V-Day celebrations organisers fend off 'profanity' tag

Saturday, 06 February 2010 10:26

Written by myjoyonline.com

As V-Day celebrations draw closer, organisers are spending much time trying to correct public perceptions about the event being a promoter of profanity.

Dudu Communications, the V-Day celebrations in Ghana organisers at a recent press conference dismissed speculations that the event is of no importance to the Ghanaian and that it is a day of profanity.  The V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls founded by Eve Ensler. It started with the production ‘The Vagina Monologues’ which was to celebrate the vagina and project feminism, but it changed in 1998 when the writer discovered that there are a lot that women suffer from than what happens in the bedroom.

She then decided to institute the vagina monologues are as a campaign to stop violence against women. This is what is now known as the V-Day until the violence stop campaign.

A play, 'The Vagina Monologue', to educate the public on the dangers and effects of the abuse of women, will be performed on the day.

The organisers explained that V-Day, celebrated between February and April, is to help fight the abuse of women and girls across the world with particular emphasis on Africa.

The high point of the media briefing, addressed by some of the cast of the yet to be staged 'The Vagina Monologue' - Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku and Lydia Forson - was the release of a video of women who have suffered abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo telling thier own stories "in the first person singular", and other activitism to fight the menace.

Below is the press statement from the V-Day office in New York

V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, announced its 2010 season of events and campaigns today with the theme "Building The City of Joy." Since it was founded by playwright/activist Eve Ensler in 1998, V-Day has shattered taboos and raised over $70 million, transforming communities to end violence against women and girls. Working at the intersection of art, social action and politics, V-Day empowers grassroots activists to become leaders, turning pain to power.

From February 1 - April 1, over 1500 colleges and communities will host V-Day benefit events raising funds and awareness locally and spotlighting the women of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Events centre around Ensler's ground breaking play 'The Vagina Monologues', but include readings of V-Day's anthology A Memory, Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer and Any One of Us: Words from Prison, documentary film screenings of V-Day: Until The Violence Stops and What I Want My Words To Do To You, Congo teach-ins and house parties.

Each event will highlight the Congo, shining a global spotlight on the atrocities women and girls in Congo experience, and V-Day's campaign to end the violence.

"V-Day's 2010 theme is 'Building the City of Joy.' The City of Joy is a literal place, a pastoral community in Bukavu, DRC, where women survivors of gender violence will be supported, healed and trained to be the next leaders of the DRC, but it is also a concept, a decision, a movement to end violence against women and girls.

We are launching the City of Joy in the DRC as a call to end violence against women and girls everywhere. Building the City of Joy means, modeling a process of change that is directed by the women on the ground conceived by the women on the ground, and fulfilled by the women on the ground.

An ideology which knows that grassroots women are the major sources of change and inspiration and it must direct the future of their countries from Congo to New Orleans to Haiti.

Building the City of Joy means everyone working together providing resources, energy and support for grassroots women so they can fulfil their destinies," stated V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler.

Eve Ensler's newest work, I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World, will be released in book form by Villard/Random House on February 9. Made up of original monologues about and for girls from around the world, the book aims to inspire girls to take agency over their minds, bodies, hearts and curiosities.

V-Day has developed a corresponding targeted pilot V-Girls program engaging young women in our "empowerment philanthropy" model, igniting their activism and giving them a voice. Readings of the book will be staged in twenty pilot locations, where teen girls will engage in the creative process, accompanied by a specially written curriculum addressing the issues in the book.

V-Day will host a series of benefit events in February including: a February 5th benefit reading of I Am an Emotional Creature, directed by Rosario Dawson and performed by teen girls including Sosie Bacon and Samantha Mozes, hosted by V-Day, Jennifer and Peter Buffett, Eve Ensler, Cynthia Nixon, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, and David Stone and V-Board members Rosario Dawson, Beth Dozoretz, Donna Karan, Katherine McFate, Pat Mitchell, Cari Ross, and Kerry Washington, at the Urban Zen Center at Stephan Weiss Studio; a February 9th evening to benefit the City of Joy in Atlanta, featuring Eve Ensler and music by Arlington Priest, Roxie Watson, Joi, Gina Loring, Dres tha Beatnik at the Warren City Club; a private luncheon in Los Angeles on February 11th hosted by Miranda Gomez, Eve Ensler, California's First Lady Maria Shriver, Charlize Theron, Paula Wagner, and V-Day Board Members Carole Black, Ilene Chaiken, Rosario Dawson, Pat Mitchell, Linda Pope, and Kerry Washington; a February 20th benefit reading in Santa Fe, NM of I Am an Emotional Creature at the Lensic Theatre.

In addition, Eve will be speaking at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco February 16th, in Berkeley on February 18th (location to be confirmed), and the 92 Street Y in NYC on February 23rd.

AIn 2010, V-Day will continue to Spotlight the violence against women in the Democratic of Republic of Congo - building off the momentum created over the past two years and further engaging and energizing our activists and multiple actors to go further and work hand in hand with Congolese activists on the ground to turn pain to power.

Activists will host Congo Teach-Ins in a classroom, office or public venue to educate their communities on the history of violence in Eastern Congo. This year, activists will also organize House Parties, gathering groups of people in more intimate settings for a screening of V- Day's short (II-minute) documentary film, Turning Pain to Power, which includes personal testimonies of Congolese women and inspirational footage of activist groups on the ground.

The film screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions guided by discussion tools provided by V -Day. Congo Teach-Ins and Congo House Parties will be available to organizers throughout the year to learn about V-Day's Congo Campaign, dialogue about the issues, and organize action.

On May 25th, City of Joy will open its doors with ceremony and celebration and a delegation representing women from around the world. City of Joy is a revolutionary community conceived by the women of Congo in collaboration with V-Day and Unicef - for survivors of sexual violence in Bukavu, DRC, where up to 100 women at a time will be healed, supported and trained to become community activists and leaders for years to come. City of Joy is a cornerstone of the global campaign STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: Power To The Women And Girls Of The DRC.

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