Welcome to V-Season 2019.
20 years since Eve Ensler’s play The Vagina Monologues shattered taboos, the stakes could not be higher. V-Day is a movement that grew out of the untold stories of women. We believe women. We believe in their right to tell their stories and we believe their stories need to be heard – nothing is more powerful.
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). With creativity and determination, V-activists around the world tirelessly work to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery.
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
We feel the energy of rising up, of resistance, of bold artistic energy and creativity coming forward from V-Day and One Billion Rising activists across the globe. At the City of Joy in Congo, 1117 women survivors have graduated, and the documentary film also entitled CITY OF JOY was just released on Netflix, bringing a vast global audience their message of Turning Pain to Power.
| 2019 V-Day Spotlight Announced: Women in Prison, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women: Every year, the V-Day Spotlight campaign calls attention to a particular group of women who are experiencing elevated levels of violence and disproportionate socio-political marginalization, in an effort to raise awareness for the issues they face and aid the community groups working to address these injustices.
Created in collaboration with formerly incarcerated women and activists, the Spotlight will focus on Women in Prisons and Jails, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women. A direct connection exists between violence and abuse done to women and girls and the risk that those women and girls will be directly impacted by incarceration. In the U.S., 86% of women in prison were sexually and/or physically abused prior to incarceration, as reported by The Vera Institute for Justice in 2017. In the aftermath of abuse, trauma can lead to substance abuse and addiction, which can easily become a pathway to more violence, crime and/or incarceration. Women and children in detention, as with women and girls in prison, are not safe. In the United States, the immigration crisis under the Trump Administration has left a staggering number of refugees in over 200 immigrant prisons and jails[1]. According to Freedom for Immigrants it is unclear how many facilities exist in the U.S. and around the world[2]. In April 2018, The Intercept reported that it had unearthed hundreds of complaints about sexual and physical abuse in detention centers at the hands of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents[3]. This is just the tip of the iceberg. READ more… |
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.
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. READ more about Testimonies of Rising.
When women take the stage, incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.
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. SPOTLIGHT DONATION: Send 10% of your proceed to the V-Day 2019 Spotlight on Women in Prison, Detention Centers, and Formerly Incarcerated Women.
The two artistic works will be available free of charge to registered activists hosting benefit productions solely from 1 February – 8 March.*
Sign Up TODAY! V-Season is now open!
ONE BILLION RISING 2019:
RISING: FROM A CAMPAIGN, TO A WAY OF LIFE
Through One Billion Rising, activists worldwide have mobilized, engaged, awakened and joined people across the planet to end violence against women and girls. We have made violence against women a global issue, not relegated to country or tribe or class or religion.
We are living in a time of upheaval and transformation. Together we have been rising to free all women from sexual and physical violence in its more overt and obvious forms: 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. And, we have had many victories.
As we come into our 7th year of One Billion Rising, we are faced with bigger challenges. To end violence against women, we must commit ourselves to a deeper examination of violence in all its forms. Along with sexual and physical violence, we must also look at systemic violence in economic, political, socio-cultural, environmental and ideological spheres. As we continue to Rise to end violence against women – it is imperative now for us to expand our understanding of women’s oppression and exploitation in the context of capitalism, colonization, racism, imperialism, environmental plunder and war. We have been compartmentalized and divided for too long. Our Rising must now connect our specific oppression to the common universal humanity that binds us all. This is no less than a way of life, a way of seeing, a way of being in the world. It is not one day that we rise, but every day that this consciousness must rise in all we do.
Ready to RISE in your community, stage a RISING event >
CITY OF JOY:
Watch the Film, Host a House Party or Screening & Spread the Word
Whether you are new to City of Joy and V-Day or have been with us in the movement since its inception, know that you are joining a network of activists who will be viewing the film and hosting screenings and house parties around the world to celebrate the work of City of Joy, honoring the women leaders of the Congo and the 1100 women who have graduated from the City of Joy, joining together in a network of love and revolution, Turning Pain to Power.
HOST a Screening/House Party
LEARN more about City of Joy
| QUICK TIPS ON HOW TO REGISTER FOR V-DAY IN 2019:
Go to vspot.vday.org, and register for an account or sign in to your existing account. Afterwards, click on the event or events you want to apply for and follow the instructions. *If you wish to perform The Vagina Monologues in other months, you may purchase the rights from Dramatists Play Service. Performance rights information can be found at www.eveensler.org/plays. Need more info, visit this how-to page. Questions? Email us at campaigns (at) vday.org. |
#VDay
#1BillionRising
#CityOfJoyFilm
#UntilTheViolenceStops
#RiseResistUnite
#TurningPainIntoPower
[1] https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/detention-statistics/
[2] https://www.freedomforimmigrants.org/detention-statistics/
[3] https://theintercept.com/2018/04/11/immigration-detention-sexual-abuse-ice-dhs/
