“Eve Ensler, The Art of Turning Pain Into Power” by James Lecesne (The Dramatist)
This article originally appeared in the January/February 2019 issue of The Dramatist and is posted with permission.
Archive for the "V-Day" Category
Turning Pain Into Power: CITY OF JOY + Talkbacks with Eve & Christine in LA & Oakland in February
Photo Credit: Paula Allen
Join us for two screenings of the award-winning documentary film CITY OF JOY and talkbacks with Eve and Christine this February in Los Angeles and Oakland, CA.
CITY OF JOY, directed by first-time director Madeleine Gavin, follows the first class of women at a revolutionary leadership center in eastern Congo called City of Joy, from which the film derives its title, and weaves their journey as burgeoning leaders with that of the center’s founders (a devout Congolese doctor Dr. Denis Mukwege (2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner), women’s rights activist Christine Schuler-Deschryver (Director of City of Joy and V-Day Congo) and radical feminist Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues and Founder of V-Day/One Billion Rising) – three individuals who imagined a place where women who have suffered horrific rape and abuse can heal and become powerful voices of change for their country.
A story about the profound resilience of the human spirit, CITY OF JOY witnesses Congolese women’s fierce will to reclaim hope, even when so much of what was meaningful to them has been stripped away.
LOS ANGELES – TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12
Presented by The Hammer Museum
SCREENING OF CITY OF JOY
Followed by a Talkback with Eve Ensler & Christine Schuler-Deschryver & V-Day Board Member/African American Policy Forum Co-Founder Kimberlé Crenshaw
FREE Admission: tickets are required and available at the Box Office one hour before the program. One ticket per person; first come, first served.
For info about attending this screening, please visit:
https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2019/02/city-of-joy-with-qa/
OAKLAND – WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13
Presented by One Billion Rising, Bay Area Rising & V-Day
TURNING PAIN TO POWER: AT THE GRAND LAKE THEATER
An Evening of Revolutionary Film, Talk, Drumming And Dance To End Violence Against Women with Eve Ensler, Christine Schuler-Deschryver, Aimee Allison, Afia Walking Tree & Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company
$5 Tickets. Limited FREE tickets available. Purchase tix + info at
https://turningpaintopower.eventbrite.com
In Oakland, immediately following the screening, audience members will be invited to RISE and participate in the One Billion Rising “Break the Chain” dance, as well as a Q&A with City of Joy Co-Founders Christine and Eve and She The People Founder Aimee Allison. Reflecting Bay Area Rising’s intersection of art, spirituality, and activism, the event will feature local dance, and music, including a drum procession led by Afia Walking Tree and performances by the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company.
The story of City of Joy is the story of love and community. It is the story of what happens when women who are survivors of sexual violence live together in community, heal themselves and each other, and create their destiny on their own terms. The transformation that is seen at City of Joy is profound – the most abused become the most powerful who turn poison into medicine, isolation into community, shame into self-love, silence into story. This is the story of what happens when women have time to heal and truly release and transform trauma, when women are loved and held and nurtured and treated with deepest kindness, dignity and intention.
Join us!
#TurningPainIntoPower
Take Action:
LEARN more about the City of Joy
DOWNLOAD the Screening Guide, Plan a House Party or Screening
SPREAD THE WORD on Social Media, SHARE The Trailer
DONATE to the City of Joy in DR Congo, Support Women in Congo
RISE 2019
In 2019, 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 a theatrical experience AND an ARTISTIC UPRISING. Transform Radical Spaces. Raise awareness and funds for rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters & organizations who are serving survivors. Spotlight Women in Prison and Detention Centers. Center the voices of the most marginalized on your stage, harnessing the power of art to create space for critical conversations and voices.
Video by Kim Rosen
To welcome in 2019, the girls of the Tasaru Rescue Center/V-Day Safe House for the Girls in Narok, Kenya performed “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, followed by a traditional Maasai dance and song celebrating girl’s education and an end to the violence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and early childhood marriage.
Plan a RISING, a V-Day, or a CITY OF JOY screening or house party in your college or community.
V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community
One Billion RISING: Rise In Solidarity – RISE in your community, for your community
City of Joy: Turn Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo
When women take to the streets and the stage incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.
#SayItStageIt #1BillionRising #UntilTheViolenceStops #TurnPainIntoPower
What a V20 Year!
Our 20th year was marked by fierce art and activism, fueled by your generous support and passionate commitment to ending violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence). Activists fought tirelessly to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery. Together, we transformed radical spaces, created space for activists to share their testimonies of resistance, and centralized new voices foregrounding the most marginalized groups and activists in communities everywhere. And the year ended as we celebrated our beloved friend, V-Man and co-creator of City of Joy, Dr. Denis Mukwege, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize with our Yazidi sister-activist Nadia Murad, a defining moment for the anti-gender-based violence movement.
A look back through some V20 video moments…
My Revolution Lives In This Body featuring words by Eve, voice by V-Board member Rosario Dawson & direction by Deborah Anderson
Two short videos above celebrated V20. The first video celebrated V-Day, OBR & City of Joy and the second celebrates OBR 2018 & Risings Across the Globe! With gratitude to V-Day and One Billion Rising activists around the world who rose 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 these videos a reality.
CITY OF JOY, directed by Madeleine Gavin, released in September on Netflix.
As we look ahead to 2019 and we reflect upon our 20th year and the V-movement that we’ve created together, we hope you will continue to stand with us, to courageously organize, and remain undeterred. We are always with you, and our gratitude is endless.
31 December is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2018 tax return. V-Day is a top-rated charity on Guidestar and Charity Navigator.
Support the Movement to End Violence Against All Women and Girls.
DONATE to V-Day >
Our movement was made for this moment. Your support makes our work possible.
Please consider giving to V-Day this season.
P.S. If your gift is already on its way, thank you!
Global Activism, Until The Violence Stops
Dearest Activists, Friends & Supporters,
It’s been an unbelievable year. Our 20th year was marked by fierce activism, which turned pain into power and brought our movement even further along in the fight to end gender-based violence. Each day, we were moved by your passionate commitment to ending violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence). By your ingenuity. By your courage.
20 years since Eve’s play The Vagina Monologues shattered taboos, the stakes could not be higher. V-Day and One Billion Rising activists around the world are taking the call to heart, working tirelessly to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery.
Your friendship, activism and support has fueled an unmatched movement that is bravely supporting grassroots anti-violence organizations and activists, opening safe houses, and sustaining domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers as they received unprecedented numbers of survivors seeking help. It is also bringing about legislation supporting women and girls. Active in over 200 countries, having raised well over $100 million, V-Day is a global force.
This year, our work has deconstructed long-held assumptions surrounding gender and identity, centralizing the experiences of survivors and women who face marginalization and creating dialogue about patriarchy, its underpinnings, and what it creates in its aftermath.
Through countless V-Day benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Risings, and CITY OF JOY screenings, activists are working on a range of issues across the globe. By taking an intersectional lens to the most pressing injustices impacting their safety, rights and economic viability, activists are connecting the dots and demonstrating to others that gender-based violence is not just a woman’s issue, but a structural and systemic problem that must be dismantled at every level of society.
Through our 2019 Spotlight on Women in Prison, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women, and by inviting activists to amplify and lift up the often unheard and excluded voices of survivors, activists and groups in their communities, V-Day activists are confronting issues that have too long been ignored.
And there has also been SO MUCH JOY! As we write, a graduation is taking place, bringing the number of women who have healed themselves and gone through the City of Joy to return to their communities in Congo as leaders to 1200. The City of Joy continues to serve as a transformational center and continues to be celebrated widely with the global release of the film CITY OF JOY on Netflix; the V-World Farm is growing and thriving. And, our beloved friend, V-Man and co-creator of City of Joy, Dr. Denis Mukwege, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with our Yazidi sister-activist Nadia Murad. Their achievement was a defining moment for the anti-gender-based violence movement and we couldn’t be prouder!
Photo Credit: Paula Allen
As we look forward to 2019 and we reflect upon our 20th year and the V-movement that we’ve created together, we hope you will continue to stand with us, to courageously hold the space for this work, and remain undeterred. We are always with you, and our gratitude is endless.
Support the Movement to End Violence Against All Women and Girls.
DONATE to V-Day >
Our movement was made for this moment. Your support makes our work possible.
Please consider giving to V-Day this season.
With all our V-love,
Eve, Susan, Christine, Monique, Purva, Tony, Carl, Kristina, Leila, & Anju
P.S. If your gift is already on its way, thank you!
31 December is the last day to make charitable donations in order to claim them on your 2018 tax return. V-Day is a top-rated charity on Guidestar and Charity Navigator.
“Women and Incarceration” by RS
Spotlight Blog Series on Women in Prison & Detention
V-Day’s Spotlight on Women in Prison, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women has been created in collaboration with Kathy Boudin and Cheryl Wilkins and formerly incarcerated women and activists working on prison reform and prison abolition. In this blog series you will hear from women whose lives have been profoundly impacted by the prison and detention system on issues as far ranging as: trauma and abuse; shackling; transgender experiences; dignity; health and mental health; experiences of long term inmates; the youth/school to prison pipeline; the experiences of mothers and children navigating the immigration system; higher education in prison; and reentry and technology.
The Women’s Media Center’s recent article, “Women’s Incarceration: Frequent Starting Point is Childhood Sexual Abuse,” looks at the overshadowed story of the role trauma plays in the lives of women and girls in the criminal justice system. The movement that is spiraling forward led by women who are currently and formerly incarcerated is challenging these unjust laws and systems together. We can all contribute to an unstoppable movement that overcomes the mass incarceration of women and girls by starting with understanding that often the root cause of why women enter the prison system is the trauma and abuse that they have experienced. It could be any of us.
“If they come for me in the morning, they will come for you in the night.” ― Angela Y. Davis
Trauma and Abuse
30 November 2018
- Mass incarceration is the social justice issue of our time. The incarceration rate has quadrupled in the past 40 years: 65 million people with criminal records, 4 million under probation, 1.7 million children with an incarcerated parent. Mass incarceration is about more than people in prison; it is about the structures, laws and strategies that drive a racialized justice system, intersecting with class and gender.
- Why are women the fastest growing population to enter prison? That is the million dollar question, that should be addressed and scrutinized more thoroughly. In this 10-part series we will explore and inform the reader about the mass incarceration of women and girls. In this first blog we will highlight the effects of trauma and abuse.
- Although 93% of those incarcerated are men, the incarceration rate for women has soared 800% in 30 years. Today 1.2 million women – mostly poor mothers of color – are under criminal justice supervision. One woman incarcerated has an exponential impact, burdening communities and families. More broadly, women in communities directly impacted by mass incarceration carry multiple burdens that oftentimes leaves them ill-equipped to deal with the needed responsibilities of being a primary caretaker of their children. Substance and alcohol abuse are often times utilize as coping mechanisms to escape the mundane realities of poverty, while other women enter unhealthy relationships due to low self-esteem, economic disparity, or generational abuse.
Recent studies have linked the rise of women being incarcerated to their exposure to trauma and abuse starting at a very young age. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study Criminal Justice Article, Pipeline to Prison[1], mirrors my childhood experiences where trauma and abuse was the number one factor that caused me to go to prison.
I was one of those young girls who experienced trauma and abuse at a young age. When I was 11 years old, I was uprooted from a loving home with my grandmother, to a home where verbal, physical, and emotional abuse occurred daily from my mother and her boyfriend, who were both addicted to drugs and alcohol. Being vulnerable and unsure of my place in the world left me with the feeling, if my mother didn’t love me who would. At the age of thirteen I tried to escape the abuse by running away. After living on the streets for several months, I met a 22 year old girl who took me in, but unbeknownst to me she forced me to have sex with her. I was not attracted to girls at the time but with no job or money this was my way of paying for food and rent. Throughout the year that I stayed with her, there would be hell to pay and as they say, “I jumped out of the frying pan into the fire”. She also sold me to men who sexually abused me in exchange for money and drugs. Funny how life works, I became the very thing I was running from and like my mother, I turned to drugs to numb the pain. Ultimately, I got tired of the sexual abuse and returned to the lesser of two evils, rationalizing, I would rather be beaten and screamed at than used as a sex toy; but upon returning my mother surprised me and called the police. I was hauled off to Spofford Juvenile Detention Center and for the next 3 years I was bounced around from psychiatric centers to group homes, none of which addressed the root causes of my issue. Sadly, that stint only lasted 2 months because I was older and expected to be an adult, when the only experience I had was sexually pleasing a man. I was forced to take care of my younger brother and clean up my mother’s house. The extra responsibilities and the abuse were more than I could bare and once again I was back on the streets wanting to escape the abuse. This way of life lasted only two months before I was arrested at the age of 17 for murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison.
My first few years in prison I tried to make sense of my life up until that point by asking these questions:
- How did I go from the abused to the abuser?
- Why couldn’t my mother love me?
- Why didn’t the court systems protect me from my drug and alcohol addicted mother and her boyfriend?
- Why couldn’t the doctors see that I was a broken child, whose wounds ran deeper than the sentence I received?
Prisons is no place to fight your demons, in fact, I had my first fight a month after I arrived. I was walking down the corridor still in my own little world singing a tune when I woman almost twice my size came out of her cell screaming at me, “shut the fuck up, who do you think you are waking people up bitch.” I was startled and before I could apologize she lunged at me with a metal afro pick and struck me across my face. That was my introduction to realizing that prison is full with women who were broken just like me.
I was one of the youngest women to enter a maximum security state prison and the youngest woman to receive a 50 year sentence. I came to the conclusion that this is my home for the next 50 years and I will probably end up dying in here. The state forced me to attend school and surprisingly I gravitated towards it. Books allowed me an opportunity to dream and envision a life that I never knew. I travelled the world, learning about different cultures and the more I learned, the more I saw how women were treated badly, particularly poor women and women of color. For the first time, I was able to forgive my mom, who was a single parent raising 5 kids, one with special needs. My thoughts of her changed from seeing her as a frustrated, angry, bitter woman, to a scared, fragile, little girl who was not capable of dealing with life so she used drugs and alcohol to escape. After graduating from college, I spent the rest of my time in prison, doing a lot of introspective work on myself and also working in the parenting center, assisting mothers who unfortunately was just like my mother and needed to figure out where to start the process of becoming a better mother, sister, daughter, woman, community member. I started with being accountable for my transgressions and forgiving myself. After spending 39 years in prison, I was finally released 60 days ago and I have wholesome friends and family in my life.
As I reflect on my life now from outside of prison, I shared my life with so many women who like myself were affected by trauma. But also, we were not and are not the helpless, wounded people that define us solely as victims. I worked with other women building an AIDS program, creating and teaching parenting classes; other women created a family violence program and many of us younger people created a program to talk with at risk youth. If it’s possible, please understand that we can be badly damaged by trauma and in need healing, but part of that healing process is about recognizing our strengths and being able to do positive things.
– RS
RS was arrested at age 17, served 39 years in prison, and recently came home at the age of 56. She is busy building a new life and being a mother, doing all the things a person has to take care of after 39 years in prison, including making a contribution to issues faced by women impacted by incarceration.
[1] http://www.womensmediacenter.com/news-features/womens-incarceration-frequent-starting-point-is-childhood-abuse
Women at City of Joy Send Congratulations to Nobel Peace Prize Winners: V-Rage & Rise
Women at City of Joy Congratulate Dr. Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad on Nobel Peace Prize
On 10 December in Oslo, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded to our brother, partner, and friend, Dr. Denis Mukwege and our sister-activist Nadia Murad. Eve Ensler and Christine Schuler Deschryver (who together with Dr. Mukwege co-founded the City of Joy) will attend the ceremony.
The women at City of Joy filmed a congratulatory message! In the video, they congratulate Dr. Mukwege and Nadia, and thank Dr. Mukwege for the work he has done for them in Congo and for dedicating the award to them. Click here to see the video (best viewed on mobile phone).
In the lead up to the ceremony and throughout V-Season, we encourage activists to hold community gatherings and house parties to screen the documentary CITY OF JOY. For more information on how to host a screening, check out our film guide.
V-Rage and Rise
As 2018 approaches its end, there is so much to RAGE about, and so much to RISE for! Through it all, we remain present in reflecting on the necessary work that must be done to bring forth revolutionary change.
Today, a war rages on women and girls, and all those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence. Our bodies, our safety and our futures are at stake. V-Rage & Rise will be a space for us to read articles and view videos that remind us that if ever there was a moment to keep going in the fight to end violence against all women and girls, it is now.
Join us in spreading the word, centralizing the experiences of those who face systemic and societal violence, and holding those in power accountable. SHARE and POST V-Rage & Rise news on social media and tag with the hashtag #VRageAndRise. Let’s create a momentum with our voice, call your government representatives, take part in grassroots actions, and support your fellow activists in continuing the necessary work to end violence against all women and girls.
#1BillionRising + #16 DaysOfActivism to End Violence Against All Women & Girls
Risings all around the world are taking place during the 16 Days of Activism. Check out the posts including images and info about South Africa Rising, DRC Rising and Philippines Rising. Read the One Billion Rising launch post >
Thinking about 2019? Plan a V-Day, A Rising or a Screening!
V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community
One Billion RISING: Rise In Solidarity – RISE in your community, for your community
City of Joy: Turn Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo
When women take to the streets and the stage incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.
#RiseResistUnite #1BillionRising #UntilTheViolenceStops #TurnPainIntoPower
Give Joy
As we enter the holiday season, abundance abounds. Women’s leadership is celebrated in the news and is more necessary than ever. Over 1100 graduates of the City of Joy are leading in their communities, shaping the future of Congo with their vision, while our beloved Dr. Denis Mukwege has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his path-making work with survivors of sexual violence in the Congo, including co-founding the City of Joy.
There is so much to celebrate and now, more than ever, we invite you to Give Joy.
Join us.
The City of Joy is a place where women turn their pain into power. A place where inner and outer evolution is evident. A place that restores women’s sense of agency over their lives as they learn real, practical life skills to feed their futures, and connects them to the global V-Day movement, one billion strong. From the return of warmth and joy into women’s lives, to a reconnection to their bodies, to the feeling of empowerment each woman feels when she masters a new skill or acquires life-changing knowledge, the City of Joy gives women a platform to transform their pasts into fuel for a revolution of the mind, body, and community.
A woman who comes through the City of Joy is forever changed by it. She laughs more, she leads more, she gives more. Give Joy, donate today.
City of Joy is V-Day’s philosophy in action – a project in constant motion, born from the vision of local women survivors, run by Congolese, and grounded in the central tenet that community and love can be transformational, especially for those who have seemingly lost everything.
“Love is the most precious and contagious thing we see in the life of every person who lives and works at City of Joy. It is that thing and secret which triggers change at City of Joy.” – Christine Schuler Deschryver (Co-founder/Directer of City of Joy and Director of V-Day Congo)
Over 1100 women have graduated to date, with the next graduation scheduled for late December. Over 1100 women who have been educated, healed, and nurtured. Since the beginning of the program these women have released massive trauma and horrific memories. And they have experienced pure joy – dancing, singing, learning and leading in community, no longer stigmatized for being raped but instead acting as forces of energy and determination.
They are teachers, journalists, business entrepreneurs, initiators of collectives, restaurants owners, and farmers, They advocate on sexual violence, volunteer in a self-created recruiting network for new candidates at City of Joy. Some are students, immigration workers, tailors, and herbalists. And other graduates are employed in the V-World Farm. The list goes on.
These are women who will not only shape the destiny of Congo’s future, but will play a pivotal role in the global movement to end gender violence.
Photo Credit: Paula Allen for V-Day
The City of Joy and V-Day’s Congo related work would not be possible without the generosity and love of countless individuals around the world.
Your generous donation is the wind at their backs, helping young Congolese women transform their pain into power. Women leaving the City of Joy have had the opportunity to heal from their emotional wounds, live in community, recognize their leadership potential and gain valuable skills they can apply to their lives, future ventures and engagement in civic life. The transformation is breathtaking.
Support the urgent work to end violence against women and girls in the Congo. Your trust, generosity and vision make our movement possible.
Want to learn more about the City of Joy?
WATCH the Documentary Film on Netflix
DOWNLOAD the Screening Guide, Plan a House Party or Screening
SPREAD THE WORD on Social Media, SHARE The Trailer
DONATE to the City of Joy in DR Congo, Support Women in Congo
LET’S RISE
As we write, One Billion Rising activists in Italy, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, and Cameroon are planning One Billion Rising launch events to take place during the international 16 Days of Activism, between 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and 10 December, Human Rights Day.
In response to our political climate, the prominence of fascist and misogynistic leaders, and the urgency to work together to assure a better future for all, OBR and V-Day activists are working to amplify the voices of women everywhere and centralize the most marginalized through Risings and other acts of creative resistance. Through this work, communities across the globe are harnessing the power of the movement to create a space for critical conversations, representation, and necessary change and shed light on the connection between gender-based violence and political instability, armed conflict, xenophobia, unsafe working conditions, transphobia, homophobia, and racism.
TESTIMONIES OF RISING: Activists are amplifying and lifting up the often unheard and excluded voices of survivors, activists and groups in their communities by creating three Testimonies of RISING, to be performed by formerly incarcerated women and community leaders. At a time when migrant women are being detained and the prison industrial complex continues to expand, formerly incarcerated women are taking center stage to bring attention to the elevated violence and disproportionate socio-political marginalization they face.
Rising Testimonies can cover a range of topics—gender and sexuality, identity, the changing socio-political climate, any issue specific to the community at hand. These testimonies will be part of V-Day’s 2019 global Spotlight campaign on Women in Prisons and Jails, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women, created in collaboration with formerly incarcerated women and activists. For more information, including guidelines and production notes, visit HERE.
Women at the City of Joy in Congo are turning their pain to power, developing women’s leadership and agency over their destiny. With women at the forefront of change, activists are screening the CITY OF JOY documentary on their college campuses and in communities, holding talkbacks afterward with local leaders and expanding the conversation in their communities.
We look forward to seeing the multitude of ways women will come together and RISE.
HOW WILL YOU RISE?
Plan a RISING, a V-Day, or a CITY OF JOY screening or house party in your college or community.
V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community
One Billion RISING: Rise In Solidarity – RISE in your community, for your community
City of Joy: Turn Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo
When women take to the streets and the stage incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.
#RiseResistUnite #1BillionRising #UntilTheViolenceStops #TurnPainIntoPower
Amplifying New Voices During V-Season 2019, Testimonies of Rising Announced
For 20 years Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues has shattered taboos by telling the untold stories of women, giving birth to V-Day, 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). With creativity and determination, V-Day activists around the world have worked tirelessly to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery. The stakes could not be higher for this urgent work.
This year, in place of a traditional V-Day Spotlight monologue, we invite activists to amplify and lift up the often unheard and excluded voices of survivors, activists and groups in your communities by creating three community-written testimonies, to be performed at the end of the play. These pieces should center the voices of the most marginalized women on your stage, harnessing the power of The Vagina Monologues to create a space for critical conversations and voices.
The first of these new testimonies will showcase a formerly incarcerated or detained woman, inviting them to speak to the audience about their experiences and how they connect to the issue of violence against women and girls. This will be part of V-Day’s 2019 global Spotlight campaign on Women in Prisons and Jails, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women, created in collaboration with formerly incarcerated women and activists.
Choose two additional local leaders or activists who are doing the crucial, daily work of ending violence in your community to Present a “What and Why My Vagina is Rising” monologue. Invite them to share with the audience what they are working to change and how the local community can support them. We encourage organizers to showcase a range of voices through these monologues, by elevating the voices of writers and performers who hold different identities and experiences.
These Rising Testimonies ideally are between 2-3 minutes and must be performed at the end of The Vagina Monologues. No original pieces from TVM may be moved, substituted, or omitted.
Throughout V-Day’s history, activists have used this platform to shed light on the connection between gender based violence and political instability, armed conflict, xenophobia, unsafe working conditions, transphobia, homophobia, and racism. Rising Testimonies can cover a range of topics—gender and sexuality, identity, the changing socio-political climate, any issue specific to the community at hand.
For more information, including guidelines and production notes, visit HERE
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DONATION: Donate 90% of your proceeds to a group or groups in your community who are doing anti-violence work. For example, a local rape crisis center or domestic violence shelter. |
Register to produce a 2019 V-Day benefit production of The Vagina Monologues and/or A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer from 1 February – 8 March.
For out of season options to produce The Vagina Monologues, visit HERE.
V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community
One Billion RISING: Rise In Solidarity – RISE in your community, for your community
City of Joy: Turn Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo
Amplifying New Voices: Since V-Day first began in 1998, many new and long term activists have begun to stage their own works reflecting the voices in their communities. If you would like to foreground new voices in the conversation around ending violence against women, we encourage you to do so by curating stories from your community and creating a new artistic evening that you present separately. Many organizers have done this, both instead of “The Vagina Monologues” and in addition to it. It’s a wonderful way to invite local writers, activists and artists to participate.
When women take the stage, incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.
#SayItStageIt #RiseInSolidarity #TurningPainIntoPower