The V-Day 2000 College Initiative Comes to Sonoma County
As part of the 2nd annual international V-Day College Initiative, the ground-breaking, Obie Award-winning play, "The Vagina Monologues," will be performed at the Evert B. Person Theatre, Sonoma State University, on Sat., Feb. 12, 2000 at 7:30 p.m. Local acapella sensation Copper Wimmin will also perform at this benefit for SSU's sexual assault prevention program. Tickets are $4 for students and $10 general. For tickets, call the SSU Student Union, 707/664-2382 or Milk and Honey, Sebastopol, 823-1155.
Hailed by The New York Times as "funny" and "poignant" and by the Daily News as "intelligent" and "courageous," The Vagina Monologues, which was first performed off-Broadway by author Eve Ensler, dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in womenís experiences of their bodies and their sexuality. Each segment is based on interviews with hundreds of diverse women, from a Long Island antiques dealer to a Bosnian refugee.
The performance is sponsored by the SSU Women's Resource Center and the Owl Eagle Women's Lodge. Performers are members of the Owl Eagle Women's Lodge: Suzette Burrous, Sedonia Cahill, Marjorie Clark, Alexandra Hart, Leah Martino and Linda Merryman. The director is Jacqueline Grace Hayward.
V-Day is a campaign to end sexual violence against women and to proclaim Valentine's Day as the day to celebrate women and demand the end of abuse. The V-Day 2000 College Initiative includes more than 135 schools, both in the United States and abroad, such as SSU, Princeton, Yale, Emory and Rice Universities and Mills College. Each of these colleges will host a V-Day event that includes a performance of The Vagina Monologues. All events benefit groups or organizations that work to end sexual violence against women. This year, Self magazine sponsors the V-Day 2000 College Initiative.
Current information about V-Day 2000 and violence against women can be found at the eventís web site at http://www.feminist.com/vday.
What is V-Day?
V-Day is a campaign to end sexual violence against women and to proclaim Valentine's Day as the day to celebrate women and demand the end of abuse. Inspired by the world premiere of The Vagina Monologues at HERE, an off-Broadway theatre in New York City, the first V-Day was held in 1998 with
a performance of the play by some of our country's biggest stars ó Glenn Close, Whoopi Goldberg, Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Lily Tomlin, and Calista Flockhart ó who sought to raise awareness of and money for a situation that has become epidemic.
Statistics show that somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes (National Crime Victimization Survey, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1996). In 1995, 354,670 women were the victims of a rape or sexual assault (National Crime Victimization Survey, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1996). Approximately 28% of victims of sexual violence are raped by their husbands or boyfriends, 35% by acquaintances, and 5% by other relatives (Violence Against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1994).
In 1999, the V-Day 1999 College Initiative marked the full arrival of the issue of violence against women to mainstream America by bringing it to 65 of the country's campuses. Cornell, Brown and Syracuse universities and Middlebury (Ms. Ensler's alma mater), Bennington and Mount Holyoke colleges
were among the dozens of schools that participated in the V-Day 1999 College Initiative, mounting performances of The Vagina Monologues on or near Valentine's Day 1999.
Last year, Self magazine demonstrated its commitment to V-Day and the 1999 College Initiative by hosting a V-Day event and covering it in its February issue. This year, Self is taking its commitment to V-Day one step further: it has agreed to sponsor the entire V-Day 2000 College Initiative.
What are The Vagina Monologues?
The Vagina Monologues brazenly explores questions often pondered, but seldom asked: Do women like their vaginas? What do women call their vaginas? Ensler has performed the play to great acclaim throughout the world ó from Zagreb to Santa Barbara, from London to Seattle, from Jerusalem
to Oklahoma City. Villard Books/Random House published The Vagina Monologues, which includes a foreword by Gloria Steinem, February 1999.
For more information:
http://www.feminist.com/vday
