and V-Day’s 2004 campaign “Celebrating Vagina Warriors,” as well as Lifetime’s “Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Violence Against Women” initiative.
About V-Day: V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual slavery.
V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films, and programs (such as the upcoming 2004 documentary “Until The Violence Stops;” community briefings with Amnesty International on the missing and murdered women of Juarez, Mexico; The December 2003 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan; The Afghan Women’s Summit; The Stop Rape Contest; and The Indian Country Project) to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women.
Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. In 2003, over 1,000 V-Day benefit events were presented by volunteer activists around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls and raising $4 million.
The V-Day movement is growing at a rapid pace throughout the world. V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. In its first year of incorporation (2001), V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine’s “100 Best Charities.” In its first six years, the V-Day movement has raised over $20 million.
The ‘V’ in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
LIFETIME is the leader in women’s television and one of the top-rated basic cable television networks. A diverse, multi-media company, LIFETIME is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming, and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families. In September 2003 Lifetime was awarded the prestigious Governors Award from The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) for its advocacy on its “Stop Violence Against Women” initiative. LIFETIME Television, Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Real Women and Lifetime Online, are part of LIFETIME Entertainment Services, a 50/50 joint venture of The Hearst Corporation and The Walt Disney Company, as is Lifetime magazine, which debuted in April 2003.