To celebrate International Women’s Day, we are thrilled to announce the release of our latest short film – “Raise the Vibration” featuring voiceover by actor/activist/V-Day Board member Thandie Newton and words by Tony award winning playwright / One Billion Rising and V-Day founder Eve Ensler.
Directed by filmmaker Deborah Anderson (“My Revolution Lives In This Body”) and produced by One Billion Rising’s Ensler, Monique Wilson and Susan Celia Swan. The short reflects and celebrates the One Billion Rising campaign’s 2020 theme of “Raise The Vibration.” It honors all women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence).
It is a call to honor women’s agency over their bodies and their right to be safe and free, a call to move our bodies so that the freedom and energy we shake loose becomes a new energy bringing in a new future. A call to see, cherish, nurture, respect and protect our Mother Earth as we are not separate from her. Her life is our life.
VIEW THE VIDEO
“Raise the Vibration” features images from some of the hundreds of thousands of One Billion Rising events worldwide where activists, youth, survivors and artists take to the streets demanding an end violence against all women and girls. The risings are global, taking place in 180 countries; throughout Africa, Asia and South America. All 29 states in India are Rising. Hundreds of cities, high schools, theaters, towns in Germany, Poland, Italy, & the US are Rising.
“Bodies raging, bodies ready, bodies that will not be contained … bodies moving, dancing … dignity, integrity … dancing to know my body … Dance into this landscape … dance for our sons and daughters, dance the new world,” – Eve Ensler
In the midst of an international wave of right-wing nationalism, white supremacy, fascism, xenophobia misogyny, femicide, homophobia, transphobia, corporate greed and climate destruction, the One Billion Rising actions are a grassroots and global call to amplify the fight for gender, climate, economic and racial justice.
Together, we RISE to free all women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities) from sexual, physical, racial, economic, political, socio-cultural, ideological and climate crisis violence. RISE to end rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual, gender and reproductive oppression, violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities. RISE to end capitalism, colonization, racism, imperialism, war and climate catastrophe.
Jakarta, Indonesia. Photo Credit: @obrjakarta
Kibera-Nairobi, Kenya. Photo Credit: One Billion Rising Kenya
Taos, NM, USA. Photo Credit: Morgan Timms / The Taos News
Our new liberation anthem, “We Are Rising,” is a global hit! The video has been viewed over half a million times and the song has been featured at the center of risings around the world!
We keep rising like the fire of the sun…
One for a billion a billion for one
– Taína Asili, “We Are Rising”
The song is a call to action and a call to RISE against the tides of violence against all women, climate crisis, racism, and corporate greed. The anthem has resonated with activists, with footage already coming in from Myanmar, Italy, US Virgin Islands, Thailand, Philippines, Swaziland, Mexico, Canada, and the United States showing activists, survivors, and community members dancing to it.
Two years after survivors broke the silence around Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior, Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of criminal sexual acts and rape in New York.
On Monday, 24 February, a New York jury found Weinstein guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. Weinstein will have to register as a sex offender and could face up to twenty-five years in prison. He will be sentenced on 11 March.
Now, Weinstein is due to face a criminal case in Los Angeles, where prosecutors filed charges for two incidents that happened over a two-day period. Weinstein is accused of forcible rape, sexual penetration by use of force, and sexual battery by restraint. These crimes carry a potential 28-year prison sentence. While the specifics of the trial are not yet clear considering that Weinstein is now a convicted rapist in New York, the Los Angeles district attorney’s office reported that they were still moving forward with the case. (“Harvey Weinstein to face charges in Los Angeles after guilty verdict in New York”, Sam Levin, The Guardian, 25 February 2020).
With gratitude to every woman who broke the silence, to everyone who said #MeToo, to everyone whose case didn’t make it this far – we see you, we believe you, and we love you. Your voice, your bravery changed the tide and moved us ever closer to justice. We will stand with you and we will fight #UntilTheViolenceStops.
(L) Hamburg, Germany. @one_billion_rising_hamburg (R) Bihar, India. @Sahyogi Ngo
Across the globe, One Billion Risingactivists are RAISING THE VIBRATION through music, chanting, dance, drumming, original monologues, and more, staging actions and events that reflect the intersecting challenges, needs and desires of all women and girls and their communities.
Risings are taking place during the month of February and leading up to 8 March, #InternationalWomensDay. The Risings are grassroots and global, led by youth, survivors, artists, and activists, who determine how and why they rise, with and for their communities.
The One Billion Rising movement is vast and textured, and each year it grows, deepening a grassroots commitment to end all forms of violence – against women and girls and our planet.
NEW: Tell Us The Story Of Your Rising – Raise the Vibration Blog Series
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. You have made ending sexual violence a front-page issue, never to be silenced again.
Beginning today, we are inviting OBR activists worldwide to write blogs about their events and submit them for publishing on onebillionrising.org, amplifying the voices of the movement.
Some prompts to get your started, keep in mind as you write your piece –
What inspired you to Rise and get involved?
What issues did your Rising spotlight? How?
What are critical issues affecting women and girls in your community?
How did you Raise the Vibration?
Did the theme infuse new energy, raise the stakes artistically and politically?
What was the impact on the community, the organizers, your fellow activists?
Where did you rise, why did you pick that location?
Please keep your piece to under 1000 words. Submit your piece HERE. Thank you, we cannot wait to read your stories!
DOCUMENT & SHARE YOUR RISINGS
One Billion Rising Zimbabwe
Over the past years, on or around 14 February, thousands of Risings took place around the world, in hundreds of cities, in virtually every country on earth. We have made history. In 2020, we RISE and RAISE THE VIBRATION and we want the world to witness every sight and sound of this extraordinary global action. HERE’S HOW!
Share everything you do for One Billion Rising. 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 #RaiseTheVibration #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.
Activists, survivors and youth around the globe are Raising the Vibration for #1BillionRising 2020.
This is a snapshot of the thousands of One Billion Rising creative resistance events. Risings are taking place during the month of February and leading up to 8 March, #InternationalWomensDay. Over a hundred cities in Italy, Poland, Germany, and the Philippines respectively are Rising. Every state in India. Over 500 V-Day Risings in the United States. The Risings are grassroots and global, led by youth, survivors, artists, and activists, who determine how and why they rise, with and for their communities.
One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women in human history. One Billion Rising activists worldwide mobilize, engage, awaken and join people across the planet to end violence against all women and girls. 1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we Rise – in countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We Rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We Rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.
The rise of misogynist, authoritarian regimes the world over – from the United States to the Philippines, India to Brazil – has recalibrated work of the movement, further escalating the urgency with which we feel compelled to fight for gender, climate, economic and racial justice.
Activists are Rising up, through artistic and political resistance actions to end rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual, gender and reproductive oppression, violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities.
RAISING THE VIBRATION through action, art, connection, imagination and love.
Ready to RISE? Join us! #RaiseTheVibration
Plan a RISING, a V-Day benefit production, or a CITY OF JOY screening or house party in your college or community.
One Billion Rising activists are taking to the streets across the globe amplifying some of the most pressing issues that intersect with violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence). Risings are Raising the Vibration, amplifying the voices of survivors, youth, and communities globally, making lasting impact through creative vision and voice.
Risings are planned in over 180 countries. India is rising in all 29 states, hundreds of risings are planned in Poland, Germany, Italy and the Philippines respectively. Across Europe, the European Women’s Lobby has launched a massive OBR social media campaign. Activists are amplifying local issues and across the board are making the connections to climate change and violence against women and girls.
We’ve begun a global schedule of events, and will be adding more – check it out here(list in formation).
How are you RISING? Tell us on social media and tag us – #RaiseTheVibration and #1BillionRising so we can share your Rising with the world!
Women Workers ROSE in NYC This Week
Photo Credit: Kisha Bari
Joining the thousands of One Billion Rising creative resistance actions happening all over the world, on 3 February, restaurant workers, Eve, Times Up members and actresses Carmen LoBue and Alysia Reiner, social justice artist/musician Taína Asili, One Billion Rising, One Fair Wage, allies, and 25+ other groups RAISED THE VIBRATION and staged a public self defense training in response to Governor Cuomo’s New Year’s Eve announcement that he would enact One Fair Wage – a full minimum wage with tips included – for all tipped laborers except restaurant workers.
It is the first in a series of WOMEN WORKERS RISING mass self-defense actions, organized by One Billion Rising and One Fair Wage. In New York, restaurant workers are primarily women of color who suffer from three times the poverty rate of workers in non-tipped industries. Because restaurant servers have to rely on customer tips to pay their rent and feed their families, these women endure the highest rates of sexual harassment in any industry.
“When I worked in a Michelin Star restaurant, I would have some customers who would ask me to sit on their lap. I would have male co-workers, who were also my superiors, who would flirt or try to get me to sleep with them,” said Carmen LoBue, actress and member of Time’s Up.
A letter signed by nearly 30 advocacy and women’s rights organizations was delivered to the Governor, urging him to eliminate the subminimum wage for restaurant workers in New York. Organizations who co-signed the letter include One Fair Wage, One Billion Rising, Make the Road New York, Citizen Action of New York, National Employment Law Project, National Women’s Law Center, New York Civil Liberties Union, The New York Women’s Foundation, Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York (ROC-NY), New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault and more.
NEW! Mujer Valiente/Like A Woman Spanish Language Video Released
The video to MUJER VALIENTE, the Spanish language translation of “Like a Woman” by singer songwriter Ryan Amador performed by Kike Jiménez (finalist on The Voice Mexico) and Sean O’Connell (Singer/Songwriter and translator of Mujer Valiente and Spanish Language version of Break The Chain), has been released today! Produced by One Billion Rising Mexico global coordinator Andrés Naime and featuring testimonies about the women in their lives by comedian Manu NNa, playwright Victor Barba, personal trainer Cisse Occean Andoeza, actor Andrés Durán, chef Andrés De León, activist Quique Galdeano, artist and activist Thomas Fléchel, politician Alejandro Orozco, and Andrés Naime.
“Mujer Valiente/Like a Woman” are part of V-Day’s initiative to create provocative art pieces that inspire people to act.
“Many of us young people believe there’s no such thing as misogyny or gender-based violence anymore, when really it’s as strong as ever. Every day there are new cases of missing women, many sold, murdered, or victims of violence at home. It is so important that we create consciousness and awareness that these are real and actual problems that cannot be ignored. It’s an honor to be a voice for this amazing cause.” – Kike Jiménez, singer of “Mujer Valiente.”
We invite men everywhere to join the campaign, upload your own “Like a Woman” and “Mujer Valiente” tributes, reflecting your appreciation for the women in your life while also considering what it means to be a man in a world where one in three women are directly affected by sexual violence.
WOMEN RESTAURANT WORKERS & ALLIES PROTEST GOV. CUOMO’S EXCLUSION OF RESTAURANTS FROM TIPPED WORKER EXECUTIVE ACTION BY ENGAGING IN MASS PUBLIC SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING
‘Women Workers Rising’ Action By One Fair Wage and One Billion Rising Will Feature Women Celebrities and Performances Standing in Solidarity For One Fair Wage & Safe & Dignified Workplaces
In response to Governor Cuomo’s New Year’s Eve announcement that he would enact One Fair Wage – a full minimum wage with tips on top – for all tipped workers except restaurant workers, women restaurant workers and their allies will stage a mass public self-defense training in front of the Governor’s office. Playwright/Founder of V-Day/One Billion Rising Eve Ensler, One Billion Rising, actress Carmen LoBue, social justice artist/musician Taína Asili, and the Resistance Revival Chorus will be joining One Fair Wage members and allies in demanding One Fair Wage and safe and dignified workplaces for all.
Given that New York State’s subminimum wage for tipped workers results in a 70% female workforce having to tolerate the highest rates of sexual harassment of any industry in order to feed their families in tips, women in the restaurant industry are demanding to be included in the One Fair Wage executive action. As long as they have a subminimum wage, they must learn to defend themselves from sexual violence in the workplace in order earn a living in tips.
One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman states, “Even though he announced that he would review the subminimum wage in 2017 specifically in order to address sexual harassment in the restaurant industry, Governor Cuomo instead gave One Fair Wage to other tipped workers and excluded restaurant workers – thus leaving them vulnerable to the highest rates of sexual harassment of any industry because of their reliance on tips. At a time that Pres. Trump is taking tipped workers’ federal rights a way, instead of rolling over to the power of the National Restaurant Association, Gov. Cuomo should follow through and enact One Fair Wage for all.”
Eve Ensler of One Billion Rising says, “I am rising on February 3 to honor and protect restaurant workers, to demand that they receive one fair wage which they so richly deserve and which will help protect them from sexual abuse on the job. This Women Workers Rising action joins the thousands of One Billion Rising creative resistance actions taking place throughout the US and the world, where women are rising up on the stage, in the streets, and in front of government offices, to demand changes in the policies and culture that sustain violence and inequality. We will rise until the violence stops.”
WHAT: Mass Public Self-Defense Training by Restaurant Workers & Allies WHEN: Monday, 3 February 2020, 12:00PM WHERE: Governor Cuomo’s New York City Office – 633 3rd Avenue, New York, NY, USA
Across the globe, V-Day, One Billion Rising and City of Joy activists are rising up, through artistic and political resistance actions to end rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual, gender and reproductive oppression, violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities; Raising the vibration through art, action, and solidarity.
Want to Get Involved?RISE 2020: Raise the Vibration, plan a RISING, a V-DAY benefit production, or a CITY OF JOY screening or house party in your college or community.
Meet Taína Asili, the Latina Musician Behind One Billion Rising’s Viral New Music Video
“We Are Rising,” Women’s Liberation Anthem Released Ahead of V-Day In Collaboration With One Billion Rising, Has Already Been Viewed More Than Half A Million Times
Renowned Puerto Rican singer and social justice musician Taína Asili has just released the song “We Are Rising” in a collaboration with One Billion Rising, the global activist campaign to end rape and sexual violence against all women, founded by playwright/activist Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues, The Apology). Directed, written and performed by Asili, the song is the centerpiece of One Billion Rising’s 2020 campaign, promoting collective energy, creative resistance, and solidarity to rise against the tides of violence against all women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities), climate crisis, racism and corporate greed. Ensler, together with V-Day/One Billion Rising’s Susan Celia Swan and Monique Wilson, also serves as executive producer for the video which has already been viewed more than half a million times across online platforms. Taína will perform the song for the first time live at the Women Workers Rising Action on February 3.
One Billion Rising is active in over 200 countries and the video features activist footage from Manila to Whanganui, New Zealand to Narok, Kenya and many more locations – along with studio footage from the recording session. It is a call to action, to dance, to RISE.
“Music has always been the heartbeat of our movements for liberation. With “We Are Rising” I offer women around the world a new anthem to help us tap into the energy, strength, courage and wisdom needed to usher in a new era of justice and healing,” said Taína Asili about the new song and video.
On February 3 in NYC, Taína will perform “We Are Rising” for the first time live at a Women Workers Rising Self Defense action taking place in front of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office to demand One Fair Wage for tipped restaurant workers. (February 3, Noon, 633 3rd Ave.)
Taína Asili is a Puerto Rican singer, bandleader and activist carrying on the tradition of her ancestors, fusing past and present struggles into one soulful and defiant voice. Taína creatively weaves her artwork into the fabric of movements for social change. In 2017, she performed at the historic Women’s March on Washington, and later released her music video “No Es Mi Presidente,” which premiered in Rolling Stone and received national acclaim. The Huffington Post named her in a list of in a list of “12 Freedom Fighting Bands To Get You Through the Trump Years”, and Billboard Magazine featured her in a list of “11 Songs of Protest & Resistance by Latino Artists.” Over her 20-year career, Taína has performed around the globe, sharing the stage with renowned artists and activists such as Alicia Keys, Janelle Monae, Talib Kweli, Toshi Reagon, Angela Davis, Cornel West, and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine.
One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence) in human history. The campaign, which launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS.
Twenty one 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 those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence).
Since 1998, The Vagina Monologues and other works have been performed across the world by local V-Day activists, raising over $120 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 1300 women leaders.
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.
In 2020, together we will RAISE THE VIBRATION through Action, Art, Connection, Imagination, and Love as survivors, activists, youth create V-Day benefits, One Billion Rising and Raise the Vibration creative resistance events across the planet.
Together, we RISE to free all women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities) from sexual, physical, racial, economic, political, socio-cultural, ideological and climate crisis violence. RISE to end rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual, gender and reproductive oppression, and violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities. RISE to end capitalism, colonization, racism, imperialism, war and climate catastrophe.
WE ARE RISING – New Liberation Anthem & Accompanying Video Released
Welcoming in the New Year, we are thrilled to share the NEW “We Are Rising” music video. Directed by social justice artist Taína Asili – who also wrote and performed the song – the video features studio footage from the recording session and activist footage from One Billion Rising actions all over the globe. It is a call to action, to dance, to RISE.
The song celebrates our collective energy, creative resistance, and solidarity as we RISE against the tides of violence against all women, climate crisis, racism and corporate greed.
31 December is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2019 tax return. V-Day is a California 501(c)(3) public charity and is one of the Top-Rated organizations on both. Charity Navigator and Guidestar.
2019 was a powerful year in our movement that saw grassroots activists pushing boundaries and engaging in dialogue through an intersectional lens, with art and activism always at the forefront.
V-Day, One Billion Rising, and City of Joy activists around the world escalated the urgency to fight for gender, climate, economic and racial justice while tirelessly working to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery. Activists are Rising against a rising tide of right-wing nationalism, white supremacy, fascism, tyranny, hatred of and fear of immigrants, misogyny, femicide, homophobia, transphobia, corporate greed, and climate destruction.
Your friendship, activism, and support has powered an unstoppable movement supporting grassroots anti-violence organizations and activists, opening safe houses, and sustaining domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers. It is also bringing about legislation supporting women and girls. Active in over 200 countries, having raised $120 million, V-Day is a global phenomenon.
V-Day Thailand; Youth Rising India
In 2019: Eve’s latest work, The Apology, a best seller, sparked a necessary dialogue on sexual assault, accountability, and transformation. It has engaged media across the globe and sparked a great deal of dialogue about what the anatomy of a true apology is. In the new year, its reach will grow as it’s released in France, Germany, Brazil, Taiwan, and in Arabic. We created three new songs for the movement this year. “Dismantle,” by Duo Charity Croff And Jacob Denzel Of Archduke (Featuring Taylor Iman And Jenee Jones) invited Men – and everyone – to dismantle the patriarchy. On International Women’s Day, we released “Like a Woman” by Ryan Amador (produced by Hannah Rubinstein, a music video directed by Sekou Luke) calling men to recognize and celebrate women’s leadership, and to join the movement to end gender-based violence. And just this month, we released “We Are Rising” by Taina Asili – a liberation anthem – calling us to RISE against tides of violence against women, climate crisis, racism, and corporate greed. Thousands of One Billion Rising actions and V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer amplified the epidemic of global sexual abuse and efforts to end it across the globe. At City of Joy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the 16th class has just graduated, turning their pain into power that will surely spark change on the grassroots level. In Kabul, women at the City of Knowledge are breaking barriers as they educate themselves to create better futures for themselves, and in turn their families. Through all of these campaigns and actions, men are grappling with patriarchy, engaging in dialogue that once seemed impossible.
City of Joy 16th Graduation; Eve at TEDWomen 2019
Support #VDay, the global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence).
As we move into 2020 and enter a new decade, we are filled with gratitude for all that you have given and all that you do.
We stand together in solidarity, ready to Raise the Vibration through Action, Art, Connection, Imagination and Love.
P.S. If your gift is already on its way, thank you!
V-Day is a California 501(c)(3) public charity and is one of the Top-Rated organizations on both. Charity Navigator and Guidestar. 31 December is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2019 tax return
Yet again, our criminal justice system is failing black women and girls.
Chrystul Kizer, a black teenager from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is facing life in prison for defending herself against her abuser, Randall Volar, III, a 34-year-old white male. When Chrystul was 17, Volar began sexually assaulting and trafficking her and made child pornography of her, as well as other girls. Despite the fact that the local police was investigating Volar for abusing other girls at the time of his death, Chrystul is currently facing the prospect of living the rest of her life behind bars. She is being held on a million dollar bond.
As a movement of anti-violence activists we must support Chrystul and pressure the District Attorney on the case – Michael Graveley – to drop these charges. Chrystul acted in self-defense against a man who preyed on her. She is currently a 19-year-old teenager. Our justice system must not punish girls like Chrystul; instead we must look at her situation holistically, and understand the institutional racism and inequity that underpins her experience and that of other black girls and women like her. Chrystul deserves the space and time to heal from her abuse. She should not be punished for defending her life.
In the midst of an international wave of right-wing nationalism, white supremacy, fascism, xenophobia misogyny, femicide, homophobia, transphobia, corporate greed and climate destruction, the One Billion Rising actions are a grassroots and global call to amplify the fight for gender, climate, economic and racial justice.
