Patents on the soles of your shoes...: Ensler

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Monday, February 14, 2022

VDay 2022

Each year, on February 14th, since 1996, VDay re-interprets Valentine’s Day, celebrating the foundation of a movement that seeks to end violence against all women and girls worldwide. Arising within the context of Eve Ensler’s famous play The Vagina Monologues, the VDay organization was initially funded on the occasion of a single evening performance of the play that raised $250,000. The Vagina Monologues tell the story of some of the 27,000 women that were raped as a war tactic, in connection to the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, a former part of Yugoslavia, in Central Europe.

Over the course of 26 years, the Vday movement has branched into several projects and action groups, including :

One Billion Rising - a group of one billion women, representing the shocking statistic of 1 in 3 women worldwide who have been victims of violence.

The Solidarity Project - funded by The Rising Fund, a project that seeks to identify artists and grassroots movements, transforming culture, creating art and social change, working on the front lines of activism.

Voices - a new interdisciplinary performance arts project and campaign, grounded in Black women’s stories. According to the group, contributed submissions provide the poems you have been waiting for.

City of Joy - a sanctuary for women, fleeing war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a Netflix documentary that tells the story of some of the 1472 women who have graduated from the City of Joy program. Women who found a place to heal, to release their trauma from rape, and to learn skills, enabling them to re-enter life as empowered individuals. The trailer of the documentary is included below.

Call to Men - Dismantle patriarchy and the next generation of manhood – a VDay sponsored competition in high schools in the US, and colleges worldwide, calling for creative thinking on what a new post-patriarchal society might look like, how to achieve it, and with what means.

On the occasion of February 14th, all of the VDay organization groups and programs, mentioned above, organize and schedule special events worldwide, including such items as readings of The Vagina Monologues play, groups flash performing specially-choreographed VDay dances, and drumming events. (Click here for an interactive list of events worldwide.)

According to the Vday organization, in 2022, “the ‘V’ in Vday stands inclusively for : Voice, Victory, Valentine and Vagina”. The VDay movement has also defined itself more clearly as: “an organized response to violence directed at all women and girls, and the planet; a vision, a demand, a spirit, a catalyst, a process, a day; and a fierce, wild, unstoppable movement and community”, with an invitation for everyone to participate.

References

Call to men - Dismantle Patriarchy
https://www.acalltomen.org
City of joy
https://www.vday.org/city-of-joy/about-city-of-joy/
One Billion rising
https://www.vday.org/one-billion-rising/what-is-one-billion-rising/

One Billion Rising - Find and event

https://www.onebillionrising.org/events/#!/0/0/1/

Ensler, E. (2008 campaigns) The Vagina Monologues (official script)

http://web.mit.edu/dvp/Public/TVMScript2008.pdf

Eve Ensler (website)

https://www.eveensler.org/

Solidarity Project

https://www.vday.org/solidarity-projects/rising-art-artists-rising/
VDay.org
https://www.vday.org/
Voices
https://voices.vday.org/

Sunday, February 14, 2021

V-Day 2021

For V-Day 2021, one additional V-Day platform was appended to the vast global movement, to end violence against women and girls, initiated in 1998, by Eve Ensler, author, playwright and activist. Indeed, V-Day (Voices) 2021 specifically targets the Voices of Black Women.

V-Day (Voices) 2021 is a project curated by the poet Ajat Monet, who sent out a call for submissions, addressed to Black women worldwide, interested in sharing pieces, speaking out against violence directed at women. Poems, monologues and other pieces will then be compiled into one showcase piece, in the Fall of 2021.

V-Day (Voices) has thus become part of the 2021 V-Day action that includes One-BillionRising-Garden Rising campaigns and events (1); City of Joy, a shelter, serving up to 90 women at once, escaping violence in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo; and all the V-Day-inspired local USA events, where women gather (or tune-in on a pandemic year), to read and/or watch performances of Eve Ensler’s earth-shaking play The Vagina Monogues (2001).

Below, a 2021 YouTube video of a fabulous animated version of the V-day-One Billion Rising anthem Break the Chain, a song written by Tena Clark, with music by Tena Clark and Tim Heintz, choreographed by Debbie Allen. In non-pandemic years, since 2013, Break the Chain has spread like wildfire worldwide, on V-Day, complete with hundreds of scheduled Flash Mob events each year, such as the Shake Toronto event, V-Girls in South Africa, or the One Billion Rising, 5000-people event at Pariser Platz, in Berlin Germany on Feb 14 2013.

One Billion rising 2021 - Rising Gardens

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(1) One billion corresponds to the staggering figure, representing the number of women victims of violence worldwide

References

City of Joy https://www.cityofjoycongo.org/splash/

Ensler, E. (2001) Vagina Monologues. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.

Ensler, E. (2004) The Good Body. New York, NY: Villard Books (Random House).

Ensler, E. (2005) Vagina Warriors. New York, NY: Bulfinch Press (Hachette Book Group).

Ensler, E. (2010) Emotional Creature. New York, NY: Villard Books Random House).

Ensler, E. (2013) In the Body of the World. London, UK: Metropolitan Books (Macmillan Publishers).

Ensler, E. (2014) In the Body of the World. London, UK: Picador Paper. (Macmillan Publishers).

Ensler, E. (2019) The Apology. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Ensler,E. (Jan. 7 2020) The profound power of an authentic apology – TED Talk https://youtu.be/gQ-0oR3C1UM

One-Billion Rising 2021: Garden Rising Campaign. https://www.onebillionrising.org/about/campaign/

V-Day.org (Eve Ensler) https://vday.org/news-alerts/press/eveensler.html

V-Day.org Staff (nov. 19, 2012) V-Day's One Billion Rising Campaign Unveils New Song and Music Video: "Break the Chain". https://www.vday.org/node/2996.html

V-Day.org – What is One-Billion Rising? https://www.vday.org/one-billion-rising/what-is-one-billion-rising/

V-Spot - https://vspot.vday.org/

Voices. https://voices.vday.org/

Ensler, E. (website) https://www.eveensler.org/

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

One Billion Rising!

During the month of February and especially, today on V- day, since 2013, Women RISE, DANCE, DISRUPT and CONNECT in a fierce movement against the sexual and physical violence directed at women and girls. The movement is called One Billion Rising! because of the shocking statistic of 1 in 3 women worldwide who will be raped or the victim of violence in her lifetime.

In 2013 One Billion Rising! danced to show their outrage.
In 2014 One Billion Rising! danced for justice.
In 2015 and 2016 One Billion Rising! danced for revolution, in more than 200 countries, with millions of women and girls participating.
In 2017 One Billion Rising! is dancing against exploitation and in solidarity.

The movement grew out of Eve Ensler’s famous play, The Vagina Monologues, performed everywhere on Feb. 14^th. The almost as famous theme song of the One Billion Rising! movement, “Break the chain”, was written and produced by Tena Clark, with music by Tena Clark and Tim Heintz. The original choreography of the piece was created by Debbie Allen.

Below a video of the original song and the choreographed dances, that Disrupt! Connect! and Occupy! bringing women together, joyfully and globally, in their struggle to end violence.

References

One Billion Rising!

http://www.onebillionrising.org/about/campaign/

Ensler, E. (2001) The Vagina Monologues. New York, NY: Random House Publishing house.
Eve Ensler (website)
http://www.eveensler.org/
Eve Ensler interviewé par Le Monde
http://www.eveensler.org/other-writings/articles/je-ne-serais-pas-arrivee-la-si-eves-latest-interview-in-le-monde/
Tena Clark (website)
http://www.tenaclark.com/
Tim Heintz (website)
http://www.timheintz.com/www.timheintz.com/Home.html
Debbie Allen Dance Company
http://www.debbieallendanceacademy.com/about/debbie-allen

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Happy V-Day!

February 14 was co-opted by Eve Ensler in 1998 when it was declared V-Day. This was the year when the V-Day non-profit organization was created, an organization dedicated to ending violence against women and girls The organisation was founded using the 250,000 dollars in proceeds from a single benefit performance of Ensler's famous Broadway hit, and multiple-award-winning, activist and humanitarian play: The Vagina Monologues.

Since then, and in light of the staggering statistics on the number women and girls victims of violence, V-Day launched the One-billion women rising campaign on V-Day 2012. This is the single largest mass action to end violence against women and girls, where the one billion rising represent the 1 in 3 women, victims of violence in a world population of 7 billion.

Since 2012, V-day has become a world-wide day for organizing, celebrating and dancing the specially choreographed Break the chain piece for the occasion. Otherwise, V-Day arises within the context of three months of intensified fundraising events, including performances of the famous play that brought women's and girls' experience of violence into the limelight.

Please feel free to click on the following [link] to tune into the One Billion rising V-day celebrations, and perhaps to find and connect with the women and girls, and all those who love them, celebrating in your area. Everyone will be dancing, marching, speaking and fundraising in celebration!

V-day is also a special day for the UN HeForShe campaign, a United Nations campaign that has enlisted the support of men to hold up one-half of the sky, and to speak up on behalf of women and girls in the fight to end violence against them. The UN HeForShe mission is no less than to end gender inequality. The new logo for this movement of men in support of women, in their bid to end violence directed at them, is included to the right.

Please feel free to stand together and join the fight [here]!

In 2016, the facts on violence against women and girls are still bleak:

- One woman in three is still the victim of violence (physical, emotional and/or psychological) perpetuated mostly by an intimate partner. In 2012, one in 2 women killed were killed under such circumstances by their partners or family. In comparison, 1 in 20 men were killed under such conditions [UN: Facts & Figures].

- Two thirds of countries have outlawed domestic violence, only 52 countries have criminalized marital rape [UN: Facts & Figures].

- 4.5 million, of the 21 million estimated victims of forced labor and human trafficking, are victims of sexual exploitation, and 98% are women [UN: Facts & Figures].

- 133 million women and girls have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in 29 countries of Africa and the Middle East, 1/3 less than 30 years ago [UN: Facts & Figures].

- 700 million women were married before the age of 18, one-third before the age of 15. 2.5 times more poor girls are likely to be forced into child marriages than wealthier girls [UN: Facts & Figures].

Thus, violence directed against women and girls is still considered of pandemic proportions.

References

Ensler, E. (1996) The Vagina Monologues ( Acting Edition). New York, NY: Dramatist Play Service Inc.

Farhan Akthar (Dec. 1, 2015) What is a real man – a mard?

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/12/farhan-akhtar-what-is-a-real-man

One billion rising

http://www.onebillionrising.org/

UN Women

http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us

UN- Fact and Figures: Ending violence against women

http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures

UN – HeForShe campaign

http://www.heforshe.org/en
V-Day Org
http://www.vday.org/

One Billion Rising - FlashMob - Break the chain - San Francisco, CA

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Happy V-Day to all!

Today is V-Day 2015 – A global movement to end violence against women and girls, that is, a movement targeting rape, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery, arising out of Eve Ensler’s famous play The Vagina Monologues.

The V-Day non-profit organization was founded, in 1998, in NYC, following a benefit performance of the play that raised 250,000 USD in a single evening!

The rest is history! Every year, performances of the play are staged on February 14^th, with proceeds benefitting shelters, and anti-violence programs, for women and girls, survivors of violence. The organization has raised more than 100 million USD, in 200 countries, in 48 languages, benefitting more than 13,000 organizations against violence –using the play (Royalty free) and other creative and artistic performances as a catalyst for action and organization.

In 2015, the VDay movement includes a dance, drum and rise movement launched in 2003: The One Billion Rising -- 4 Revolution, 4Justice, 4Women’s Rights, depending on location, in the bid to stop violence again women and girls, and through them, the harshest inequities of the world. The One Billion number stands for a shocking statistic: one billion women will experience violence in the world during their life time, that is, 1 in 3 women worldwide.

Check out your local area for events to break the chain of violence, to Dance! Drum! and Rise!
Below, the official video of the One Billion Rising song and choreography performed worldwide that will perhaps inspire you!

Maldives (official) http://youtu.be/F2uTqLQVFko

And One Billion Rising around the world..… !!....

In San Francisco http://youtu.be/WufjSyE_rK8

In Bhutan: http://youtu.be/QcVqRIJFjK4

In Chicago: http://youtu.be/WEsKjqGBdk8

In Kinshasa (Congo) http://youtu.be/u4YJZ2NB4Vk

References

Eve Ensler http://www.eveensler.org/

Ensler, E. (2014) O.P.C (Obsessive Political Correctness). Directed by Pesha Rudnick.

Ensler, E. (2011) Emotional Creature: The secret lives of girls around the world. New York, NY Villard Books.

Ensler, E. (2007) Insecure at last: A political memoir. New York, NY: Villard Books.

Ensler, E. (2005) The Good Body. New York, NY: Villard Books

Ensler, E. (2001) The Vagina Monologues. New York, NY: Villard Books.

Epstein, A. and V. Farrel (2003) V-Day: Until the violence stops. Lifetime Television. 73 minutes.
Vday : http://www.vday.org/
Onbillionrising: http://www.onebillionrising.org/

Breaking the male code: After Steubenville, a call to action: http://www.vday.org/node/3054.html#.VN-Y2PnF_ts