“We didn’t do this to Katrina. We didn’t do this to Harvey. Shame on us.” – Catherine Kennedy, VP, National Nurses United.
6 months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico remains in crisis and in need of humanitarian aid. #PROnTheMap is making a documentary to keep the story in the news and continue putting pressure on our government to supply aid to Puerto Rico.
Journalist Marianne Schnall reports from V20, the anniversary evening with interviews with Eve Ensler, V-Day Board member Pat Mitchell and members of the V-Day team.
“My revolution is of the earth and will come from her for her, because of her. It understands that every time we frack or drill or burn or violate the layers of her sacredness we violate the soul of our future.” – Eve Ensler
On this International Women’s Day, we celebrate Rising activists around the globe who rose and who continue to RISE for women’s rights and gender rights, the protection and defense of indigenous lands and the rights of indigenous peoples, against fascism and tyranny, discrimination and racism, environmental plunder and destruction, corporate greed, economic violence, poverty, state brutality and repression, war and militarism and all forms of violence against women. Together we RISE in solidarity through creative resistance against the systems that cause other forms of violence: patriarchy, imperialism, fascism, racism, capitalism and neo-liberalism and highlight where all these issues interconnect. On IWD, activists in Brazil, Congo, Canada, Ghana, Italy, Mongolia, and throughout the United States are RISING.
Throughout March, V-Day Benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues will continue as the season has been extended for V20! It’s not too late – events are being added daily! In 2018, staging a production of The Vagina Monologues or A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer is more than just a theatrical experience; it is an ARTISTIC UPRISING, a RADICAL act, an ACT OF RESISTANCE. V-activists are transforming radical spaces, amplifying and lifting up the most marginalized groups and activists in their communities, spotlighting resistance and spotlighting the work and calls to action of local activists via their testimonies of resistance.
Read “Life After Patriarchy: Three Reflections on the Coming Revolution” by Alnoor Lada for One Billion Rising and Kosmos Daily
“We are simultaneously witnessing the dissolution and apotheosis of late-stage capitalism, which in its death throes is producing peak-hierarchy, peak-violence, peak-patriarchy and peak-delusion… I do not pretend to have answers for where we are going or even what the shift from the male-dominator logic will mean, but I would like to offer three reflections that might provide a different lens from which to view the coming transition. These ideas were triggered by seeing the powerful My Revolution video by the social movement One Billion Rising.”
– Alnoor Ladha, co-founder of The Rules – a global collective of activists, writers, researchers, coders and others focused on addressing the root causes of inequality, poverty and climate change.
V-Day and One Billion Rising stand in solidarity with the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, who in in the midst of experiencing traumatic loss are taking a stand and demanding justice and reform.
V-Day and One Billion Rising activist: Join the student-led March For Our Lives on 24 March in Washington, D.C. Check your areas for updates for local marches and events.
Gun violence in the United States* is a systematic issue that repeatedly endangers and devastates entire communities through school shootings. Gun violence in the US is also an issue of racism and misogyny, as it disproportionately affects Black communities who are impacted by police brutality.
The accessibility to arms perpetuates a cycle of domestic violence against women; the presence of a gun makes it 5x more likely that domestic violence turns deadly. Domestic violence often precludes mass shootings, “perpetrators of domestic violence accounted for 54 percent of mass shootings between 2009 and 2016” (Every Town for Gun Safety).
On 24 March, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington, D.C. to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today.
In addition to March For Our Lives, there will be other student-led acts of protest taking place throughout the country.
20 April marks the 19th anniversary of the Columbine shooting. Led by Connecticut students who attend high school just minutes away from Sandy Hook Elementary, this is a call for action for all high school students to stand up and demand justice by taking part in a nation wide walkout, wearing orange, and using this time to protest and have their voices be heard.
Student organizers are encouraging students, teachers, administrators, parents, and all community members across the country to walk out for 17 minutes, one for each Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student whose life was lost.
With gratitude to V-Day and One Billion Rising activists around the world who RISE for V20. With thanks to the activists, filmmakers & photographers, our V-Day, One Billion Rising & City of Joy teams, and to filmmaker Kirthi Nath for making this video a reality! Deepest gratitude and V-love.
Twenty years ago, Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues gave birth to V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming).
Since 1998, The Vagina Monologues and other works have been performed across the world by local V-Day activists, raising over $100 million dollars for grassroots anti-violence groups, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters, and safe houses in places like Kenya and Afghanistan. V-Day supports and launched the City of Joy, a revolutionary center for women survivors of gender violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has graduated over 1000 women leaders.
Activists look at the intersection of class, race, gender, environmental destruction, imperialism, militarism, patriarchy, poverty, and war, as women face abuse and exploitation across layers of systematic and societal oppression, with the most marginalized and excluded often facing increased levels of violence.
In 2013, V-Day gave birth to One Billion Rising – the largest mass action to demand an end to violence against women in history. V-Day and One Billion Rising are a crucial part of the global fight to stop gender-based violence through attacking the silence — public and private — that allows violence against women to continue.
With ingenuity and determination, V-Day activists around the world are tirelessly working to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery.
JOIN US. In 2018, organizing a ONE BILLION RISING event or staging a V-Day benefit production of The Vagina Monologues or A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer is more than a theatrical experience; it is an ARTISTIC UPRISING, a RADICAL act, an ACT OF RESISTANCE.
Transform radical spaces. Amplify and lift up the most marginalized groups and activists in your communities. Spotlight resistance, invite local activists to share their testimonies of resistance and amplify new voices. RISE, RESIST, UNITE.
Please heavily document your event. We’re especially interested in Photos and Videos
For the past five years, on or around 14 February, Risings took place around the world, in hundreds of cities, in virtually every country on earth. We have made history.
In 2018, we RISE in Solidarity Against the Exploitation of Women and we want the world to witness every sight and sound of this extraordinary global action. HERE’S HOW!
Document and share everything you do for One Billion Rising Solidarity Against the Exploitation of Women. Share your photos, video and audio updates with the global audience!
For your RISING event(s), please share your photos, video and audio updates with the global audience so they can experience it as it happens – or as close to it! Before and during the events, utilize social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
Tell the story of what’s happening using these channels. Be sure to tag us and use the official hashtags #1BillionRising#RiseInSolidarity and #RiseResistUnite to include your posts on our digital hub at onebillionrising.org and across our social channels for the world to see. The more we share, we spread the word and trend on social media platforms around the world, reaching even more people.
NOTE: If you want to share your posts with the global audience, please be sure to make your Facebook and Instagram posts public.
Don’t forget to go to the Toolkit for profile and background images!
Filming
Please film your event using the highest resolution files available. Make sure you’re also keeping full-resolution versions of what you share – we’ll want to gather it after your event HERE.
Note – you will need to post a Public Filming Notice at your venue, and if you interview people about the rising, it would be wonderful if you can have them sign release forms so that we can use the footage for V-Day’s uses on our website, or film, etc.
Create a Snapchat geo-filter for your event:
Although Snapchat doesn’t offer global geo-filters, you can create custom on-demand local geo-filters for your events as low as $5/day at https://create.snapchat.com/
You can create your custom design after logging in, and get a price quote depending on your time range and location area. The current maximum area is 5,000,000 sq ft (less than 1km x 1km)
In the last few years, streaming technology and the general public’s comfort with it has come a long way, making them much more accessible. Using the apps and platforms below you can now stream your event directly from your phone, tablet or computer. Capture the flashmob, an art piece, activists sharing why they RISE or the whole event live from your phone.
So if you want to broadcast the revolution in real time, here are some options:
FACEBOOK LIVE, INSTAGRAM LIVE & PERISCOPE
These free and easy options have been used to broadcast intimate interviews to huge mobilizations, from Standing Rock to the Women’s Marches. You can play the video directly into your community Facebook page or Twitter account feeds, all you need is a dedicated person with a fully charged phone or tablet (and backup batteries). Additionally, a phone/tablet tripod or stick can be extremely useful to maintain a stable shot, especially for outdoor or long events.
IMPORTANT: Before broadcasting, make sure to change your Audience to “Public” so people outside of your network can view and share it.
How to Facebook Live from a mobile phone or tablet:
V20: Share Your V-Day and/or One Billion Rising Story
Share Your Story of the Grassroots Movement to End Violence Against Women and Girls
It’s been 20 years since V-Day was founded, since The Vagina Monologues shattered taboos, sharing the stories of women as they had never been told before. 2018 is our 20th year.
Since that moment, so many of you have taken to the stage, activated in your communities and on college campuses, and staged massive events in celebration and defiance, in colleges, towns, theaters, churches, state houses, across the world inviting everyone into the dialogue with a common purpose – to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender and gender non-conforming).
Your story is the story of the movement.
In the face of resistance, and at the intersection of art and activism, you have saved lives, raised consciousness, changed laws to protect women and girls, funded rape crisis centers and kept domestic violence shelters from closing, educated your communities, and raised over an astounding $100 million in urgently needed funds for local grassroots groups doing the essential work of ending violence and serving survivors and their families.
Through One Billion Rising, you shook the earth through the massive RISINGS in which over ONE BILLION people danced to end the epidemic of violence, we have shifted consciousness and broken the deadly silence. And every day, you stage art in your community for social change, you RISE, you are in the streets rising against racist patriarchy and all other forms of physical, sexual and economic violence.
You have made ending sexual violence a front-page issue, never to be silenced again.
These macro moments, are the culmination of micro movements – a woman who leaves an abusive partner, a rape survivor taking the stage and telling her story after years of silence, a man whose eyes are opened to rape culture and who pledges to living a life dismantling it, a young girl watching her mother reclaim cunt and a young boy dancing in the streets.
What’s your story?
We invite you to help us tell the story of the movement.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Is there a quote that sums up your experience? A picture from your V-Day or OBR event, rehearsal, speech, open mic night? A poster from a show? Share something with us that represents your V-Day activism and involvement in the movement.
Some prompts to think about:
– What does V-Day mean to you? – One shining memory, be specific. – How has it changed your world? – What do you see for our future?
IN NYC ON 13 FEBRUARY, we will have a pop up video shoot. Please email film@vday.org or visit vdayvideo.eventbrite.com if you are interested in coming to shoot your V-story.
FILM IT YOURSELF, SEND IT IN Create a short video (we suggest between 2-5 minutes in length) telling your story to the camera, or in voice over, or an animated piece. Get creative.
V20 Installation of Global Poster Art & Iconic Images
For the month of February, ABC Carpet & Home’s flagship store at 888 Broadway in NYC will celebrate 20 years of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming) that grew out of Tony award-winning playwright Eve Ensler’s groundbreaking play, The Vagina Monologues. The store will devote its corner window display to V-Day featuring iconic V-Day images, posters and artwork from around the globe curated by V-Day’s team in collaboration with photojournalist Paula Allen and designer Alexandra Tuller. The windows provide a vivid snapshot of the creativity and vision of V-Day activists and a representation of art and activism at a global scale.
Eve Opens In The Body of The World on 6 February
Christine Schuler Deschryver of City of Joy Featured During “Beyond The Stage” Talkbacks (13, 15, 16 & 17 February)
In the Body of the World, a powerful new play based on Eve’s critically acclaimed memoir opens at Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC’s Stage I at NY City Center) on 6 February. Currently in previews, the play chronicles Eve’s experiences while working with women suffering from the ravages of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the stunning life-threatening diagnosis she receives in the throes of this work. Told with humor and grit, Eve’s personal journey uncovers surprising connections between her body and the earth and how illness can be both transformative and transcendent. Directing this bold, unflinching and inspiring piece is Tony Award winner Diane Paulus (Waitress, Pippin). In the Body of the World is an American Repertory Theater production.
Some performances will feature talkbacks with guest speakers to go ‘beyond the stage’ and further explore the subject matter. Speakers include Christine Schuler Deschryver (13, 15, 16 & 17 Feb), Eve herself (22 Feb), James Lecesne (27 Feb) and Cynthia Nixon (1 Mar), along with a range of artists, medical professionals, scholars and activists. Click here to see the calendar on the show website (tap the green squares to see guest speakers).
Special discount code VDAY available for V-Day and One Billion Rising activists and supporters. Info and tickets here.
Manhattan Theatre Club is fully accessible to people with disabilities. Click here to read more about the facilities and available services.
Limit: 6 per order. All tickets are $45 plus $2.50 facility fee (regular price is $90). This offer is good in all areas of the house, for all performances except opening night (6 Feb). Handling fees for online and phone orders apply.
The Rising energy is massively building across the planet in almost 200 countries. India – all 22 states are Rising, 200 events. The Philippines, 200 events. Germany, 156 Events. Poland, 60 Events. U.K., 100 events. Italy, 80. US, 100s. 20 African countries.
Let’s Rise and dance the planet to freedom, equality, dignity and peace.
Still time to join the Revolution and organize your event.
In 2018, organizing a One Billion Rising Solidarty event or staging a V-Day benefit production of The Vagina Monologues or A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer is more than a theatrical experience; it is an ARTISTIC UPRISING, a RADICAL act, an ACT OF RESISTANCE.
Transform radical spaces. Amplify and lift up the most marginalized groups and activists in your communities. Spotlight resistance, invite local activists to share their testimonies of resistance and amplify new voices. RISE, RESIST, UNITE.
“We didn’t do this to Katrina. We didn’t do this to Harvey. Shame on us.” – Catherine Kennedy, VP, National Nurses United.
V-Day and One Billion Rising stand in solidarity with the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, who in in the midst of experiencing traumatic loss are taking a stand and demanding justice and reform.
