Witness the World RISING!
Archive for the "V-Day" Category
NYC Artistic UpRISING in Washington Square Park Announced! Make Valentine’s Day a Day of Revolutionary Love & Resistance
READ more about the event &
SIGN up on our Facebook event page
(so we know how many people are coming!)
INVITE your friends and networks!
An Update from Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative and the V-Day Safe House for the Girls in Kenya, December 2016
The following update was provided by Agnes Pareyio, Founder of the Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative and the V-Day Safe House for the Girls. She is also a One Billion Rising and V-Day Activist.
SUPPORT this important work by donating today >
Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative is a community-based organization in the southern Rift Valley in Narok County, Kenya. “Tasaru Ntomonok” simply means “rescue” in the maa language. Our mission is to initiate positive behavioral change and attitudinal change within and towards women. We do this by sensitizing the community to better appreciate the value that girls’ education holds and to also respect the rights of girls.
Like most African communities, the Maasai community is closely bound by deep-rooted cultural traditions. Tasaru was started in September 1999 to provide a safety net for girls running away from the practices of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and EFCM (Early Forced Childhood Marriage) which are rampant cultural practices in the Maasai community.
Each year, with V-Day support, Tasaru is able to ensure that girls are protected from further harassment, that their rights and integrity are respected, and that they are educated so that they can take control of their futures. I am so pleased to share an update on our recent work with you:
Over the last period, sixty-four girls resided at the safe house. This being the peak season for the practice of FGM, seventeen girls we served had run away from FGM/EFCM. Most of them have been reconciled back with their families through the Department of the Children.
Education
Five girls have successfully completed four years of secondary education. These girls have already been reunited with their families.
We have more girls graduating from primary school and joining high school. In 2016, seven of our rescued girls did their primary education examination and performed very well. Tasaru is in process of taking them to form one.
Tasaru is supporting the education of fifty five girls.
Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP)
One hundred girls between the ages of 12- 16 years took part in a six day training from December 13 – 16. Through the session, they graduated into adulthood without the cut. The ceremony was graced by the county director of the Department of Children and was attended by leaders from the county and other invited guests. The director promised to work hand in hand with Tasaru to improve the wellbeing of the girl child in Narok County.
The community is slowly appreciating the alternative rite of passage for their daughters. This is evidenced as was witnessed in November 2016, where a family in one of our areas voluntarily took two of his daughters through the ARP.
Reconciliation
During this period, Tasaru successfully reconciled four girls with their families. Among the reconciled girls were two sisters who escaped FGM narrowly six years ago. See the attached link: Hope Uncut: Girl circumcision still practised in Maasai community
Challenges and Successes
More girls are running away from EFCM and FGM and the community is slowly appreciating the alternative rite of passage without the cut as an option. More cases of FGM and EFCM are being reported and prosecuted. This is as a result of the existence of the Department of Public Prosecution in every county, which addresses these issues. Additionally, our work is making an impact. However challenges remain. Cutting continues and girls are coached by the community and families on what to say if they come into contact with authorities.
ARP training session
Mercy and Agnes at reconciliation
LEARN more about Agnes and this locally led work to end violence against women and girls:
RISE In Solidarity Against Fear, Racism & Misogyny
Around the world, we continue to RISE against neo-fascism, racist patriarchy, misogyny and sexism, to DISRUPT through rallies, protests and events, and CONNECT with individuals, networks, and organizations who are resisting to hold our governments and other patriarchal institutions accountable. Around the world, activists are working in their communities to resist policies that harm and threaten the most marginalized and incorporating local calls to action, harnessing more radical forms of creative and political resistance. Actions and events are happening daily, and with the One Billion Rising Day of Action, 14 February right around the corner, now is the time to call amplify your solidarity calls! FIND/PLAN a radical rising on (or around) 14 Feb >
Happening today across the U.S., over 100 #NoBanNoWall & Stop the #SwampCabinet actions. FIND an event in your area on MoveOn.Org >
CITY OF JOY Documentary to be Featured as Centerpiece Film at the Athena Film Festival in NYC
Coming off of a wildly successful world premiere at DOC NYC Film Festival, the documentary film CITY OF JOY is set to be the Centerpiece film at the Athena Film Festival in NYC.
CITY OF JOY tells the story of the first class of girls at a remarkable center in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Directed by first time director, Madeleine Gavin, it tells of the visionaries who imagined a revolutionary place where women who have suffered horrific rape and abuse, learn to lead amidst a war driven by greed, economics and colonialism. The film shares the unlikely friendship that develops when a devout Congolese doctor, Dr. Denis Mukwege, (2016 Nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize), radical playwright and activist, Eve Ensler, (Tony Award winning playwright of The Vagina Monologue) and a charismatic Congolese human rights activist, Christine Schuler-Deschryver, (Director of the City of Joy) join forces to create this safe haven in the middle of violence-torn Eastern Congo, a place they call The City of Joy. And it is the story of the incomprehensible power of the human spirit as we witness our characters’ discovery of hope, even when so much of what was meaningful to them has long been stripped away.
Immediately following the screening, there will be a talkback featuring Eve Ensler, City of Joy Director Christine Schuler Deschryver, director Madeleine Gavin – moderated by V-Day Board Member Pat Mitchell.
Saturday, 11 February, 8PM
Miller Theater, 2960 Broadway, Columbia University
Adult: $12; Student: $5
We have a special $2 discount code off Adult tickets – 17SPONAFF2.
PURCHASE Tickets to CITY OF JOY at the Athena Film Festival >
“Madeleine Gavin’s debut feature, City of Joy, is as heartbreaking as it is uplifting, as shocking as it is life affirming. Ever since the two Congo civil wars of the 1990s, rape has been used as a horrific military tactic in the country; hundreds of thousands of women and children have been and continue to be attacked repeatedly by members of militias who are attempting to gain access to the country’s rich mineral resources, including coltan, tin, tungsten, and gold, which are much sought after by global corporations. In 2007, gynecologist/obstetrician Dr. Denis Mukwege, activist Christine Schuler-Deschryver, and playwright Eve Ensler cofounded the City of Joy, a securely walled and guarded safe space in Bukavu in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo where survivors of rape and sexual violence come to get their life back, learning to reclaim control of their bodies and their minds.”
READ Mark Rifkin’s 4 out of 4 stars review online in THIS WEEK IN NEW YORK >
PURCHASE Tickets to CITY OF JOY at the Athena Film Festival >
Eve Ensler to be Honored at the Athena Film Festival
In addition to screening CITY OF JOY, the Athena Film Festival has named Eve as one of its 2017 honorees alongside Patricia Riggen and Regina K. Scully (Founder of Artemis Rising and also a V-Day Board Member), and David Oyelowo who is receiving the 2017 Athena Leading Man Award.
“The Athena Film Festival celebrates the leadership and creative accomplishments of trailblazers in the entertainment industry who continue to break boundaries. The festival showcases films about powerful and courageous women leaders in real life and the fictional world; it is a weekend dedicated to elevating female voices and stories to inspire and empower a new generation of filmmakers and individuals.”
City of Joy in Congo
Want to learn more about revolutionary center that is featured in the documentary?
The City of Joy is a revolutionary center for women survivors of gender violence in Bukavu, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Created, designed, and run by Congolese, this groundbreaking six month healing and leadership initiative serving up to 90 women at a time has to date graduated 849 women, who have gone on to become leaders in their communities.
LEARN more about the City of Joy in DRC >
READ the blog Dispatches from Bukavu and Beyond >
DONATE to City of Joy >
We Marched, Now We RISE, Disrupt, Connect & Resist
After massive worldwide women’s marches last weekend that saw people coming together to loudly and boldly demand a future free of violence towards women – activists around the world are heightening their calls and escalating their actions on (and around) 14 February – the One Billion Rising global day of action.
We marched – but that was just the beginning.
We must continue to RISE, DISRUPT, CONNECT & RESIST! Let’s take this energy and direct it locally towards concrete changes we want to see in our communities and cities. Let’s Rise and Disrupt more creatively and politically. Let’s Dance more fiercely. Let’s use this moment to harness more radical forms of creative and political RESISTANCE.
Let’s make this OBR season the biggest and most rebellious we have ever seen!
Let us RISE
against neo-fascism, racist patriarchy, misogyny and sexism.
Rise against rape culture and all those who escalate and normalize it.
Rise against racism, discrimination and inequality.
Rise against neoliberal policies that place profit over people.
Rise against environmental plunder and Rise to protect Indigenous people, land and water.
Rise against homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, exclusion and hate.
Rise against imperialist wars, occupation, internal and international displacement and militarization.
Rise for food, land and justice.
Rise against fear mongering and division.
Rise against international capitalist and imperialist systems that perpetuate poverty.
Rise against the corporations and the rich making more profit off the backs of people’s suffering.
Rise against economic, labor and sexual exploitation.
Rise against human and sex trafficking.
Rise against the violence of poverty, exploitation and marginalization.
Rise for freedom, dignity, equality and respect.
How to Rise?
We need TO DISRUPT with active and radical defiance!
Disrupt in order to INCITE, MOBILIZE, AROUSE, AWAKEN, and INSPIRE.
Disrupt in order to shake the present global structure characterized by patriarchy and capitalist greed.
Disrupt to show how strong a creative “people power” force can be.
Disrupt to keep radicalizing our creative resistance.
We need to CONNECT and expand our political consciousness.
Connect by educating ourselves on all issues.
Connect by uniting in all our struggles and fighting for ALL rights.
Connect by hearing and listening and learning.
Connect by deepening our understanding of issues within the context of race and class analysis.
Connect by joining organizations and mass actions.
Connect by organizing our communities.
COME TOGETHER.
HOLD YOUR GOVERNMENTS and other exploitative patriarchal institutions ACCOUNTABLE.
And RESIST.
Resist with Rage.
Resist with fierce hope.
Resist with unwavering insistence on a future where freedom, equality and dignity is possible.
Resist with collective defiance.
Resist all together. With and For each other.
Rise In Solidarity!
Rise For Revolution!
JOIN ONE BILLION RISING 2017
LEARN about the 2017 campaign >
FIND/PLAN a RISING in your community >
READ the blogs about the March
- V-Day/OBR & African American Policy Forum Marching In Solidarity #WomensMarch in DC
- Photo Blog: V-Day/OBR Activists March in Solidarity Around the World
The Women’s March Heralds a Renaissance of Resistance, Eve’s Latest Piece in The Guardian
“We are marching to sow more seeds and invite more women into that renaissance and to take the energy of this march and use it to set fires of resistance everywhere.
We are marching today so the next generation of girls don’t wake up with poisonous nightmares, but with radiant dreams.”
READ The Women’s March Heralds a Renaissance of Resistance by Eve Ensler >
Rising Actions & Events Happening Around the World Throughout the Inauguration Weekend
One Billion Rising & V-Day activists are mobilizing, protesting, marching and RISING in Solidarity in cities across the US and around the world on starting on Friday 20 January, US Inauguration Day and on Saturday, 21 January.
OBR U.K. is mobilizing at the Women’s March London, across India OBR is joining the national #IWillGoOut campaign, in Copenhagen longtime One Billion Rising organizers are speaking and reading poetry at the third largest event outside of the US, in Manila activists are protesting outside the U.S. embassy, men in Mexico city have organized a solidarity march on Saturday in solidarity with the Women’s Marches worldwide, and Gabriela chapters in DC, New York, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, and LA will be dancing the Philippine OBR dance “Bangon na Sa Rebolusyon” (Rise for Revolution) at all of their protests and marches as they will call to RISE, RESIST and UNITE.
Just Announced: The Poetry of Rising & Resistance Featuring Eve Ensler, 
Kimberlé Crenshaw, Hollis & more!
Busboys and Poets, the African American Policy Forum & V-Day/One Billion Rising present The Poetry of Rising & Resistance, a “Prep Rally” for the Women’s March on Washington. Please join us at the 5th and K location and get ready to march! This event is FREE and open to the public.
When: Friday, 20 January 2017, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Where: Busboys at 5th & K
Arrive early as we are expecting a full house.
Rise, Love, Resist and Dance Against Trump with CODEPINK
Activists with CODEPINK: Women For Peace are organizing three days of Presidential Counter Inauguration activities in Washington, D.C., 19-21 January, including “Break the Chain” flashmobs at Union Station and outside Trump’s Inaugural Balls on Inauguration day.
LEARN more and JOIN the RISE^LOVE^RESIST actions >
Meeting Spot Announced: March with V-Day & One Billion Rising at the Women’s March in D.C.
We are excited to March and RISE together along with Eve Ensler, V-Day Board Member/Co-Founder of the African American Policy Forum Kimberlé Crenshaw and hundreds of V-Day, One Billion Rising, & African American Policy Forum activists at the March!
We will be gathering at Garfield Park, at the intersection of 3rd and G Street SE before the march, so that we can proceed as group.
Please plan to assemble at Garfield Park between 8:30 and 9:30 AM on 21 January. Please note, we are not the only groups meeting at this designated spot, so be sure to look for our signs and banners.
Sign up on our Eventbrite page so that we can easily communicate more details >
#WhyWeMarch; Calling All OBR & V-Day Activists – March/RISE with Eve & Kim Crenshaw in DC
One Billion Rising & V-Day RISING at the Women’s March
On 21 January, One Billion Rising & V-Day activists will march in Washington, D.C. – and in cities across the United States and the world – joining the growing coalition of individuals, organizations, and grassroots groups at the Women’s March:
|
IN DC: We are excited to March and RISE together along with Eve Ensler, V-Day Board Member/Co-Founder of the African American Policy Forum Kimberlé Crenshaw and hundreds of V-Day, One Billion Rising, & African American Policy Forum activists at the March! If you are marching in D.C., we will be gathering at Garfield Park, at the intersection of 3rd and G Street SE before the march, so that we can proceed as group. Please plan to assemble at Garfield Park between 8:30 and 9:30 AM on January 21. Please note, we are not the only groups meeting at this designated spot, so be sure to look for our signs and banners. If you haven’t already, sign up on our Eventbrite page so that we can easily communicate more details and information as we approach the day of. |
Activists are RISING and MARCHING on 21 January in multiple cities across the US and around the world including Santa Fe, London, Copenhagen and more – as well as holding protests on Inauguration day, 20 January.
We Rise, Resist and Refuse a Trump Presidency. We will never normalize him, his cabinet, his rape culture or his violences.
We are RISING Against Racist Patriarchy.
We are RISING in SOLIDARITY with Survivors, with Women Workers and for Mother Earth.
We March under a banner of deep global Solidarity, recognizing that US FOREIGN POLICIES deeply impacts women across the world.
We March for our rights to our bodies, our reproductive rights, & healthcare.
We March in Solidarity with Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants, refugees, Black women, men & children, LGBTQGNC, people of all abilities, and all those Trump has targeted with his rhetoric and hatred.
We March to demand that our offices, streets, schools, homes be safe spaces where violators, harassers, predators and rapists are denounced and stripped of power.
We March to demand accountability for the violent actions and words of world leaders.
We March against resource extraction and the destruction of the climate.
We March TO END American Imperial Aggression for women worldwide.
NO WAR!
We March for an end to racism and xenophobia and to demand freedom of religion.
NO Registries based on religion!
We are RISING:
Against Racist Patriarchy
Against Rape Culture
Against the Exploitation of Women
Against Neo Fascism
Against Neo-Liberalism & Global Imperialism
Against Destructive Capitalism & Corporate Profiteering
Against War Mongering
We are RISING because it is necessary to resist, to disrupt, to incite and mobilize, to arouse, awaken and inspire the artistic revolution needed to keep building a new world a world of equality, freedom, peace and dignity.
“I Call You Body” by Eve Ensler
Each year Eve Ensler pens a new piece to be incorporated into that season’s V-Day Benefit Productions. This year, her piece I Call You Body honors the sacred and valuable work of women around the world, in all its forms, by demanding safe, violence-free workplaces as a part of the 2017 Spotlight Campaign on Violence Against Women in the Workplace.
I Call You Body
I call you bellies and mouths and breasts and
cunts and hips and bums and thighs
I call you muscle blood cells sinew saliva
I call you flesh bone biceps and back
I call you bodies of women
laborers
Bodies of nurses and servers
Farmers and mothers and
caregivers
Bodies that clean up your mess
And wipe your ass
Put salve on your bed sores
Serve your pancakes and bad coffee
At 3am
Bodies that spend each day
loving your kids so you can travel
And give speeches
Bodies that sew the sleeves on your fancy blouses
sweep the floors of the cafeteria where your children learn.
Devoured bodies
Invisible bodies
Unpaid bodies
Bodies that carry 50 kilo sacks of cassava, rice and sugar cane
Barefoot in slippery mud
Bodies who curve now
Bodies who strain
Bodies who bend
Bodies sold over borders
Bodies forced to sleep
in backs of trucks
in dog houses
Under TVs
Migrant bodies
Hungry Bodies
Bodies coerced into buildings about to collapse
Bodies scratched, grabbed, choked punched killed
Exposed to unwanted
unexpected
chemicals
hours
penises
No gloves no mask no protection
From the sun
Or the boss or foreman or
The president
Bodies forced to stand
For hours
Pay docked for peeing
punished for pregnancy
Bodies maimed and shamed
bound and cut
stoned and burned
invaded and degraded
bodies taunted, threatened
bloodied and torn
bodies in the field de calzón
the field of panties
bloody panties
Bodies raging
Bodies ready
Bodies that will not be silenced
or contained
Bodies
finding each other
Bodies
moving
dancing rising
spinning at tyrants and predators in chief
stomping at those who divide us and through
the divisions make us less and weak
reaching towards those who are slandered,
slaughtered, attacked, bullied in the streets
resisting all the bombs the corporate hit men are preparing to unleash
Bodies saying no to your arrogance
no to your hate
Bodies breathing deeply into every
sacred passageway
Bodies dancing safety
dancing freedom
dancing sexy hot
livable wage
dancing dignity integrity
Dancing to feel my body
to know my body
and to touch the outer and inner parameters of yours
I call you body
Temple
Tempest
Rejoice in our bleeding
Revel in our heat
Dance into this landscape
Dance into this dream
Dance into the lifetimes of bodies
found underneath
Dance til I’m oiled,
Dance til I’m liquid,
wild and wet
Dance til I’m ready
Dance til I’m healed, naked
Dance til I begin to see
Dance til I’m back at the beginning
My body is the first line of the new poem
It’s the sacred yes in the face of your doubt
It’s the lap you can fall in
It’s the line you cannot cross
it’s the holy flesh you can trust
My body is every body that says no to
Rape
Rape of our lands
Rape of our rights
Rape of our daughters
Rape of our life
Our life our life
Bodies who will not obey
Who will not be governed
Who chose generosity over the state
Whose country is flesh
Whose flag is bone
Who have a logic and language of their own
Beginning to find a rhythm that cannot be stopped
a step that can be repeated and shared
We have to dance now
do you hear?
We have to dance for our lives
We have to dance for the earth
We have to dance for our sons and
daughters
We have to dance the new world
Can you move your feet?
Can you roll your hips?
Can you lift your arms?
Can you flip your booty?
Can you let out a moan?
from your belly (moan)
from your heart(moan)
from your vagina (moan)
Can you call your body
Call your body
Can you call our bodies home?
RISE 2017!
Image credit: One Billion Rising Bali on Twitter@BALI_OBR
In the face of escalating violence, inequity, and patriarchy across the globe, we are energizing and RISING to end all forms of violence against women and girls.
One Billion Rising: RISE in your community – One Billion Rising activists are deepening and expanding the call for solidarity against the exploitation of women, demanding for the societal underpinnings that allow violence to thrive unchecked to be dismantled, once and for all. Because there can be no REVOLUTION without SOLIDARITY.
RISE, DISRUPT, CONNECT – Learn about the 2017 campaign >
FIND/PLAN a Rising in your community >
WATCH/SHARE Rising Solidarity video >
We will be marching in DC on 21 January.
JOIN the Women’s March on Washington or find a sister march in your community >
V-Day: Say it, stage it – V-Day Activists produce benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer in their communities to raise awareness and funds to end the violence and to shine a spotlight on violence against women in the workplace.
SIGN UP to produce a benefit in your community or college >
ATTEND an event >
Join us in the New Year!