2023 will mark 25 years of our global activist movement to end violence against women (cisgender and transgender), gender expansive people, girls and the planet. VOICES will begin the V25 year with its launch in Accra. Please stay tuned for more V25 updates.
“As V-Day continues to organize across the globe for an end to violence against women, girls and the planet, we shift the focus from our vaginas to the visions of our voices. As we live and love, we must continue to revisit ourselves and examine our convictions about gender and therein race and class. We are more than our bodies though we may conjure through them. We want to create re-remembered value systems. We want to demonstrate how solidarity can be made. We want all those who claim to love us to listen, to collaborate, to imagine and create with us.”
VOICES Audioplay Launch
When & Where: 18 December 2022 3-8pm
Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana
RSVP: vday.link/voices
It is with glittering joy and excitement that we share the global launch of our VOICES audioplay will be happening in Accra, Ghana on 18 December 2022 at the Nubuke Foundation. Presented by V-Day, VOICES is an audioplay and campaign directed by aja monet, grounded in Black women and non-binary peoples stories of the African continent and diaspora.
This year, on its 25th anniversary, V-Day is shifting away from The Vagina Monologues as a center-piece for our movement work to create space for VOICES. Over two years of gathering stories, engaging in collective study and collaborating with Black women and non-binary actors and musicians across the African continent and diaspora has led to the audioplay which is now being shared with the world.
It is our privilege to invite Black women and non-binary people and all those in solidarity with us to join us on this historic occasion as we celebrate the official launch of our audioplay and ground in a diaspora feminist return to the continent in honor of V-Day’s 25th anniversary.
“This is an opportunity for women of all orientations, nationalities, and identities to come together to cherish, to support, and to transform the conditions that silence and disappear us. This is the evolution of heart work. We need new vocabularies and new expressions that speak from our deepest and most uncensored selves. We unite and connect through our differences. We celebrate the possibilities born of our creative coalitions. We are dedicated to a radical feminist future.”
The event will kick off at 3pm and will feature an immersive listening experience of the debut audioplay, food and drinks, a curated art exhibition, sounds and vibes by Ghanaian women DJs, and a panel with special guests.
While thousands of people gather every year to celebrate return, there is a major gap in literary and theater-based events to engage in the political and spiritual meaning behind returning. The VOICES audioplay will provide a unique space for people to gather, engage the meaning of return and diaspora, and envision a world where African women are collaborating and loving each other across cultures, borders and customs.
Whether or not you are able to attend, we could use your support amplifying the event on social media. Please like, comment and share our post here. Please see the event poster attached, social graphics here and posting instructions here. Any support on amplifying this event would go a long way and be greatly appreciated.
No movement will survive without our sistering.
With deep gratitude for your consideration,
aja monet & The Voices Team
This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.
– Toni Morrison
