V-Day: Stop Violence Against Women

V-Day Islington Reunion: Friday 15th June

2007-06-13T18:32:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone,

Just a friendly, organised, reminder about Friday evening. Our V-Day Islington Reunion is scheduled to begin around 6pm at The Alwyne Castle in Islington. I think they have food, but check their site for details, you may want to eat beforehand.

I may not arrive until closer to 7pm. The idea is to head there after work to catch up with each other before the summer. I know some of you are unable to attend. I did hear back from about half of you, so there should be a good group of us there. Hopefully the weather will be nice (What's with all these clouds? Oh right, we are in London!) and we can enjoy drinks outside. Otherwise we can crash the non-smoking area like we did last time if there isn't enough space in the main bar. We will find each other!

Hope everyone is well and looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday.

Kara

V-Day Islington Reunion

2007-05-26T11:08:00.000+01:00

Hi all,

I heard back from about half of you and have decided that our meet-up will be on Friday, June 15th at The Alwyne Castle from about 6pm. I will not book the room there, as we were fine crashing the non-smoking area last time and there is an outdoor area which we should be able to use if the weather is suitable. Fingers crossed!

I realise some of you are unable to make it due to other commitments and I apologise that we could not accommodate you and hope to catch up with you at a later date. Enjoy your summer and stay tuned for the upcoming project Erin and I will be organising for August/September.

As for the rest of you, see you in a couple of weeks! Wahoo! If you forgot how to get to the Alwyne, I did include a link to their site in my initial email. Otherwise, send me an email and I can help you out.

Take care and enjoy your bank holiday weekend.

Kara

Meet-Up Choices

2007-05-20T13:07:00.000+01:00

Hello All,

I've given you about a week to respond to my first email and have heard back from about half of you. Of course it's challenging to plan an event for so many people, but luckily many of you replied that you are free for all the dates! Yay!

For the others, I tried to work around your schedule. There are two dates that are possible. One is Friday, June 15th and the other is Saturday, June 30th. (I'm sorry Monica that these dates don't work for you, I had to go with majority.) Friday's meet-up would be after work, around 6/7pm and we could do the same time on Saturday, or a bit later in the evening, after dinnertime, like 7 or 8. Eli (Reclaiming Cunt monologue) will be leaving London permanently mid-June, so her last chance to see everyone would be June 15th. Just to keep that in mind. :)

Please respond and let me know which date you prefer and we will finalise the date and time by Thursday, 24th May.

All the best,

Kara

V-Day Islington Reunion!

2007-05-15T22:52:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone,

Have you missed my long, detailed and organised emails? Well miss me no more. I have returned from my long sabatical after our show. And I am ready to start organising again. That's right, I would like to organise a time to get together before the summer is in full swing, mostly because I will be gone for the month of July...I've also had a few emails from some of you who are interested in meeting up to see how everyone is doing.

June: I know it's a bit short notice, but I'd like to organise something for June. I am assuming most will be out of town for the Bank Holiday weekend, so June is our best bet. Please respond and let me know if a Friday evening or a late Saturday afternoon/early evening would be better for you. [dates below]

Also let me know any dates you absolutely CAN'T do and I will try to organise something for a day where the most of us can attend. I do think it may be difficult to find a time everyone can attend, but will do my best. I am thinking that the easiest place to meet for drinks would be where we had our 'cast party' after the show, since Islington seems the best locale for meeting. They also had a large enough space which extends outdoors and it should be sunny weather by THEN. [The Alwyne Castle on St. Paul's road]

Future Events: Erin and I are also meeting this week to discuss another event we would like to organise together to be put on at the end of August. After we have our meeting, I will send out an email with the information in case any of you would be interested in taking part or at least attending. This will be a book reading, rather than a theatre performance, for the book release of A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer, edited by Eve Ensler. More details to follow.

Back to party planning. Possible days for our V-Day reunion:
Friday from 7pm onwards
Saturday from 6/7pm onwards

Possible dates:
Friday, June 1
Saturday, June 9
Friday, June 15
Friday, June 22
Saturday, June 23
Saturday, June 30

Again, just let me know the dates that DON'T work for you, that's easier to organise on my end.

Here's hoping that we all catch up together soon!

Kara

You Can Help Native American Women

2007-05-09T10:59:00.000+01:00

taken from the latest V-DAY email for organisers...important to share...This issue is important to me as I spent time on Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

According to the Department of Justice Statistics, rape in American Indian and Alaska Native communities is 3.5 times higher than among all other racial groups. V-Day first brought this staggering statistic into the public consciousness in 2003 with the Indian Country Project and Spotlight on Native and First Nations Women.

Four years later, V-Day has helped open two safe houses in South Dakota and exposed millions of women and men all over the world to these injustices. Despite these groundbreaking accomplishments, this statistic has yet to change, due in large part to the lack of resources and education among Indian Health Services (I.H.S.) emergency room and sexual assault practitioners.

The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, a grassroots women's health institute on the Yankton Dakota Reservation in South Dakota is working to remedy this situation by calling on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to bring sufficient training and resources to the I.H.S. emergency response workers.

The project will demand that I.H.S. have standardized sexual assault policies and protocols for their emergency rooms in place with trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.

By ensuring that admissible evidence is gathered correctly, repeat rapists will be prosecuted and taken off of the streets, thereby reducing the amount of rapes within the Native communities.

YOU CAN HELP! Please read the below appeal from Charon Asetoyer, Executive Director Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center to learn more!

Letter From Charon Asetoyer, Executive Director Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center
Dear Sisters and Allies,

We are asking for your help in addressing the health care needs of Indigenous women who suffer from sexual violence: Indigenous women of North American experience more violence than any other group of people in this country. More than 1 in 3 will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, located in Lake Andes, SD among the Ihanktowan Dakota Nation (Yankton Sioux Tribe), has been working for over four years to have Indian Health Service adopt and implement standardized policies and protocols for sexual assault at Indian Health Service (I.H.S.) emergency rooms, direct health care facilities and contract health care. The I.H.S. emergency room, for women that live on reservations, is usually the first place they go for services after a sexual assault. An essential part of our proposed protocols is that every I.H.S. emergency room, direct care health facility and contract health care facility have a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner on staff.

A vital need for Indigenous women's well being is the proper care after a rape: Our biggest health care barrier is that many Indian Health Service (I.H.S.) nurses and doctors are not properly trained in the use of a police rape kit, thus evidence of the crime is inadmissible for prosecution of the perpetrator(s). SANE/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners are trained to administer the rape kit correctly so forensic evidence is collected properly and to ensure the rape kit is done in the most humane and respectful way for the victim. (The Indian Health Service is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides health care to Indigenous Nations and tribes of North America. Health care is an obligation of the U.S. government through legally binding treaties.)

The needs of Indigenous women who have been raped have been ignored or minimally addressed by Indian Health Service, even as the assaults have increased. We have endured sexual brutalization historically to this very day. Virginia Davis, associate counsel for the National Congress of American Indians said, "It's jaw dropping...We've been talking about this for years. I think this is an incredibly complicated problem. Most Americans can live their daily lives and never think about it." (From the Amnesty International report "Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA") Larry Cox, Amnesty International Executive Director said, "It is disgraceful that such abuse exists today. Without immediate action, an already abysmal and outrageous situation for women could spiral even further out of control."

With your help in flooding Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt¹s office with emails or letters demanding that standardized sexual assault policies and protocols within Indian Health Service emergency rooms be immediately addressed we could realize substantial progress in this effort. You may email to: ml.05@hhs.gov and cc denise.schwarz@hhs.gov (his secretary) or write to:

Secretary Mike Leavitt

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, Room S.W., Room 615F

Washington, DC 20201

And request that Indian Health Service adopts and implement standardized Sexual Assault Policies and Protocols for I.H.S. Emergency. This health care crisis must be addressed with great urgency for the well being of Indigenous women.

For more information on the policies and protocols you can google YouTube, and type in NCAI in the search box, this will take you to the DVD we produced on the Sexual Assault Policies and Protocols for Indian Health Service Emergency Rooms.

Findings from a Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center report produced in 2005 of Indian Health Service Emergency Rooms include:

-30% of the Service Units surveyed do not have Sexual Assault Protocols in place.

-Although 70% do protocols, the percentage of Service Units with a protocol posted and accessible to staff members is only 56%. The statistics reflect a discrepancy between policy and practice.

-44% of the Indian Health Service facilities surveyed lack trained personnel to perform emergency services in the event of a rape. This means that there are no SANE/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in place to do a rape kit.

-With out a police rape kit there is no forensic evidence collected which means no convictions. The perpetrator is free to perpetrate again, and does.

-Travel distance for women to Indian Health Service Units to get a rape kit done are vast. In the Albuquerque area the average distance a woman has to travel to get a rape kit done after a rape is 150 miles. In Alaska the distance is unbelievable. This means that women often cannot even get a rape kit done.

Should Indian Health Service adopt and implement standardized sexual assault policies and protocols for their Emergency Rooms with trained SANE Examiners in place we would see a reduction in the number of repeated rapes within our communities by having the evidence to get some of these perpetrators prosecuted. It all starts with the proper collection of evidence.

The policies and protocols would also insure that Native women could access the same standard of service that other women receive in the general population. Such as routine STD screening, Pep, EC if wanted, etc. This is currently not happening.

Nina Wopida Tanka (great thanks) for your help in ending sexual violence against Indigenous women of North America.

Respectfully,

Charon Asetoyer, Executive Director
Native American Women's
Health Education Resource Center
PO Box 572
Lake Andes, SD 57356
605.487.7072
charon[at]charles-mix.com

Comfort Women House Resolution HR121

2007-05-01T22:25:00.000+01:00

Dear organizers,
Below is an email I received from the president of the Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues. There has been another resolution brought to the House, but some of your Congressmen need your encouraging!!! Please take the time to contact them and encourage them to support the resolution and give hope to Comfort Women that they may get reparations yet! The guidelines for how to make contact can be found here.
We hope you will lend your support!
Shael,Cecile and Kate

Dear all,

First of all, I want to thank you for your continued effort, supporting of H.R.121. We count on your tireless team work to accomplish our goal, that is to pass H.R.121. We are in great need more than ever to secure more co-sponsors of HR 121 and herewith I attached the list of those congress members . We should focus on those members who have not co-sponsored yet, either by petition drive or calling/ meeting them whatever possible means that you might have. If your district congress member is already on the board, you can refer to your friends to contact other non-cosponsors. Please visit our website for petition drive guidelines,
Time is critical and we count on your invaluable work to make it happen.

Thanks and Best!

Ok Cha Soh
President
Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues, Inc.

Our Show! Success!

2007-03-26T20:52:00.000+01:00

Saturday we performed to a sold out audience, of more than 200 men and women at the Central Library in Islington. The final numbers on funds raised aren't in yet, but it should be between 2000-3000gbp. Amazing. I just posted a photo of the cast on the night of the dress rehearsal, now I would like to post one of the way we felt after our show. More details, reflections and photos to come...Thank you ladies, for making my dream come true.

Dress Rehearsal: You ladies ROCK

2007-03-26T18:15:00.000+01:00

Friday evening we had our dress rehearsal until 10pm. Ali was our photographer and took over 300 photos which I will put on a CD and will then be copied for the entire cast, courtesy of Annie. I leave on Thursday evening for the big trip, so not sure how much will be posted before then, but here is a sneak peak at the photos to come. Well done ladies.

TVM: Music and MISC.

2007-03-23T12:12:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone,

As we get the last minute items sorted out for the show, there are bound to be things that come up!

Music: One of them is concerning the music Maria is creating to play during the slide show before the show as well as during intermission.

How will we project/play it?

She can either play an Ipod if someone has speakers/bose system or burn a CD if there will be CD player. I also have small speakers that can be connected to my computer to play a cd, (computer will be used with projector for slide show) but these speakers are not loud enough to fill the room with sound.

Noel, is there a way to connect something to the speaker system that will be set up for the mics? Does anyone have a CD player or a system to connect the ipod to?

I won't be checking email after 1pm today, so please respond before then, or bring ideas to tonight's dress rehearsal.

Tonight: Remember, come after work, food will be provided and we will begin the full run through at 6.30 with the share time following. Even if you haven't created a monologue for yourself, there will be some time for those who have and any other thoughts/feelings you want to share impromptu about your experience this year with V-Day Islington. Erin will also have a short response activity which will be used in her display for the show.

Misc. Costume notes: I've bought black waterproof mascara that we can all use for the show as well as some red lipstick which can be shared.

Sunday, Driver Needed: A van has been offered for the strike on Sunday at the Central Library to return/transport the items used in the performance, sound and lighting equipment. A driver is needed to drive the van. Does anyone want to volunteer for this or know someone who would be able to do it. If so, please contact Noel.

Thanks and see you this evening. I will be there from 4.30 to catch up with Hannah. Our show has SOLD OUT!!!!! Well done everyone!

I'm getting excited!!!!!

Lots of vagina love,

Kara

WTF: Unbelievable

2007-03-23T11:39:00.000+01:00

German Judge Cites Koran, Stirring Up Cultural Storm

FRANKFURT, March 22 — A German judge has stirred a storm of protest by citing the Koran in turning down a German Muslim woman’s request for a speedy divorce on the ground that her husband beat her.

In a ruling that underlines the tension between Muslim customs and European laws, the judge, Christa Datz-Winter, noted that the couple came from a Moroccan cultural milieu, in which it is common for husbands to beat their wives. The Koran, she wrote in her decision, sanctions such physical abuse.
***
In January, the judge turned down the wife’s request for a speedy divorce, saying her husband’s behavior did not constitute unreasonable hardship because they are both Moroccan. “In this cultural background,” she wrote, “it is not unusual that the husband uses physical punishment against the wife.”
***
For some, the greatest damage done by this episode is to other Muslim women suffering from domestic abuse. Many are already afraid of going to court against their spouses. There have been a string of so-called honor killings here, in which Turkish Muslim men have murdered women.

“For Muslim men, this is like putting oil on a fire, that a German judge thinks it is O.K. for them to hit their wives,” said Michaela Sulaika Kaiser, the head of a group that counsels Muslim women.

[source and full article]

Friday's Final Dress Rehearsal

2007-03-19T20:53:00.001+01:00

Ok ladies! The countdown begins. Five more days!

Friday Dress Rehearsal

Dinner: Please come to the Central Library directly after work. Harriet is organising to have dinner and drinks for us before our dress rehearsal. It should be a variety for both veg and non-veg, I've recommended pizzas. If you prefer to bring your own meal to munch on, go ahead, but wanted to let you know food and drink will be provided. Please try to get to the library by 5.30pm, if possible. I will be there from 5pm and Noel will be there from 4pm setting up the lights and sound equipment so that we can work straight though the script with lights and sound.

Dress: It is a dress rehearsal, so please bring/wear the clothes you plan to wear the evening of the event. This will help with shoes and comfortability the night of the show as well as any last minute modifications to your costume you may want to make. Sharon mentioned she may be able to get some red feather boas for those that are interested in adding that to their outfits. If anyone has extra red accessories, then please bring them along for others to use if you do not need them.

Run-Through: I would like to begin the run-through at 6.30pm. We will go through without any stops. I need to see how long the show is and as we did not get through the entire script last time, it's imperative we make it through without stops tonight. There will only be a five minute warm-up to get our bodies and minds ready for the stage. The show usually runs 90mins without additional monologues and we have two as well as a short explanation of the vagina warrior balloons and the final thank you. We will take the ten minute intermission during our dress rehearsal and I am guessing it will put us up to 120 mins for everything. That would put us at an 8.30/8.45 start to share our personal monologues.

Personal Monologues: Remember the challenge I gave you at the auditions? To write or create your very own personal monologue in response to your journey through the process of our V-Day Islington production or to why you decided to join us. I have spoken to a couple of you who have created something but are unsure whether you will share. I have also spoken to others who haven't created one. I ask that if you decided not to create one or that you decide not to share yours, that you at least share some feedback during our share time about being a part of the production, even if it's not what you created. Also, if you are interested in having your personal monologue (remember, it can be artwork as well) put into our display that Erin is creating about the process involved in our event, please email her to let her know.

Photography: My husband may come to the dress rehearsal for the run through of the script in order to take photos for the slide show, as well as a full cast photo, since we still haven't done that. I would like to get a photo printed for everyone as a memento of the show on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday Show After Party: Harriet and I have been going to various pubs in the area not to far from the library for a place to gather and have a celebratory drink, or two... after the show on Saturday evening for the cast, crew and partners, etc. We have been unable to get a place with a private room, as they are either booked/unavailable for so late in the evening. And they aren't free. I went to The Alwyne Castle on St. Paul's road (5-7min walk from library)after our workshop on Sat. and they are a large venue with an outside seating area and a larger space inside. They are happy to have us come as a group,if the weather is warm again and the outside is open, there will certainly be plenty of room. We thought it was still a large enough area to crash, even if it was busy. Harriet has also mentioned the Metro Bar which is the opposite direction from the library, I believe, on Holloway Rd. They are also happy to have a large group of us join them. Anyone else is welcome to secure a large space or private room if you know somewhere in the area, but at the moment, neither Harriet nor I have any more options or time to do so.

I think that's it for now. Will let you know if anything else comes up, of course. Good luck this week putting the final touches on your costumes and practicing your monologues. I have every confidence in each of you. The audience will be touched by your performances. And I will be wearing waterproof mascara, because I know I will be too.

See you soon!

Kara

Workshop Overview

2007-03-19T20:41:00.000+01:00

Thank you for those of you who were able to attend our workshop on Saturday early afternoon. Noel and Allan were both on hand with myself to work with individuals on monologues and Noel took us through some exercises for about 45 minutes before doing individual work. For those of you who were unable to make it, we missed you and are looking forward to seeing you on Friday! I am also happy to report that Sue A. has recovered and will be joining us on Friday as well. Wahoo!!!

Trust: Noel lead us through several trust exercises with partners as well as with the entire group. One of the reasons behind this is that we are a team and we have to know and remember that when we are all on stage, we are there for each other. Basically, "we've got your back." This is important to remember if when you are standing on stage in the spotlight and suddenly you don't know what you are doing there. We are there for you.

Accepting Applause: We also had more practice with accepting applause, as many of us are new to the stage. We practiced keeping in character as well while accepting the applause and moving back into the circle. Remember, you deserve the applause. You are wonderful!

Voice: We also did voice exercises and Noel reminded us about the Tai-Chi breathing that we practiced at our first rehearsal. This is important to remember when we are projecting our voice. We did some humming, beginning with humming in our chest, up to our neck, to our mouth and even to our nose. Feeling the vibrations of the humming and the changes in tone as well. He then lead us in a beautiful song with the sign language. We made an attempt to learn the song and get some voice practice in.

Monologue Work: We then worked in partners and small groups to practice our monologues and share costume ideas. I tried to speak individually to everyone there, but as always, we ran short on time! Marisa, Mags and Erin were able to get one on one coaching since they hadn't been able to perform their monologues during the second rehearsal.

Vagina Entrance Notes: Marisa arrived towards the end of the workshop and we discussed the vagina entrance; it's going to be beautiful! She will arrive around 11am or 12pm on Saturday to put it in place. We have decided that the second entrance will be wheel chair accessible, as the vagina entrance will not be wide enough for this. The second entrance will be surrounded by fairy lights and the doors will be propped open to create an open entrance feeling for both entrances and the doors leading to the wheel chair accessible entrance as well.

Ticket Sales: I've emailed Hannah to get the word on ticket sales. Will let you all know the response and how ticket sales are going. Be sure to contact her directly if you have any ticket queries.

Only 5 more days before our show!

More notes in regards to Friday's Final Dress Rehearsal forthcoming.

Have a gr-eat week!

Kara

Minutes from Rehearsal Two, Looking Ahead

2007-03-14T21:58:00.000+01:00

Well done, everyone! It was an action packed evening at the Central Library last Thursday, from 6pm to 9pm, although folks began gathering around 5.30pm. Thanks to those that brought biscuits and water for our rehearsal.

Rehearsal Two: Allan Bell joined us and took us through a grounding exercise to get us focussed for our monologues. We went through the script with impromptu blocking, making due with the space we had on stage. We organised the chairs in two rows of six on a 'v' formation. We will try to go for two rows of twelve once the stage is cleared and we can see how the space is. Otherwise we will change seating arrangements after the intermission, those in the back moving to the front row and vice versa. We took notes in our scripts for blocking. I will also be finalising blocking with those attending at the workshop on Sat. and email any other necessary notes in regards to blocking to those unable to attend.

Allan and I were able to give constructive feedback for almost all of the monologues performed. Unfortunately, we began running out of time and were unable to get through all of them. Sue, Marisa and Erin were unable to perform theirs. I had hoped we could squeeze them in, but the security guard came knocking and we had to shuffle off in a hurry. Not sure if everyone got their red card for their monologues, I will bring it along again to the workshop Sat. as well as the dress rehearsal next Friday. Carrie and Mags were unable to attend the rehearsal for personal reasons, I stood in for Carrie with Ayanna and Harriet and we passed Mags monologue, do to time constraints. I am confident we will have no problem with the run through on Friday, as we will have time to work on specific monologues with many of you Sat. and will not stop for notes/feedback. I will email those of you tomorrow evening with the feedback from Allan and I which we were unable to share at the rehearsal.

Press: We had the press officer from Islington (I think Harriet's office?) at our rehearsal to take pictures and get a couple quotes. She was planning to pass on her photos and quotes to local newspapers. Sarah Taylor has also sent out press releases and contacted local press as well to invite them to the show and let them know what amazing things we are all doing for V-Day Islington 2007!

Programme: The programme was completed by Sunday evening, thanks to Eli for her article contributions, a friend of mine and his excellent photo shop work and my wonderful husband who helped me with the formatting. It was a sleepless couple of nights, but I think we will be happy with how the programme turned out!

Tech stuff: Noel has returned and is looking forward to seeing everyone Sat. He has been busy getting things organised with Ayanna on the tech side of things, so we will have a full run through with lights and sound equipment next Fri. I will be working on a pre-show slide show which Maria is creating a music soundtrack for. She is also creating a vagina entrance for our show!!!! Isabelle has been working on advertising and spreading the word.

Dress Rehearsal: Although next Friday we will begin our rehearsal at 6pm, I am going to encourage you to come directly after work so that we can have time to have dinner and relax a bit before getting into the run through. Harriet is organising for us to have some food and drink to get us through the evening. I will email an agenda for the night mid-week next week. Just wanted to get you thinking about coming after work so that we have ample time.

Costumes: If you have any costume questions, please feel free to email me or we can talk at the workshop on Sat, for those of you coming. I've just gotten my dress and need to pull together some red accessories!

Vagina Warriors: I still need help with organising the balloons. Anyone?

Post Show Celebration: Harriet and I have been working on finding a place for us to join for drinks after the show on Sat, near to where the Central library is. We don't have a place fully organised yet, anyone know a place, you are welcome to recommend. We have both looked into a couple that won't work. I am now looking into the Alwyne, which seems large enough to host us and Harriet has found a place that wouldn't mind us 'crashing' in as a large group, called the Metro Bar. Again, if you have ideas, feel free to see if they are feasible for us.

Thanks everyone for their hard work and dedication. Will email those notes from the rehearsal performances tomorrow evening.

All the best!

Kara

Saturday Workshop

2007-03-13T21:55:00.000+01:00

Hello All,

Just wanted to send out a short reminder about this Saturday's workshop at the Central Library from 11am to 1pm. Both Noel and Allan will be with us and after some warm up and voice exercises with Noel, the three of us will be available to work with you one on one as well as in small groups. I know that not all of you are able to attend, but that many of you are interested in/planning on being there. Please let me know if you are attending, just to get an idea of who will be there. I am aware already of some of you that are unable to come, so no need to let me know if you won't be there.

Looking forward to seeing most of you on Saturday. I will also finalise blocking and for those of you not there, will send emails in regards to this. Please bring a pencil and script for any notes.

Still to come: minutes and feedback from Thursday's second rehearsal.

Hope you are having a great week. I've begun putting my outfit together for our show.....Fun stuff!

Kara

Spotlight Campaign

2007-03-08T00:04:00.000+01:00

I will be sharing some of this information at the rehearsal Thursday, but thought I would send it on to each of you in detail so you know where the remainder of the proceeds from our production will be going (10%) as well as in case you'd like to research the organisations themselves.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY!!!

The list below is organizations that will be beneficiaries of this year's V-Day Spotlight on Women in Conflict Zones.

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HAITI
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AFASDA - Association Femmes Soleil d' Haiti - AFASDA is a locally based (Cap Haitien) solely volunteer organization that networks and raises awareness about violence facing women. A primary focus of AFASDA's work is on providing assistance not available elsewhere to women who suffer political rape (Haiti).

URAMEL - Unite de Recherche at d'action Medico - Legale - URAMEL is an organization of legal and medical professionals working voluntarily to promote a better administration of justice though the understanding of forensic medicine and how it can impact cases of abuse towards women.

ENFOFANM - Organisation de Defense des Droits des Femmes - ENFOFANM (Info-Women) operates from the premise that access to information is key to empowering women to play an active role in building democracy in Haiti. Through communication and documentation of feminist literature and women's issues that started with a newsletter in 1991, extended to radio in 1997 and then into TV in 2005, they preserve the memory of the Haitian Women's Movement, safeguarding its heritage and addressing the gender equality that still exists in Haiti today.

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AFGHANISTAN
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RAWA - Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan - RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977.

Arghan is a cooperative of men and women in Kandahar Afghanistan that produces natural skin-care products with local raw materials found in the orchards of southern Afghanistan - almonds, apricots, pomegranates, the precious blossoms ofRosa damascena. The result is a unique line of soaps and oils, whose aesthetic beauty and skin-nourishing virtues are truly unparalleled. Arghan is committed to providing women with dignified employment remunerated at a fair level, as well as an equal share in the decision-making process.

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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
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Panzi Hospital - Specializing in the treatment of sexually assaulted women in the Congo, including the treatment of traumatic fistula .

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ASIA
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The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan - The Korean Council was established in 1990 by eighteen groups of social organizations and women's organizations in order to help the victims of the militarism based sexual slavery instituted by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation - TWRF works to rescue, and provide counseling, to women and children victims of sex trafficking and domestic violence.

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MIDDLE EAST
--------------
KAFA (enough) Violence and Exploitation - KAFA is a non-profit, non-political civil society organization that seeks to mitigate the causes and results of violence and exploitation of women and children through advocacy, lobbying, raising awareness, and by offering social and legal services to vulnerable cases.

OWFI - Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq - is the only national women's organization advocating for a secular society based on democracy and respect for human rights in accordance with international standards. OWFI is working to provide a sanctuary from violence for Iraqi women, who cite the lack of personal security as the largest problem they face in post-invasion Iraq. Rape has dramatically increased in the social chaos following the US invasion. 'Honor killings' of rape survivors by male family members have increased as the incidence of rape has risen. In response, OWFI has established five women's shelters--in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Erbil, and Nasariyeh--to provide Iraqi women with a place to turn for security and support.

Rehearsal Two

2007-03-07T23:11:00.000+01:00

Hello wonderful ladies!

Tomorrow is our second rehearsal. Just wanted to send out a few notes for you beforehand.

Rehearsal Two: Central Library, 6-9pm. Arrive at 5.30pm if you would like to purchase any tickets from Hannah. She will be there until 6.20pm. Announcements and press will be from 6-6.30. From 6.30 we will do the run through and then directly afterwards a cast photo. Should finish by 9, possibly before. We need to make sure we have enough time for blocking and the run through, which is why I have the venue reserved until 9pm.

Costume notes: Think vaginally! Any colour you would associate with your vagina should work. Red feather boas have been used to great effect. Keep in mind the set and working to compliment its design. You will get a better idea of this at our rehearsal. It will be very basic and I will describe it to you once we are working on the stage. Each monologue should ultimately influence each costume. You can see if local designers will donate outfits. But you can also design your own wonderful creations. Eli and I went to a couple op shops over the weekend in Islington and Angel (Salvation Army, Cancer Research) and there are red items everywhere that can be integrated into your outfit or used an an accent piece, and for very little money. Our main idea is wearing black with red accents. Your outfit should reflect your and the monologue you are reading. You should feel comfortable, sexy, empowered, whatever you want to feel and feel you should feel while on the stage reading your monologue. Talk to your 'buddy' about costume ideas. Go shopping with a friend. Have a friend over to look through your wardrobe. Piece together whatever you feel is right for you. Erin shared a link from the show in Japan in the town she organised an event in last year. Check out the link for photos of their show and get costume ideas as well! Shimane V-Day 2007 You will bring your costumes to the dress rehearsal on 23rd March.

Spotlight Campaign: I will be reading/sharing some information about the organisations receiving the 10% benefits from the funds we raise at our event.

Full Cast Photo: After the run through of the script, we will take a full cast photo. This will be used in the programme. The programme has to be submitted by the end of the weekend, so I need to take the photo then. I thought we would do it after the run through since a couple people may be a little late to the rehearsal and I want to get started promptly at 6.30pm.

Press: I have no idea who will be at the rehearsal, I just know that Sarah has written a press release to be submitted to local press and will then call to see if anyone is interested in attending our rehearsal to take photos and interview cast members.

Reminder: Please bring your monologue written/typed on half sheets of A4 paper as I will be distributing RED card at the rehearsal which will be used to glue your lines onto. You might want to make notes in your script or a photocopy of your monologue for staging (minor) or whatever, so bring a pencil. But the actual monologue for the night of the performance will be glued to as many cards as you need, that way you can use large font and spread it out on a few cards. If you are unsure of what I mean, I will show you an example at the rehearsal and you can take the cards away from you to create your cue cards at home.

Ok, I think that's it. I hope all is well with you and look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

Kara

Notes Regarding Rehearsal Two

2007-03-06T00:01:00.000+01:00

Hello All,

Press: Just wanted to let you know that some local press have been invited to attend the first part of our rehearsal. They will be there for 6pm and I have asked that they leave no later than 15mins after we begin the script run through at 6.30pm. They may want to ask questions/interview some of us and or take photos. I thought it would be good for them to get some action photos while we begin blocking the first part of the play. I also wanted to ensure that they won't stay because I want you to have a space where you feel comfortable performing on stage for the first time. We will begin at 6.30pm on the dot because we need all the time we can get to get through the first full run through of the production. There will be no microphones at the rehearsal, but they will be there on dress rehearsal night.

Tickets: Hannah will be at the Central Library from 5.30-6.20pm in order to take care of ticket sales. You must have your two reserved tickets purchased by this date, so if you would like to take care of the money/form and ticket exchange with Hannah, please plan to arrive at the Central Library at 5.30pm because we will begin the rehearsal at 6pm and the run through at 6.30pm.

Personal Monologue: Have you been working on your personal 'monologue' challenge that I put forth to you? Just a friendly reminder. Also, if you choose not to share it with us on dress rehearsal night, you are still welcome to share with us the process of creating your own monologue or some feedback in general. Whatever you feel most comfortable doing.

Costume notes to come....

Kara

Final Cast List and Buddies

2007-03-04T17:05:00.000+01:00

Here it is, the final cast list. We will also put a few facts into the run through, which will be read by Louise. Harriet will get these to me before our rehearsal on Thursday and I will place them in accordingly.

I will be reading the short introductions to the monologues that include an intro in the script.

Introduction: Sarah T., Patricia, Trish
Hair: Sangita
The 'Wear and Say' Lists: Michelle, Monica, Ana
The Flood: Annie
The Vagina Workshop: Heather
Vagina Happy Fact: Michelle
Because He Liked to Look At It: Catherine
I Was 12. My Mother Slapped Me: Ayanna, Erin, Amanda, Ana
Not So Happy Fact: Catherine
The Memory of Her Face: Carrie (Baghdad, facts at end of monologue), Ayanna (Islamabad), Harriet (Juarez)
My Angry Vagina: Sharon

*Short intermission.

My Vagina Was My Village: Mags
The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could: Sue A.
The 'Smell' List: Trish, Amanda, Sirvan
My Short Skirt: Sarah T.
Reclaiming Cunt: Eli
A six-year-old girl was asked...: Marisa
The Woman Who Liked to Make Vagina's Happy: Erin
I Was There In the Room: Sue S.
Spotlight Campaign Information/Monologue: Kara
Honouring Vagina Warriors: Eli

The play runs 90 minutes without the two additional monologues. We will have a better idea of our show length after the first run through on Thursday.

Buddies:
Sarah T -- Carrie
Eli -- Erin
Mags -- Sharon
Patricia, Trish, Amanda, Sirvan
Ayanna, Harriet (Carrie)
Marisa -- Sue S --Annie
Sangita -- Sue A.
Michelle, Monica, Ana
Catherine -- Heather

I've put you with women whom you may be working on a monologue together or have practiced together during our first rehearsal. Some of you have more than one buddy due to sharing a monologue and numbers. The goal of the buddy is to practice together during rehearsals as well as meet outside of rehearsals, if you choose. A buddy can also be someone you contact for support or encouragement as well as share ideas about your costume and your monologue. For this purpose, I have included everyone's email in the cc list so that you can email your buddy before the rehearsal on Thursday to see how she is doing!

Alternatively, if you need to contact me for any reason, please do so. I am available in the evenings after 6pm by phone and throughout the day on email, except for Fridays when I volunteer, I do not have computer access and generally do not work at home in the evening as it is Friday!

Stay tuned for more information coming your way in order to be ready for Thursday's Rehearsal...

Kara

Rehearsal 1 Minutes

2007-02-25T12:43:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone,

Here are the 'minutes' from our first rehearsal. For those of you that attended and those of you that didn't.

V-Day Islington Mission: We worked in small groups to come up with our V-Day Islington Mission from the notes gathered at the first two auditions. Excellent ideas were created in regards to slogans, display as well as the programme. All of this will be included in the display that Erin is creating for the process of our V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues. She will also be taking photos during rehearsals to display on the evening of the show. If you don't want your picture taken, then please tell her at the next rehearsal. I am very excited about the ideas created and Heather, Eli and myself will be working on the programme with some feed back from Sue A and her wonderful idea about the traffic lights! As well as some feedback from the other group that came up with some excellent slogans. Let me know if you are interested in helping out with this and stay tuned for more information as it comes together.

Vagina Warriors: I read Eve Ensler's essay entitled: Vagina Warriors: An Emerging Paradigm. An Emerging Species. Please read it as it is attached if you did not attend the rehearsal. This will give you some background on Vagina Warriors. We discussed ideas to honour them at our show. Monica came up with the balloon idea, modified by Sharon: red balloons with black string and white cards attached. At the end of the show we will say something to the audience about Vagina Warriors and they will be invited to write the name of a Vagina Warrior in their lives on the white card and take the balloon with them to let it off outside the library. We will need a helium tank, balloons, string and cards. The balloons can be in the hallway and also serve as decoration for the show.

Warm-Up with Noel: We had a lot of fun with this and I think it really opened up our bodies and minds for the remainder of the rehearsal. I know that I took a lot away with me from this and have been really conscious of how my body shows different emotions through breathe, tension, facial, and body language. It was both fun and beneficial. If you were unable to attend the first rehearsal, you must attend all or part of the workshop on the 17th of March, 11-1pm because with it, you will have the tools needed to successfully deliver, understand and feel your monologue. (Harriet, Louise and Sue S. have told me prior to making the dates for our rehearsals/workshop that you are unable to attend this workshop; the rest of you should be there.)

Rehearsal Time: Everyone worked in partners and small groups to practice their monologues, while Noel and myself walked around listening and giving feedback to everyone. I hope that between us we were able to spend a little time with everyone, because I know that I didn't get to see each of you. But those that I did see were doing an excellent job and I especially enjoyed the side conversations that were inspired from the monologues themselves. Everyone was working very hard and I saw a lot of team work. Way to go!!! This is also something that is very important in the process of preparing for our production, that is why it is imperative that you attend the remainder of the rehearsals and workshop in order to continue being cast in the show. You need to have that time to work with someone as well as get objective feedback. I encourage you to keep in touch with your partner during the duration of the preparations for the show in case you have any questions and also just to give each other support. I will send an email with the partner lists and emails.

Final Cast Lists: I am creating the final list, pending feedback from a couple of the new women that attended the rehearsal on Thursday. Cat, can you email me Anna's email as well as forward this on to her? Thanks.

What's Coming Up:
*Rehearsal 2: 8 March, 5.30-8/9pm I need to confirm how late we can be at the library. We will be doing a run through of the entire show straight away, after some simple warm-ups in order to see how long it takes us as well as to do some blocking. Between now and then, practice your monologue. I will pass out black cards for you to paste your monologue onto for the show. Between now and then, prepare your monologue by writing or typing it onto a piece of A4 paper cut in half and you will hold it vertically. I will give you as many pieces of card as you need, so feel free to spread it out if you need a larger font size. If you don't understand, we can work through it at the next rehearsal. Bring your full script as well as a copy only of the monologue you will be performing.
*Workshop with Noel: 17 March, 11-1pm. This is required for those that missed the first rehearsal and recommended for the rest of the cast. Even if you can only come for half of it, it will be more beneficial than not attending at all.
*23 March, Dress Rehearsal, from 5.30/6pm-9/10 We will share our challenges as well as run through the entire show. Dinner and drinks will be provided. This will be a fun, but long night.
*24 March, Our Performance!!! from 5pm-10pm we have the library, we will discuss the time line as the date gets closer for how this evening will go. Doors open at 6.30 and show begins promptly at 7pm, no later. There will be a short intermission and we must leave the venue by 10pm; however, we can store items from the show overnight. I will need volunteers to come on Sunday to do the final strike of the venue.

V-Day Flyer: See attached. Remember, you each have two seats that you can reserve, but tickets for these must be purchased through Hannah by 8 March. Please have those two people put your name in the corner of their booking form so that Hannah can keep track of everyone's two tickets. Questions about this, please contact Hannah (her information is on the flyer) Please pass on/email/post flyer to anyone and everyone!

Ok, that's it for now. Keep thinking of your 'challenge' monologue; I know I am thinking about mine. Mine from last year is posted on our V-Day blog in the archives for Feb. 2006.

All the best. Please feel free to contact me by phone or email if you have any questions and I will send out the list of partners from our rehearsal and match up others that weren't here, just so you have a mentor of sorts to touch base with throughout the process.

Thanks for all of your hard work, time and commitment.

Kara

First Rehearsal

2007-02-18T20:51:00.000+01:00

Hello all,

Just a reminder that our first rehearsal will be on Thursday, 22 February at the Town Hall in Islington from 6-9pm in Room 5. We will be doing some acting and voice warmups with Noel and Bruce as well as working individually and in pairs on your individual monologues.

In addition to preparing for our monologues, we will also be working together to create our final Islington V-Day Mission and discuss Vagina Warriors and ideas about how we can celebrate them in our show. Please read the information posted on our V-Day blog and look through the documents linked in that post as well to gain a background of Vagina Warriors. I will be reading one of the essays Eve wrote at our rehearsal to kick start our discussion.

Please eat prior to attending the rehearsal or bring your food with you. You will have some time at the beginning of our evening to eat your dinner, while we discuss. This will also be the plan for our second rehearsal but for our final dress rehearsal, dinner and drinks will be provided.

Tech Update: some of us met at the venue on Monday, 13 February, to discuss the layout of our show. Noel is looking into getting red fabric for both sides of the stage, to be hung from the ceiling. He is also organising lights and the sound system. Ayanna will assist Noel with lights and sound. The actors will sit in rows on each side, creating a V-Formation. Maria will be looking into music to be played prior to the show during a slide/projector presentation on the back wall of the stage. This presentation will have pictures, artwork and facts relating to our campaign and local population. Erin will provide a disc with the slide show used in her Japan show last year and we can add as we see fit. Maria is also looking into designing/creating a vagina for the entrance door into our performance room. Actors will wear black with red accents. We will discuss developing character costumes and makeup during rehearsals. Ayanna is looking into the possibility of a friend with a van helping out to pick up and return the lights and sound equipment. Any others who have a driver and large vehicle please let me know in case we need a backup. Harriet is organising the bar and refreshments for our performance, both of our partners, Ali and Ros, will be running the bar. Maria and a friend will also help out as needed.

Ticket Sales: flyers and booking forms will go out this week by email. Harriet is working on the design of the flyer. There will be a ticket sales contact (still to be confirmed) as well as two dates which we will sell tickets from the Central Library so that individuals will be able to buy tickets in person. There will be 220 seats. Each member of our V-Team will have two tickets each reserved for family/friends to purchase, the price will be a donation on a sliding scale from £5-15, using gift aid. If these tickets are not bought by 8 March, they will be available for the public to purchase. If you have more than two seats you'd like to extend to those you know, encourage your family and friends to buy tickets as soon as possible to ensure they get a seat.

Cast List Updates: There are a few women who have joined our team late and they will be taking a small speaking part in one of the lists. These updates will be finalised by our first rehearsal. I will send you an individual email if your additional speaking parts have been modified. Remember, there will be opportunity to read extra once we have decided on the v-facts we will add to our script, which will be for the second rehearsal.

V-Challenge: I want to remind each of you of the challenge I gave you at the auditions. Remember that for our final dress rehearsal you will be encouraged to share your 'challenge' with the rest of the team. The challenge is this: throughout our v-day campaign leading up to our production, reflect on your journey with v-day and why you are here to take part in our production. Write or create your own monologue to be shared with the group that comes from this reflection. This could be something you write or perform, a drawing, photo, sculpture, etc: anything that expresses your feelings, and experience with v-day or why you decided to take part in v-day. If you would like to read what I wrote last year for myself, then please visit here: I am creating something new for this year's experience and production.

You will also be encouraged to put these on display at a table at our show which will be created to show those that attend our production our journey as a team with V-Day. Erin will be taking photos throughout our rehearsals to be a part of this display, which will also include our V-Day Islington Mission and any other artifacts we feel would be helpful to share. You will not be required to put your reflections on display, but are welcome to. However, I do hope that many, if not all of you, will be able to share your 'challenge' with the rest of the team for our final rehearsal.

Rehearsals: Remember, you must attend every rehearsal to take part in the production. There are a couple of you that have already spoken to me about dates you are unable to make it and we agreed upon this prior to creating the rehearsal dates. Otherwise, I should see everyone there. Noel and Bruce will not be attending our second rehearsal but I have a couple of others that may be helping in warm-ups, this will also be the rehearsal we do the first run through of the entire script. The workshop on 17th March led by Noel and Bruce is not required, but recommended.

See you all on Thursday, and if all goes as planned, you will have received the ticket flyer and booking form prior to then to pass on to everyone you know!

Have a good week,

Kara

Updated Cast List

2007-02-12T15:12:00.000+01:00

I've filled the remainder of the parts. There will be V-Facts related to Islington that we will add to the show as well with prominent women from the Islington community who will read them and possibly take part in the show otherwise.

If you have not already done so, can you confirm that you received this list, as we were having difficulty and a couple of you did not get the first casting list.

This will also be the order of the monologues in the production. For the monologues where there are more than one performing, you can work together at the first rehearsal to decide who will read Women 1, 2, 3, 4, unless I have otherwise specified below.

Introduction: Sarah T., Patricia, Trish
Hair: Sangita
The 'Wear and Say' Lists: Marisa, Monica, Vicky
The Flood: Annie
The Vagina Workshop: Heather
Vagina Happy Fact: Monica
Because He Liked to Look At It: Catherine
I Was 12. My Mother Slapped Me: Ayanna, Erin, Eli, Louise
Not So Happy Fact: Catherine
The Memory of Her Face: Carrie (Baghdad, facts at end of monologue), Harriet (Islamabad), Ayanna (Juarez)
My Angry Vagina: Sharon

*If we chose to have a short intermission, it will be placed here.

My Vagina Was My Village: Mags
The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could: Sue A.
The 'Smell' List: Trish, Amanda, Sirvan
My Short Skirt: Sarah T.
Reclaiming Cunt: Eli
A six-year-old girl was asked...: Marisa
The Woman Who Liked to Make Vagina's Happy: Erin
I Was There In the Room: Sue S.
Spotlight Campaign Information/Monologue: Kara
Honouring Vagina Warriors (we will discuss this at our first rehearsal)

Thank you for your patience. Please be sure to have read the entire script before our first rehearsal and spend some time reading over your monologue and practicing on your own. I will email the agenda for the first rehearsal next week, as well as individual notes in regards to your monologues, as needed.

Have a great week and see you soon!

Kara

Vagina Warriors

2007-02-11T17:08:00.000+01:00

CELEBRATE VAGINA WARRIORS. LET THEM BE HONORED AND SEEN. LET THEM BE BORN.

- Eve Ensler, Founder/Artistic Director, V-Day; playwright, “The Vagina Monologues” 08/04

Being a Vagina Warrior “means developing the spiritual muscle to enter and survive the grief that violence brings and, in that dangerous space of stunned unknowing, inviting the deeper wisdom.” --Eve Ensler

Honoring and celebrating Vagina Warriors, the extraordinary women and men in your communities who have witnessed or experienced violence and responded by helping to end it, has been a V-Day tradition since 2004. We hope you will continue the tradition and this year celebrate those women's anti-violence activists who are 'Reclaiming Peace' in their lives and in their communities.

Reclaiming Peace: Honoring Vagina Warriors at Your Events
2007 Reclaiming Peace - To reflect this year's theme Reclaiming Peace, we encourage you to honor women and men who are working to end violence against women AND are leaders for peace and non-violence in your own communities. By celebrating the work of these women and men, you can help make the connection between our ongoing anti-violence work and our 2007 call for Peace.

An Emerging Paradigm, An Emerging Species
2004 Vagina Warriors: Eve Ensler wrote this essay defining vagina warriors for V-Day 2004; It served as a statement of purpose for "Celebrating Vagina Warriors".

2005 Vagina Warriors Lead the Way

2006 Vagina Warriors: The New Revolution
Building on the momentum of years past by recognizing new warriors in order to inspire even more to join the movement. Vagina Warriors: The New Revolution will bring to light faces new and old with one thing in common: tireless and creative commitment to ending violence against women. These are women and men that are just coming to understand the violence in their community and are showing their commitment to ending it in new and transforming ways.

From soccer moms to veteran activists, from law makers and law enforcers to young college students, Vagina Warriors around the world are leading the new revolution to end violence against women and change the world.

Celebrate the new revolution in your community. Honour Vagina Warriors. Make them visible. Support them. Be inspired. -- Eve Ensler

[source]

Casting: TVM

2007-02-09T12:08:00.000+01:00

Hello All,

I've casted most of the monologues. There are a few spaces for the lists monologues at the end of the script that I am still placing as I am still meeting with a couple of women and need to confirm. I tried to take everyone's interests into consideration and have chosen roles which I believe you will do wonderfully as well as feel empowered upon performing them. If you are interested in being considered for an additional role, such as reading in one of the lists, or reading one of the V-Facts that will be compiled for Islington, then please let me know as I will be placing these in the next week. I've also left these spaces in order to include a couple of women that are just now joining us and I will send out a final cast list next week. I apologise it has taken me the full week to get back to you, but I wanted to contact some of you individually and get feed back as well as I have been battling a pretty massive headache most of the week. Thank you for your patience and please contact me should you have any questions or concerns.

Introduction: Sarah T., Patricia, Trish
Hair: Sangita
The 'Wear and Say' Lists: Marisa, Monica, Vicky
The Flood: Annie
The Vagina Workshop: Heather
Vagina Happy Fact: _________ (to be confirmed this weekend)
Because He Liked to Look At It: Catherine
I Was 12. My Mother Slapped Me: Ayanna,___,___,___
Not So Happy Fact: Catherine
My Angry Vagina: Sharon
My Vagina Was My Village: Mags
The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could: Sue A.
The 'Smell' List: __________,__________,__________
Reclaiming Cunt: Eli
A six-year-old girl was asked...: Marisa
The Woman Who Liked to Make Vagina's Happy: Erin
I Was There In the Room: Sue S.
The Memory of Her Face: Harriet, Ayanna,(third to be confirmed this weekend)
My Short Skirt: Sarah T.
Spotlight Campaign Information/Essay: Kara

So there it is! First rehearsal will be 22 February from 6-9pm at the Town Hall in Islington. Be there or be square!

Have a great weekend. I will send each of you some notes individually to think about as you consider and read over your piece while on your own at home.

Kara

Rehearsal Dates: Mark Your Calendar!

2007-02-07T00:15:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone. Please mark your calendar for the dates, times and locations below. I have heard from just two of you about conflicts with the workshop afternoon, and one of you with a conflict for the first rehearsal. Otherwise, please mark your calendars for the dates below. And tomorrow I will email what you will be rehearsing!

Tech Crew Meeting: Central Library
12 Feb. Mon. 6-7/8
for those interested in working on the technical aspects of the production, I have sent an email out to you today

Two Full Rehearsals:
22 Feb. Thurs. 6-9: Town Hall
8 Mar. Thurs. 5.30/6-8: Central Library

Acting/Voice Workshop: Central Library
17 Mar. Sat. 11-1

Full Dress Rehearsal: Central Library
23 Mar. Fri. 6-9

TVM Production: Central Library
24 Mar. Sat. 5pm set up
7pm show
10:30pm must be out of venue

Details will follow, I just wanted to get the dates and locations organised as soon as possible so you could mark your calendars. Remember, the workshop is not a requirement, but for those who wish to attend. If you are unable to attend, then perhaps we can set up a small meeting with Noel and Bruce to give some extra coaching to those who feel the need/wish to have it. I tried to spread things out a bit as well.

More soon...

Kara

Rehearsal Dates

2007-02-04T23:43:00.000+01:00

Hello All,

I have taken a look at the calendar and I would like to throw some dates out there to get feedback so we can put them on the calendar permanently. I have also been working on casting and am nearly there. My goal is to have the casting completed by Wed. this week. I may be in touch with some of you individually to go over ideas for your personal monologue.

I'd like to organise an optional acting workshop for either Sat. March 10th or Sat. March 17, for around 11am for an hour or so. I need to confirm whether voice and acting coaches are available as well as how many of you would be interested in doing this.

We need to have two full rehearsals before our final dress rehearsal. We will also have meetings outside of these rehearsals in smaller groups to keep connected and work on other areas of the campaign and leading up to the production. These will be planned separately. I need you to check your calendar and let me know what dates you CANNOT do from the following: February: Thurs. 22nd, 6-9, March: Thurs. 8th, 6-9; Fri. 16th 6-8/9; Sat. 17th 10-1 or 11-2. Of these dates, I will chose two based on everyone's availability. I think we should give ourselves about three hours, but we may finish earlier. Remember, if you are not acting or working on tech, you do not need to attend the rehearsals, as you may be working on other projects at different times.

We have confirmed the venue, it will be the Central Library in Islington. The dress rehearsal will be the night before our production, on March 23rd. Time is to be confirmed, but I was thinking around 6pm so that we have plenty of time for the rehearsal as well as sharing our final 'projects' that I put forth to each of you as well as ordering in pizza or something. Remember, we are also here to have fun!

I would also like to plan a meeting with those working/interested in the technical areas of the show for us to meet at the Central Library to take a look at the venue, look into needs for lighting, sounds, etc. I would like to do this Monday evening, either Feb 12 or 19. I also need to confirm with the venue that this is a possibility.

I will be in touch with some of you individually. I am also creating groups for the other items that need to be addressed as per the previous email. I only heard back from a few of you, so I will put forth some ideas and assign projects and you can decide whether it is what you want/can do or not.

Also, if you are on this list and have decided not to participate in our event, then please let me know. If you don't have time to commit now, you are always welcome to help out the night of the show with ushering, etc.

All the best!

Kara

Volunteer Teams

2007-01-31T23:51:00.000+01:00

Dear all,

Thank you for coming to the audition evenings. I had a lot of fun! It was also really great to meet some of you for the first time and I am really looking forward to working with you this V-Season. Below I have included the list of tasks I put together which need to be worked on for our V-Day event/production. Please respond to this email to let me know what you are interested in working on and then I will create smaller teams and put you in touch with each other via email so you can plan to work together or independently. I would also like you to let me know how things are developing and plan to meet with at least one member of your team or keep in touch over the phone as things develop. I'm also interested in working on some of these areas as well, so for these I will let you know when I send out the email after creating groups.

In the mean time, please let me know what you would like to work on as well as any additional notes in regards to monologues. My goal is to let you know your monologue by mid-week next week so that you can begin to feel comfortable with your monologue. I am also looking at my calendar to try to organise some full rehearsal date suggestions. I haven't heard from anyone in regards to times that are off limits.

Press, publicity and promotional/marketing:
press releases
posters, fliers, brochures, postcards, etc.
create program outline, finalise and print programs
pursue press coverage
create keep in touch forms to have at event

Fundraising
sell advertisements in program to local stores and restaurants
set ticket prices: rolling price of 5-15gbp mentioned
design, create, and sell tickets
do we want to sell products at our event to make more money? Some examples include: items sold on v-day site, posters on mencanstoprape.org, making/baking items to sell, drinks, etc.

Treasurer
donations (tax free direct debits for large donations: possible?buckets for donations)
issue check to V-Day at end of season for 10% of profits
creating fund for women who have no recourse to public funds

Complimenting Events/Information
--getting to know our beneficiary: is there a group of women we can support whom will receive support from the funds? Ideas: make-overs, planning a movie night: We discussed this at both meetings, Noel mentioned the St. Mary Magdeline Centre as well as other possible groups he can approach at the Refugee Forum Meeting on 7th Feb.
–-any other ideas for events leading up to V-Day or including at our production: display of art by women who have been survivors of violence? Artwork to celebrate being a woman? I know that the DV week will be full of events, but there was also a mention of images/photographs being used during week can be used for V-Day event. I am also interested in whether you have other ideas. Putting a display up on refugees in the area as well as other information which connects the spotlight campaign and facts related to Islington mentioned at Monday's meeting.
–-an event to involve men (take a look at the v-spot section on men, other ideas?)
-- We need to compile facts about violence against women in Islington as well as other facts you feel would be relevant to weave through our show

Tech Crew
all meet together to discuss ideas as well as skills and resources
Stage Manager: who wants to help the director?
Costume/Makeup
Stage/Set Design
Technical Crew: Lights, sound
Setting Up Production/Ushers

Spotlight Campaign
Info posted on V-Day/vspot (let me know if you want access to this) as well as info posted on vdaystopviolenceagainstwomen.blogspot.com
How can we/will we educate the community through out v-day event on the spotlight subject?

V-Spot
Who would like to be invited to access more information via v-spot? Recommended to those leading smaller groups within the team and anyone interested in participating in the online forum/discussions.

Meetings/Rehearsals:
We have 52 days/7 weeks and 3 days. Please look at your calendar to let me know if there are dates you cannot meet for our full rehearsals as I would like to put those dates on the calendar in the coming week and create tentative dates to confirm as soon as possible.

Misc:do mailings, create decorations, copy fliers, put up posters, usher at production, sell products

Please let me know what you would like to do! I also have noted from our audition evenings for those of you that have already mentioned interest in some of these areas, but a specific confirmation would be helpful as well.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you all soon.

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Kara

Recap from Thursday Audition Evening

2007-01-28T20:36:00.000+01:00

Thank you for coming to the audition evening on Thursday. I really enjoyed meeting all of you, and seeing some of you again! You all did an excellent job taking the risk to read for the auditions! Well done everyone! After the audition evening tomorrow I will be in touch with you in regards to the role I have in mind for you and hopefully by then you will all have read the script. Additionally, please send on any ideas or queries you have about a monologue you may be interested in performing. I will keep your preferences in mind and work to find the best monologue for each of you.

Campaign Needs and Rehearsals: I will also be posting the needs and other areas of the campaign you can get involved in on the vday blog as well as vdayislingtongroups in an email. I would also like to organise the two rehearsals we will have and the one dress rehearsal, so please check your calendars for any weekends or end of week times you will be out of town, as these may fall towards the end of the week and the dress rehearsal the night before or even the day of, we will need to decide this as well. Let me know dates you are absolutely unavailable.

Visiting a Women's Refugee Shelter: I am still interested in organising a weekday evening or weekend afternoon to visit a refugee shelter where we can have a makeover time or even a movie; ideas welcome. I will be contacting The Body Shop to find out about whether they would be interested in sending some volunteers/supplies to help with makeovers/pampering sessions. Ideas are welcome and even if only a few of you are available or interested in something like this, I think it would be a great experience for all involved. Additionally, I have no idea where to start in finding a group which would be interested/benefit in us visiting and putting on an event for them, so any information in regards to that would be excellent. Thank you in advance. Also, if you would be interested in participating in this event, then do let me know.

V-spot: For those of you interested in accessing information and taking part in the forums on the V-spot I need your phone number as well. I know that you each said you would be interested, but can you confirm that it's ok to give them your email and phone details before I do so. I believe I have all that information on your volunteer application forms.

I will be in touch after the second Audition evening. Have a great week everyone!

All the best,

Kara

Spotlight Campaign: Women in Conflict Zones

2007-01-22T21:28:00.000+01:00

Each year V-Day creates a Spotlight around a particular group of women who are experiencing violence and resisting it with courage and vision. The goal of the spotlight is to put a worldwide media spotlight on the issue, and to raise funds and awareness to aid groups who are working on it.

V- Day Spotlight 2007: Women in Conflict Zones
In 2007 the V-Day Spotlight addresses Women in Conflict Zones because war exponentially increases the crimes of violence against women and girls. In equal measure the strength and resilience of women in rebuilding their communities and leading governments to peaceful solutions needs to be celebrated.

For women, not just during war but for decades to come, armed conflict means escalated military, sexual, and domestic violence, lack of security as a displaced person or refugee, and vulnerability to sex traffickers and coerced prostitution even by the peacekeepers themselves. Given the 21st century's escalating armed conflicts, impunity for wartime sexual violence cannot be tolerated. As patterns of wartime rape and sexual violence continue today in places such as Sudan, Congo, and Iraq, it is paramount to expose and condemn these crimes through international media coverage and public outcry and efforts in our communities themselves.

V-Day first took aim at wartime sexual violence with the 2002 Spotlight: Afghanistan Is Everywhere, followed by the 2005 Spotlight: Women of Iraq: Under Siege, and the 2006 Spotlight: The Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to 'Comfort Women.' Our 2007 Spotlight will continue to ensure that wartime sexual violence remains in the media and public eye. [source]

10% of the proceeds from each V-Day production to our 2007 Spotlight campaign.

For more information on Women in Conflict Zones, please read through some of the articles and reports linked below, provided on the vday/vspot for Campaign Organisers.

International Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond
In June 2006, more than 250 participants from 30 countries met at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels for the International Symposium on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Beyond. This historic three-day conference -- convened by the Government of Belgium, the European Commission and UNFPA -- brought together heads of UN agencies and NGOs, human activists and researchers, government ministers, doctors and other field-based humanitarian workers, parliamentarians, representatives from the International Criminal Court, military and police officers, and members of the media to share experiences, strategies and a renewed commitment to end the scourge of sexual violence in countries torn apart by war.

European Parliament Resolution on Women and War: Women In Armed Conflicts And Their Role In Post-Conflict Reconstruction
This is the European Parliament resolution on the situation of women in armed conflicts and their role in the reconstruction and democratic process in post-conflict countries, based on a report by Belgian European Parliament member Veronique De Keyser.

Profile of the Humanitarian Situation in DRC
This two-page document profiles some of the root causes of the humanitarian situation in the DRC.

"The Hidden Consequence of War"
A feature story on traumatic fistula.

If you are interested in reading more about The Democratic Republic of Congo or Traumatic Gynecologic Fistula, leave a comment and I can post more pdf/word documents to v-day islington googlegroups.

Confirmation of Upcoming Meetings/Auditions

2007-01-20T19:00:00.000+01:00

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for your feedback in regards to the times that were best for you to meet. I tried to accommodate everyone.

The two meetings will be held on Thursday, January 25th and Monday, January 29th. Both meetings will be at the Islington Town Hall from 6-8pm. You do not need to come to both meetings, but rather chose the best one for you. I will email a meeting agenda prior to the meeting night. It is an open meeting for those interested in working on the V-Day Islington event and the benefit production of The Vagina Monologues. Please feel free to bring those interested with you.

Auditions: Please come prepared to read one of the three monologue excerpts included with the volunteer application. Additionally, feel free to read another piece of The Vagina Monologues if you have it at your disposal. I would also appreciate feedback from you at the time of your reading: the type and length of piece you would like to be considered for as well as if you prefer to do a monologue on your own or with other actresses. I will have scripts available at the meeting for you to take away with you and will contact you within a week as to what part you will perform. This will not be based solely on your reading. The auditions will not be private, as we will be doing them within the group.

Volunteers: This meeting will also be a chance for us to create smaller groups within the larger group to begin setting goals and working towards those goals for other areas of the event as mentioned on the volunteer application.

This will be an open meeting but I hope that those attending will have a little bit of a background knowledge of our event, so if you would like me to pass more information on to anyone, please put them in touch with me. I have tried to respond in a timely manner to all queries.

If you have not accepted the invitation to the google groups that I have sent you, please do so to enable that we communicate on a regular basis as well as with one another. I am happy to send information via email, but there will be times that the postings on the google groups page will warrant feedback and ideas and I think it is important for all of us to be involved. You can certainly create your preferences so that you are not receiving too many emails and can check in periodically. This is also a good place to post attachments as well as information in regards to the V-Day movement and spotlight campaign. Part of being involved in the benefit production of TVM is also being knowledgeable about V-Day.

See you soon,

Kara

Planning Our Next Meeting

2007-01-15T12:08:00.000+01:00

Dear all,

Thank you for your interest and support in V-Day. I am looking forward to working with all of you as well as any others interested in joining the team to produce the benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues in Islington, March 2007.

I am attaching a copy of the volunteer application which includes the page of audition pieces taken from The Vagina Monologues as well as the flyer which was available at my presentation in order for you to forward on to any and all who are interested.

I have looked over the times available for those of you who have already filled out the forms. I have to make sure that we have a space to meet before making any permanent plans, but I wanted to ask you which dates would be best for you and then take it from there. I have also created a googlegroups page and sent an invite as well for that in order for us to communicate over the forum. If I haven't included you the list for the googlegroup, please send me an email and I will do so.

So far, I believe evenings are best for most initially for meetings. I am happy that some of you have days and other times available and this will help in working independently or in small groups on other aspects of our V-Day event. For now, I would like to organise the audition and interviews evening. This is also a relaxed evening where others who are interested in working on the campaign can come and listen as well as share feedback/ideas. I would like to see our actresses as well as find out what monologue you are interested in performing, if you have a preference or if you are happy to be cast wherever. I would also like to create a list of V-Team members at this meeting which would allow members access to the V-Spot which has up to date information in regards to the campaign.

Here are some suggestions for meeting times, it's also possible that we can have more than one initial meeting in order for everyone to be able to attend/audition.

Evening: 6pm, Thursday 25 January,
6pm, Monday 29 January,
6pm, Thursday 2 February

Again, I need to confirm the availability of rooms at the Islington Town Hall, but I'd like to see when you can attend. Also feel free to email me your interests for acting prior so that I can think about that as well. Once we have the actresses, I will have scripts for each of you.

Please feel free to contact me: I am available after 5.30pm weeknights and throughout the weekend. If you would also like to meet me outside of a group meeting, I am happy to find time to do so.

Thank you again,

Kara

V-Day Islington

2007-01-03T22:26:00.000+01:00

What is V-Day?

Mission
V-Day is an organized response against violence toward women.

V-Day is a vision: We see a world where women live safely and freely.

V-Day is a demand: Rape, incest, battery, genital mutilation and sexual slavery must end now.

V-Day is a spirit: We believe women should spend their lives creating and thriving rather than surviving or recovering from terrible atrocities.

V-Day is a catalyst: By raising money and consciousness, it will unify and strengthen existing anti-violence efforts. Triggering far-reaching awareness, it will lay the groundwork for new educational, protective, and legislative endeavors throughout the world.

V-Day is a process: We will work as long as it takes. We will not stop until the violence stops.

V-Day is a day. We proclaim Valentine's Day as V-Day, to celebrate women and end the violence.

V-Day is a fierce, wild, unstoppable movement and community.

Join us on Tuesday, 9th January at 6:00pm for an information evening to organise a benefit performance of Eve Ensler’s, ‘The Vagina Monologues.’

A second information meeting will be held on Friday, 12th January at 12:00pm for those unable to attend the initial meeting.

Coffee, tea and light snacks will be provided at the Islington Town Hall. Highlights will be shown of Eve Ensler’s performance in the ‘Vagina Monologues.’

We are looking for women to join us for a benefit performance of Eve Ensler’s ‘The Vagina Monologues.’ Support and volunteers from all backgrounds are welcome.

All proceeds will support women in the Islington area seeking asylum who have no recourse to public funds but are in need of food, shelter, and support.

Needed:
Full production team
Actresses
Event Organising committee/team
Fundraising/sponsorship search

The information evening will be lead by Kara Melissa Sharp, World Wide Campaign Organiser for V-Day 2007 Islington, with the support of Harriet Wilkins, Domestic Violence Co-ordinator, Islington.

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler's award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. In 2005, more than 2500 V-Day events took place in the U.S. and around the world. To date, V-Day has raised over $30 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it; crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns; reopened shelters; funded safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq , and over 5000 community-based anti-violence programs. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina. www.vday.org, http://www.vdayuk.org/, http://www.vdayeurope.org/index.htm

The March

2006-12-12T23:40:00.000+01:00

So I marched. It rained and the wind blew, all the way there. I met the women in my local Islington/Hackney Amnesty International group beneath the pink balloons in a crowded pub in Covent Garden. After a drink to warm us up for the march, we walked over to Trafalgar Square where there were various women assembling and putting together their banners for the march that was organised and lead by The London Feminist Network. The rain had stopped as darkness fell. I looked around in disappointment at the group gathering. I had hoped or even expected that there would be more women. Perhaps it was the memory of a packed Trafalgar Square during the summer months and protests against the Israeli attack on Lebanon. Regardless, I was happy to be there and spoke to the women around me about why we had gathered.

For some, it was not clear why the march was only open to women. We discussed women having a space where they feel safe as well as the strength of women marching together in solidarity. To me it was to show that as women we have the right to walk safely at night anywhere we choose without the fear of being raped or attacked. There were clearly women who thought men should be allowed to join the march and those that felt strongly about marching wholey as a group of independent women. It did feel empowering to be together as women and feel as though we were standing up against violence and together showing that we are not willing to accept it as a way of life.

Aside from being together and believing in something strongly enough to march about it, I felt support and attention coming from onlookers as we marched. Men and women cheering us on. As well as football fans trying to shout us out and being pushed back into the pub by the police. The police that were escorting us along the way. I had asked the organiser of my local AI group why they were there, implying that these feminists might get a bit crazy and how really unlikely I found that to be. But she mentioned that was not the case, rather they were there for our protection in case anyone was to act out violently against us. Hmmm. Wasn’t that why we were here in the first place?

Sometimes I live in a world where I am so optimistic that I can’t even see these events on the horizon. Other times I suffer from what I call the “Little Man Tate Syndrome’ where I can’t lift my head above all the negativity and pessimism.

After the march I looked online to see if there were any photos or articles referring to the event. There weren’t many photos aside from those of the women leading the march, but there were a few comments left on the site which popped my bubble of optimism as I read about how ‘there isn’t a problem with violence against women and why are we marching about it when there are so many other things to protest about?’ We are ‘just a bunch of feminists.’ Blah. Blah. Blah. It’s amazing to me how anyone has the balls to say such things when ONE in THREE women will be a victim of sexual/domestic violence, sexual assault, or verbal abuse. ONE in THREE. I recently watched a short film at the Backlash Event put on by the Why Women campaign at the Amnesty Human Rights Centre last month exhibiting a clear outline of this statistic: a man walks down the street and as he counts in his head — one. two. three. — he lashes out violently at each third woman with the last one being his wife, hidden behind closed doors.

There are a number of reasons I marched on the 25th of November. One of them was for Katie. One of them was for the women in my life that have been victims of domestic violence of any form. One of them was for me. Because I have the right not to be afraid.

I have photos of the event, but am still having trouble figuring out how to resise them in order to upload them. I also took a little too long to write about the event, so some of the ‘fire’ in my feelings has disipated…until next time.

Take Back the Night

2006-12-12T23:39:00.000+01:00

On Saturday evening, this is what I am going to be doing, marching through the streets of London with women in the Amnesty International local Islington and Hackney group to ‘Take Back the Night.’I recall my first experience with this event at Hope College over seven years ago. There were clotheslines of t-shirts made by women who had suffered violence or been raped or who were close to someone who had. There was a candle light vigil and a women only walk through campus. This is what I remember. The pain and suffering as well as the courage and strength in the face of each woman, in the message on each t-shirt.

Back then, I hadn’t had any experiences with violence against women. But after Katie’s attack, I seem to have taken it upon myself to get as involved as possible to help stop violence against women.

Below is an article about the March I will be attending with over 1000 women on Satuday as well as a brief history of where it originated in Britain. I’ve included the link to the site as well as the complete article.

Marching to freedom

Thirty years after the first Reclaim the Night march, the event is now being revived by a new generation of young women who are speaking out against violence. Julie Bindel reports

Wednesday November 22, 2006
The Guardian

In 1977, when the first Reclaim the Night march was held in Leeds, I was just 15 and remember watching it on the news with a growing sense of excitement and political conviction. The Yorkshire Ripper was still terrorising the north of England and the police had been advising that, to avoid attack, women should stay inside after dark. The march responded directly to this warning (placards read “No curfew on women - curfew on men”) and hundreds of women shouted about their anger at being kept off the streets - the supposedly public highways, after all - by the threat of male violence. Marches occurred simultaneously in 12 English locations, from Manchester to Soho.

And the marches continued for more than a decade, becoming a fixture in towns and cities worldwide (in the US they termed them Take Back the Night) before the British version fizzled out in the 90s. It wasn’t until 2004 that a group of women decided to revive the event. That first year wasn’t hugely promising, just 30 women turning up to march through the London streets. The following year, though, numbers swelled to almost 1,000 women. And this Saturday - the International Day to End Violence Against Women - well over 1,000 women are expected to troop through the capital, starting at Trafalgar Square and ending at the University of London Union on Malet Street. There will also be marches in Oxford, Cornwall, Cardiff and Leeds. Organisers say they have been inundated with inquiries from all over the country.

And despite regular pronouncements that feminist activism has long since curled up and died, that it has become a turn-off and an irrelevance to young women more interested in glamour modelling, the Reclaim the Night movement is being spearheaded and bolstered by younger women. The woman largely responsible for Reclaim the Night’s revival, for instance, is 29-year-old Finn Mackay, a long-time political activist and founder of the London Feminist Network (LFN), a women-only networking and campaigning organisation. Why did she decide it was time to renew these street protests? “I think women have had enough misogyny and violence, and young women are aware of the early feminist battles and know they are far from won,” she says.

She has a point. In Britain, it is estimated that one in two women will experience domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking during their lifetime, and rape convictions are at an all-time low - just 5.6% of all reported rapes end in a conviction. Every week, two women die at the hands of a former or current partner and new cases of child sexual abuse are reported weekly.

And the idea that women should protect themselves by staying inside after dark seems to carry as much weight as ever. Recent coverage about women being “irresponsible” if they drink to excess and then report rape has given the distinct impression that the streets are only safe for very well-behaved, sober women, and then only if they venture out in daylight hours. Police still routinely warn women to “be careful” when out late at night, an approach that puts the onus on women to protect themselves, rather than pinpointing their would-be attackers. (It’s strange, isn’t it, that if a man is physically attacked on the streets after dark, there is never any question of blaming him or branding him irresponsible?) A recent survey in a magazine aimed at young women found that only 5% of women feel safe on the streets at night. Two thirds admitted they worry about being raped, and almost half said that on occasion they choose not to go out because they fear for their own safety.

Growing up with a feminist mother, Rebecca Mordan, a 30-year-old actor, spent many weekends as a child at Greenham Common peace camp and was influenced by older generations of protesters. “I was a feminist from four years old,” she says, “and refused to play with Barbie dolls because of that.”

As an adult, Mordan became involved in feminist activism when she “got fed up with the so-called ironic rise in ‘laddism’”. Tired of seeing sexualised images of women and children within popular culture, and particularly those featured in magazines for young men, such as Nuts and Zoo, she began to feel “unsafe around men”.

“I remember someone saying to me, ‘If you go out on the town, you have to expect to get your tits grabbed,” says Mordan. “I couldn’t believe it. We are supposed to have made progress, but sexual assault was being seen as inevitable.”

Gemma Ellis, 28, a children’s charity worker, has been “passionate about women’s rights” since primary school. At university she did her dissertation on child sexual abuse and prostitution, but became inspired to campaign against sexual violence when she volunteered for the organisation that stages the one-woman play, the Vagina Monologues. There she heard about the 2005 Reclaim the Night march and decided to go along.

“I was with a friend who had been arguing with me about pole dancing, saying it was empowering for women,” she says, “but after the march, having spoken to several inspiring young feminists, she changed her mind.” The friend has since become an active campaigner against male violence.

Ellis says that she is constantly persuading her friends that it is “OK to be a feminist”, disabusing them of the stereotype of man-hating, hairy lesbians. “What’s wrong with hairy lesbians?” Mackay interrupts with a sardonic glint.

The women on the 1977 march were visibly angry, shaking their fists at men, demanding they “get off the streets”. Will the women on the march this year be as angry? “I would love to be able to say no,” says Ellis, “but the truth is, I face at least one major irritation every day, whether it is the sight of pornography on TV or some stupid comment from a man.”

What do they think puts some women off the type of radical feminism these women subscribe to? “This false notion of choice, which is increasingly used to justify the oppression of women,” says Ellis. “We are constantly told that prostitution is a positive choice for women, as is wearing the veil and becoming a lap dancer. Feminists are accused of denying those ‘choices’ to women.” Rather, she says, only feminism offers women the choice of liberation and equality.

The organisers say that most of those on Saturday’s march will not have been directly involved in feminist campaigning before. What about the accusations of man-hating that are often levied at women who rage against men’s violence to women? The table erupts in protest. “Men are the ones raping, beating and killing and yet we are accused of hate?” says Mackay.

Although the march is women-only, men are welcome at the Reclaim the Right to Party rally afterwards, which includes live music, DJs and dancing. “Feminists do fun really well,” says Mordan. “The image of the humourless feminist is far from the truth.”

The London march is not the only one planned for Saturday. Events to mark International Day to end Violence against Women are being held from Scotland to Devon, and in many countries worldwide. In the two years since its formation, the LFN, the main organiser of the march, has achieved much, and members are energised rather than jaded. Last year it organised protests against the screening of the pornographic film Deep Throat, worked with Trades Unions to encourage good practice in dealing with harassment in the workplace, and is planning a major feminist film festival for next year.

As the final preparations for the march get underway, Mordan tells me she is looking forward to seeing, “some of the most famous roads in London being closed for us women, so that everyone around will be forced to take notice of what we are demanding”.

For Mackay, today’s radical feminism amounts to basic common sense. “I believe the march will grow and grow,” she says. “I want to see double the number of marchers next year, and double that the year after. By focusing that anger constructively, together as women, there are no limits to what we could achieve”.

· Reclaim The Night 2006, Saturday November 25, assembling in Trafalgar Square (next to Nelson’s Column) at 6pm for women-only march.

The Power and Mystery of Naming Things

2006-06-03T23:43:00.000+01:00

'This I Believe' Essay by Eve Ensler. Listen to her read it here on NPR. Or read it below.

I believe in the power and mystery of naming things. Language has the capacity to transform our cells, rearrange our learned patterns of behavior and redirect our thinking. I believe in naming what's right in front of us because that is often what is most invisible.

Think about the word vagina. I believe that by saying it 128 times each show, night after night, naming my shame, exorcising my secrets, revealing my longing, was how I came back into my self, into my body. By saying it often enough and loud enough in places where it was not supposed to be said, the saying of it became both political and mystical and gave birth to a worldwide movement to end violence against women. The public utterance of a banished word, which represented a buried, neglected, dishonored part of the body, was a door opening, an energy exploding, a story unraveling.

When I was finally able as an adult to sit with my mother and name the specific sexual and physical violence my father had perpetrated on me as a child, it was an impossible moment. It was the naming, the saying of what had actually happened in her presence that lifted my 20-year depression. By remaining silent, I had muted my experience, denied it, pushed it down. This had flattened my entire life. I believe it was this moment of naming that allowed both my mother and I to eventually face our deepest demons and deceptions and become free.

I think of women naming the atrocities committed against them by the Taliban in Afghanistan, or women telling of the systematic rapes during the Bosnian war, or just recently in Sri Lanka after the tsunami, women lining up in refugee camps to name their nightmares and losses and needs. I have traveled through this world and listened as woman after woman tells of being date raped or acid burned, genitally mutilated, beaten by her boyfriend or molested by her stepfather.

Of course the stories are incredibly painful. But I believe as each woman tells her story for the first time, she breaks the silence, and by doing so breaks her isolation, begins to melt her shame and guilt, making her experience real, lifting her pain.

I believe one person's declaration sparks another and then another. Helen Caldicott naming the consequences of an escalating nuclear arms race, gave rise to an anti-nuclear movement. The brave soldier who came forward and named the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison was responsible for a sweeping investigation.

Naming things, breaking through taboos and denial is the most dangerous, terrifying and crucial work. This has to happen in spite of political climates or coercions, in spite of careers being won or lost, in spite of the fear of being criticized, outcast or disliked. I believe freedom begins with naming things. Humanity is preserved by it.

Women Go 'Missing' by the Millions

2006-05-03T20:42:00.000+01:00

An article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

As I was preparing for this article, I asked a friend who is Jewish if it was appropriate to use the term "holocaust" to portray the worldwide violence against women. He was startled. But when I read him the figures in a 2004 policy paper published by the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, he said yes, without hesitation.

One United Nations estimate says from 113 million to 200 million women around the world are demographically "missing." Every year, from 1.5 million to 3 million women and girls lose their lives as a result of gender-based violence or neglect.

How could this possibly be true? Here are some of the factors:

In countries where the birth of a boy is considered a gift and the birth of a girl a curse from the gods, selective abortion and infanticide eliminate female babies.

Young girls die disproportionately from neglect because food and medical attention is given first to brothers, fathers, husbands and sons.

In countries where women are considered the property of men, their fathers and brothers can murder them for choosing their own sexual partners. These are called "honor" killings, though honor has nothing to do with it.

Young brides are killed if their fathers do not pay sufficient money to the men who have married them. These are called "dowry deaths," although they are not just deaths, they are murders.

The brutal international sex trade in young girls kills uncounted numbers of them.

Domestic violence is a major cause of death of women in every country.

So little value is placed on women's health that every year roughly 600,000 women die giving birth.

Six thousand girls undergo genital mutilation every day, according to the World Health Organization. Many die; others live the rest of their lives in crippling pain.

According to the WHO, one woman out of every five worldwide is likely to be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime.

What is happening to women and girls in many places across the globe is genocide. All the victims scream their suffering. It is not so much that the world doesn't hear them; it is that fellow human beings choose not to pay attention.

It is much more comfortable for us to ignore these issues. And by "us," I also mean women. Too often, we are the first to look away. We may even participate, by favoring our sons and neglecting the care of our daughters. All these figures are estimates; registering precise numbers for violence against women is not a priority in most countries.

Going forward, there are three challenges:

Women are not organized or united. Those of us in rich countries, who have attained equality under the law, need to mobilize to assist our fellows. Only our outrage and our political pressure can lead to change.

The Islamists are engaged in reviving and spreading a brutal and retrograde body of laws. Wherever the Islamists implement Shariah, or Islamic law, women are hounded from the public arena, denied education and forced into a life of domestic slavery.

Cultural and moral relativists sap our sense of moral outrage by claiming that human rights are a Western invention. Men who abuse women rarely fail to use the vocabulary the relativists have provided them. They claim the right to adhere to an alternative set of values - an "Asian," "African" or "Islamic" approach to human rights.

This mind-set needs to be broken. A culture that carves the genitals of young girls, hobbles their minds and justifies their physical oppression is not equal to a culture that believes women have the same rights as men.

Three initial steps could be taken by world leaders to begin eradicating the mass murder of women:

A tribunal such as the court of justice in The Hague should look for the 113 million to 200 million women and girls who are missing.

A serious international effort must urgently be made to precisely register violence against girls and women, country by country.

We need a worldwide campaign to reform cultures that permit this kind of crime. Let's start to name them and shame them.

In the past two centuries, those in the West have gradually changed the way they treat women. As a result, the West enjoys greater peace and progress. It is my hope that the third world will embark on this effort. Just as we put an end to slavery, we must end the gendercide.

Perserverence

2006-04-09T09:40:00.000+01:00

V-Season is February 14th, Valentine's Day, through March 8th, International Women's Day, every year. During V-Season women - and men - around the world come together to raise awareness about violence against women. This year, I signed up to organise a V-Day campaign here in Switzerland. I first tried to reach out to the community in Zurich and when that was unsuccessful, looked into the community I live in, Schaffhausen. Although I was able to recruit ONE woman to work with me, we were unable to recruit more.

I moved to Switzerland in August. I did not have the language, nor the background or connections within the community. In October, I was approved to organise a V-Day campaign and benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues for V-Season 2006. I began to connect via email, telephone, and through meetings in cafes, with women in Germany, Switzerland as well as in the United States. I conducted research on the internet, and through speaking with other women in the community about women's issues within Switzerland. I found over twenty women's shelters in the Zurich, Wintertur and Schaffahausen areas alone. Violence against women was an issue here, but I soon discovered that no one wanted to talk about it.

Although I had support from women in this area that were willing to meet up with me to discuss ideas and also put me in touch with other women who may be interested, none of these women were able to commit to the V-Day campaign because they didn't have time. Although I tried to reassure them that some of the roles within the campaign were not as time consuming as others, no one was willing to take the next step to commit. There were many times I felt defeated, but I kept going. I was not willing to give up so easily. I was praised again and again for my perserverence, but all I wanted was for someone to join the team and help make it happen.

I knew that things didn't look promising in February when I held an information evening in Schaffhausen and no one showed up. When I told to the event's main orgniser and support in the US, Cecile, she was not surprised. I, however, felt let down. I had wanted to educate the people in this community so much and this year, it had happened very little. Or had it?

When I thought back at what I had accomplished with my V-Day campaign, I realised that I had accomplished more than I origionally thought. I had in fact educated people within my community. I had educated family, friends and coworkers that had never heard of V-Day or The Vagina Monologues. I had permanent pictures in my mind of women and their reactions when I said THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES. Vagina? I said that word? Out loud? Yes I did. And it opened up great discussions among women and men.

Although I wasn't able to organise an event here in Schaffhausen or Zurich, I was able to organise many events in which I was educating the women and men in my life that had never been exposed to V-Day before. Women went out and bought the play. Watched the movie. I, myself, became even more educated. I cried as I watched both the DVD of The Vagina Monologues as well as the Documentry of V-Day and how it began. I was able to reflect upon Katie's attack and visit feelings I had shut away for years. We were able to open a dialogue between us. So, in fact, I had educated many this V-Season, just not in the way that I had intended.

Next year I will be living in London. I will be living in a new community where I know the language. I will be meeting new women and I will be learning about new issues. I will be involved in V-Day. But next year, I would like to join a V-Day campaign being organised by someone else. Perhaps work closely together with someone who has organised it in the past. Next year I would like to audition to perform in The Vagina Monologues. And then, after I have gained experience and grown within the community I am living, I will sign up to be an event organiser again.

There is a job for Amnesty International in London to work on the Stop Violence Against Women Campaign. I can't apply for it now because I don't have the experience in the field that they are asking for. But some day, I will. I have found my new goal to work towards. And as I have achieved other large goals in my past, I know I will make it to this one. One step at a time.

How did you get involved with V-Day?

2006-02-05T10:44:00.000+01:00

I've been asked this question a lot lately. I've been meeting with women to discuss the V-Day event that I am organising in Schaffhausen/Zurich. Most of them are familiar with "The Vagina Monologues," as it is quite a popular play, being staged in locations world-wide, in addition to V-Day events. But many women are new to V-Day. When I started to work on this campaign, I thought about this. How did I get involved with V-Day? Why is V-Day so important to me?

It started about four years ago when I was in Thailand. I was looking online for an organisation that helped women who had suffered violence from men, in this case, rape. I was doing this for one of my closest friends who had suffered violence in this way while we were living together on Saipan Island five years ago. I was a "secondary victim" of this violence and we both went into counseling after it occured. She returned home after our school year completed, and I went on to Thailand. Although she was living her life, she still suffered from anger and other issues related to her attack. Her mom had emailed me and asked if I knew about anthing that would be able to help her. After doing some research, I discovered the V-Day website and read about it's goal to raise awareness and stop violence against women.

Last night I was woken from a dream. In this dream, Ali and I were mid-conversation about something I had written and there we were, having a discussion over this piece of writing. A sound invaded my sleep and I awoke, slowly adjusting my eyes to the night time glow throughout my room. It sounded as if someone was in my room. There was a crinkle of paper and something fell. I held my breath and images from that night, five years ago, flashed in my mind. I was lying flat on my back. A man was outside my window, banging on the metal storm bars which I believed would keep him out. I prayed that I would fall asleep to the hum of the airconditioner over my head as I heard him circle our pink house that we had so eagerly moved in to a month earlier. He was banging hard against the door now and knowing I had bolted the lock before coming in, I felt at ease that there was no way in. I prayed again for sleep and found myself entering into the realm of dreams. The next morning I woke to the sun peering through my lace curtains, mouth parched. I tip-toed into the kitchen in my underwear and tank top and grabbed a popsicle out of the freezer. As I walked back to my room, I hesitated. I wondered if she had heard the raucus from the night before. Should I check? No, she liked to sleep in on the weekend and I was still tired myself, I didn't want to disturb her. I would ask in a few more hours. I crawled back into bed where I finished my popsicle and drifted back into sleep. Thankful that the night had passed and I was safe in my bed while the sun shone brightly through my curtains, hiding the memory of that shadow of the man who had tried to knock through them the night before. This was the memory of being frozen in that place, unable to move from fear.

Last night I found myself in the same state as the paper crackled and what I imagined was beneath the feet of an intruder in the middle of the night. I saw the shadow of the man standing over me with a knife, as he did her. I saw him take off his clothes and climb into her bed with one hand on the knife at her throat and the other peeling her clothes off before he forced himself on her. While I slept in the room next door, in a place where I was safe. Last night my eyes darted about the room and I couldn't move. I imagined all the ways someone could enter my apartment because that noise, it was in my home. I wanted to squeeze my eyes tight and wish it away. I knew my phone was next to me. I could phone someone. Who would I call? Since that night five years ago, I have slept with the phone at my side, although he had cut the phone lines then, leaving no way to call for help.

I knew I had to pull myself out from this fear. I recalled the therapist after the attack, urging me to move forward and find ways to move past my fear. To make sure that I wouldn't freeze up in fear again, she called it the "hiding under the blanket syndrome". I reached up and slowly moved toward the light switch, afraid that if I knocked anything in the apartment, the intruder would know where to find me. Had he gotten in through the bathroom window? The living room? No, the bathroom window is too high to reach, I thought. But he had gotten through our storm windows. He had gotten the W-D 40 from our car and used it to unscrew our metal storm windows in the living room. He had cut the phone lines, unscrewed the metal bars, broken the window with his fist and slipped through, cutting himself, leaving blood on the shards of glass beneath the window frame. He had climbed through the impossible. Anything was possible.

I hit the light switch as I sat up in bed to scan my room, listening for more sounds, more movement. It was there, the culprit, it lay flat on my floor. The map of Switzerland had fallen and crinkled its way to the floor. I was safe. The only intruder, was in my mind, in my memory.

Five years ago I prayed that I would fall asleep so that I wouldn't be afraid anymore. And I did. While I slept a boy turned man just months prior to the incident made his way into our home and into my bedroom. He stood at the end of my bed and watched me sleep. He took his shoes off and placed them by the door. He walked to the edge of my bed. Then he changed his mind. He left his shoes and went into my housemates room. He stood over her with a knife. She woke up. He raped her. Then he made her crawl on her knees, knife at her back, into my room to retrieve his shoes. I slept while she believed that he had attacked me first. The next morning, I was woken a second time. She was at my door with our neighbour. When she told me that she had been attacked and raped. I didn't believe her. How could it be true? The door was locked. There were bars on the windows.

I sat next to her as she told the police, in her grey pajamas, what had happened to her the night before. She remembered every detail and she spared them none. I sat in shock, unable to speak, unable to comprehend her strength. How could she remember? How could she share these details? The boy had turned on the light to dress himself before leaving. His torso was covered in tattoos. When he left, she rolled over and wrote them all down on a paper near her bed. Then she went into the bathroom and stood in the shower and held up a sign through her bathroom window, waiting for the neighbours to wake up. The sign said HELP. She thought he was still in the house. She thought he may have been in my room.

I held her hand at the hospital as they went through each step of the rape kit. I remember how much she hated that, after already being violated, it felt like it was happening all over. I stayed with her at the police station while they took pictures of her bruises. I sat at one table as they typed my statement. The click clack of the typewriters battled with each other. On the other side of the room, hers kept going long after mine stopped.

I sat with her in the car when it was raining and the detectives thought it would be a good idea to identify the intruder from a car with tinted windows in the black of night. At the last minute they changed their mind and took her into a room by herself to identify him on her own. I was scared for her.

Then I locked it all away. I never wrote about it in my journal. I didn't want to believe it had happened. I didn't want to look back at the experience. We both went to a counselor. We took our things from the pink house, quickly filling garbage bags and taking them with us to stay with friends until we could find a new apartment.

I wrote a letter to a friend to try to tell her what happened. The details were scattered and incomplete. I thought it would be good for me. I later asked her for that letter or a copy of it, but she never responded. I wanted to read it. I wanted to heal.

This is the first time I have written about it. I have been forced to confront myself with the memory as I speak to women and tell them this is how I found V-Day. Years later, she needed an outlet. I wanted to find her one. I wanted to help her. I think I always felt a little responsible or quilty because it happened to her instead of me. Our therapist said that I was a "secondary victim." I didn't really know what that meant except for that she said it was ok that I had this fear, the break-in had also happened to me, but in a different way. I wanted to be strong for her. She was so amazing. I remember sitting next to her while she retold explicit details to the police about her rape and I just thought about the zombie that I would be if it had been me. I really didn't know how she was doing it.

We left the house and never went back. We never talked about the attack, we skated around it. I wanted to be there for her when she went to court, but the school wouldn't let me go. Luckily her now husband was able to be there with her. Her rapist got something around 5 years in a state prison in Hawaii. He was elibible for parole in 3 years. He had several charges against him. Breaking and entering. Assault with a deadly weapon. Rape. It was all premeditated. They found a log outside our bathroom window that he had been using to look in on us while we showered. They found the scissors that cut the phone line and the W-D 40 that had been taken from our car. Three years. Katie has that experience inside of her for the rest of her life. Every year on or around the date I call or email to remember with her. We don't talk about it, but we know. We remember. We will never forget.

So why do I think that V-Day is so important? Why do I think that vaginas should be celebrated and not abused, violated and battered? Why do I think it's important to stop violence against women? For Katie. For myself. For all the women who have suffered and all the ones who haven't. It is our right as women, as humans, not just to survive, but to live.

names and details have been used with permission

This entry cross posted with Free As Trees.

V-Day Spotlight Campaign: Comfort Women

2006-01-28T20:31:00.000+01:00

Justice to 'Comfort Women'

Background on the annual V Day Spotlight
Each year V Day creates a Spotlight around a particular group of women who are experiencing violence with the goal of raising awareness and funds to put a worldwide media spotlight on this area and to raise funds to aide groups who are addressing it.

How can you help?
We are asking you all to educate your communities about the issue and to pledge 10% of the proceeds from your V Day production to the 'comfort women' through this year's Spotlight. (Information on where to send checks is found in the "Production Checklist" and "Follow-up Report" section of this Kit.)

V- Day Spotlight 2006: Justice to 'Comfort Women'
The Global Campaign for Justice to 'comfort women' has its roots in several years of collaboration between V-Day and 'comfort women' activists in their struggle for justice. In 2002, local organizers of V-Day Philippines honored 'comfort women' survivors in their V-Day performance of "The Vagina Monologues" for an audience of 8,500. After the show, Eve Ensler promised the Filipina survivors that V-Day would work with them until justice was served. Eve's interview with them is featured in V-Day's award-winning documentary film, "Until the Violence Stops."

The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery yielded additional links across East and Southeast Asia, and V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman convened organizations from eight countries in Seoul in November 2004 to discuss how V-Day could support the ongoing advocacy for 'comfort women' survivors. Hosted by the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, the international planning meeting culminated in the declaration of the Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to 'Comfort Women.'

V-Day's spotlight coincides with global concerted efforts to get retribution for 'comfort women' and pays tribute to the many activists who have worked on this issue.

Background: Comfort Women
The euphemism 'comfort women' was coined by imperial Japan to refer to young females of various ethnic and national backgrounds who were forced to offer sexual services to the Japanese troops during the Asia/Pacific Wars between 1932 and 1945. Some were minors sold into 'comfort stations,' others were deceptively recruited by middlemen, and still more were detained and forcibly abducted. Estimates of the number of 'comfort women' range between 50,000 to 200,000.

In the early 1990s, nearly a half a century after the end of WWII, Korean victims of Japan's military sexual slavery, followed by other survivors in China, Taiwan, North Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, and Timor L'Este, broke their silence and began to call for justice and reparations for the unanswered war crimes. Despite years of protests, including the weekly demonstrations held by survivors in South Korea in front of the Japanese embassy for the past 13 years, the Japanese government still denies legal responsibility. Now, the aging survivors are dying off one by one without any type of redress, formal apology, or historical acknowledgment by a government that stole their freedom and power for so many years.

Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to 'Comfort Women.'
August 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. However, for the 'comfort women,' there has been no escape from the war and no answer for its harm. In support of these women and their fight for an official apology and compensation from the Japanese government, V-Day has joined with organizations across East and Southeast Asia to launch the "Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to 'Comfort Women.'"

Given the 21st century's escalating armed conflicts, the precedent of impunity for wartime sexual violence cannot be tolerated. Furthermore, as patterns of systematic rape and sexual violence continue today in places of armed conflict such as Sudan, Congo, and Iraq, the importance of recognizing the human rights atrocity committed against women during WWII is paramount. Therefore, V-Day is proud to not only join in the 'comfort women's' crusade for reparations, but to make the campaign the V-Day Spotlight for 2006.

After convening East and Southeast Asian women's groups in Bangkok and Seoul in 2004, "The Global V-Day Campaign for Justice to 'Comfort Women" launched in New York on February 28, 2005, during the landmark session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. On August 10, 2005, international groups fighting for justice to 'comfort women' organized a Global Day of Action with simultaneous demonstrations in front of Japanese embassies around the world as part of the observance of the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. Leading up to the Global Day of Action, V-Day's partners organized multi-national efforts to bring attention to the demands of the 'comfort women' including: a global petition signed by more than 550,000 people and presented to the UN by South Korean survivors; and 60 days of demonstrations and survivors' testimonies leading up to the 60th anniversary of the war's end in the Netherlands.

In the summer of 2006, the Global Campaign will include V-Day celebrity benefit performances of "The Vagina Monologues" in Seoul and Tokyo. These performances will feature the voices of 'comfort women' in a monologue written by Playwright/V-Day Founder Eve Ensler, uniting activism with performance art to open dialogue, draw international attention and support, and reverse efforts by nationalists in Japan to erase from history one of the most horrendous war crimes against women in the 20th century. The Global Campaign will also include: a street march and folk song competition featuring the survivors and national celebrities in Taiwan; photographic exhibits, film tours, and testimonial books in Japan, Philippines, and Taiwan; a campaign for 'comfort women' history in textbooks in Japan and South Korea; and the construction of museums to document the enslavement of civilians as 'comfort women' and their ongoing struggle for justice from the Japanese government in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Through the focus and funds your V-Day Campaigns will give to our 2006 Spotlight Global Campaign, V-Day will educate and raise awareness around the world to ensure justice for the 'comfort women.'

For additional information on the current status of the 'comfort women' and the global campaign for justice to 'comfort women' visit:

The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (South Korea)

Japan V-Day Steering Committee (Japan)

Asian Centre for Women's Human Rights (Philippines)
e-mail: ascent@csi.com.ph

Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation (Taiwan)

FOKUPERS - Communication Forum for East Timorese Women (Timor L'Este)
e-mail: fokupers@fokupers.minihub.org

Indonesian Women's Association for Justice (Indonesia)

Stichting Japanse Ereschulden - Japanese Honorary Debts Foundation (The Netherlands)

[source]

Human Trafficking

2006-01-28T19:01:00.000+01:00

"Women and children are particularly vulnerable to this modern form of slavery. Of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year approximately 80 percent are women and girls and up to 50 percent are minors*. Over 100,000 women are fictims of trafficking in the EU." [source]

* According to the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report by the US Department of State office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

More Media Resources: Films

2005-12-18T01:29:00.000+01:00

I've just added these to my locate and watch list...

V-Day's Own DVD: Until the Violence Stops - V-Day's Emmy award-winning documentary Until The Violence Stops with additional scenes and content added including segments on Juarez, Mexico and Afghanistan. (I've ordered this and will watch it once I arrive in the states for my holiday.)

The Vagina Monologues - the HBO special

Women Make Movies's suggestions - films made by women that address issues of violence against women, including Senorita Extraviada, the documentary about missing and murdered women in Juarez.

Eat Drink, Man Woman

Honoring Our Voices - six Native women talk about the choices they have made to overcome the hardships of family violence and end the cycle of abuse and silence

Letter to My Mother - is a short film made on digital video about the transformative effect that the women's march had on young feminists. I use the story of myself and three of my friends (women shortly out of college and hungry to understand the real world and their place in it) as a template for looking at how the energy and inclusion of direct action made young women, finally, feel like a part of the feminist movement not a by product.

Maya is a powerful film by filmmaker Digvijay Singh that depicts community silence around violence against young girls and the power of a young boys questioning. It could be a way to open up stimulating discussion on the involvement of men in the movement to end violence against women.

Ophelia's Opera, Abiola Abrams is a feminist filmmaker based in Harlem, New York. Her objective is to use film as a medium to teach and empower while entertaining. Her short film Ophelias Opera, of which there are 2 versions (15 minutes & 28 minutes), is an experimental film about a woman who uses voodoo to take revenge escape and an abusive relationship. Knives in My Throat, a 54 minute documentary tells the story of a self-abusive manic depressive young woman who seeks to escape through hip hop poetry. Abiola Abrams aims to give a voice to the voiceless and discuss the un-discussable using film as a vehicle.

Rape Is... - a documentary about a human rights outrage that leaves millions of women, children and men in a state of terror and pain

Real Women Have Curves - the story of a first generation Mexican-American girl balancing her mainstream ambitions and her cultural heritage

Soldier's Girl (2003) - starring Troy Garrity, son of Jane Fonda, is the true story of a young soldier beaten to death for falling in love with a transgendered nightclub performer. Our monologue "They Beat the girl out of my Boy" was written by Eve after meeting and talking to the woman whose story this movie is based on. It won a Peabody Award and was nominated for 10 other awards including 3 Golden Globes, 2 Emmys and a GLAAD.

The Day I Became a Woman This film has won many international prizes at Toronto, Venice, and Chicago film festivals and was heralded as one of the most brilliant works of art by director Ms. Marziyeh Meshkini. It is a series of three vignettes and portrays Iranian women at three distinct phases in their lives. The stories are very poignant and powerful representations of the cultural biases against women in Iran.

Warrior Marks - poetic and political film by Pratibha Parmar, executive produced by Alice Walker about female genital mutilation (I have the book by Walker and Parmar about their experience of making the film called Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women.)

list source: V-Spot for V-Day campaign organisers

Eve Ensler's Response to WHO Statistics

2005-12-09T19:23:00.000+01:00

Written on November 24, 2005 (Thanksgiving Day in the USA)
I spent my morning reading the World Health Organization (WHO) Multi-Country Study On Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women which interviewed 24,000 women in 10 countries. I was full of gratitude for this documentation – released on Thanksgiving Day, which is essential and long overdue.

The WHO report provides a statistical picture of the violence that is happening to women and its long-term impact on their health and well-being.

Unfortunately, this report mirrors my experience over the last decade. When I first started performing “The Vagina Monologues,” everywhere I went in the world women would line up after the show. At first I was thrilled, thinking I would hear mysterious and delicious stories of their great sex lives. There were some of those, but the majority of the women who lined up were there to tell me about how they’d been raped or slapped or beaten or incested, and how that experience had forever changed them.

Like most of those surveyed in the WHO report, these women had not told anyone their stories before. I had known of course that there was violence against women. I was not naïve. I had survived terrible sexual and physical violence myself at the hands of my own father. What I did not know until that tour was the epidemic proportions of this violence. This realization gave birth to V-Day, a worldwide movement that has spread in 8 years to 81 countries and raised over $30 million dollars for local groups working to stop violence against women. The work has since taken me to over forty countries. Whether I am on a college campus in the US listening to the story of a young girl who has been date raped, or in a shelter in Zagreb for women who were beaten by their husbands after the war, or in Juarez searching for the bones of missing young poor woman, or in Islamabad where I sit with a woman whose melted face is the result of an acid burning by her husband, I am struck by the global and personal devastation of this violence.

What is most troubling about the report is the normalization of this violence. How women and men have come to expect and accept this brutality as a part of daily life. How a slap to a woman’s cheek or a man’s fist in her face, is not considered outrageous or extraordinary. How we do not value women, hold them sacred, understand that to honor their beings and bodies is tantamount to honoring life itself.

What the WHO report reinforces for me is that addressing violence against women is central to everything. Violence is the tyrannical mechanism which undoes women and keeps them powerless and in their place. It is not inevitable. We can stop it. In addressing it, we will have to address gender inequality, poverty, education, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.

I applaud the World Health Organization for this excellent report. Sadly statistics may be what it takes to compel governments and individuals to fight to protect women. It seems to me that one abused woman would be enough to call out the community. If the WHO report is right, and our experience would suggest it is, that one out of two women are beaten in many countries, it seems this might be an indication of an emergency.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on homeland and national security. How ironic that it is in the home where women are most insecure, where they are abused, beaten and murdered, and where there is little to no money spent protecting them. Women are the primary resource of this planet. Their safety, their empowerment, their freedom is a guarantee for all our futures.

-Eve Ensler is a Playwright (“The Vagina Monologues,” “The Good Body”) and the Founder of V-Day, the global movement to end violence against women and girls

[source]

A Soundtrack for V-Day

2005-12-01T22:30:00.000+01:00

taken from the vspot...how many times have you listened to these songs and just not thought about it; and how many times have you listened to these songs and that's all you could hear.

Alix Olson - "Armpit Hair"; "Cunt Country" (spoken word); "Built Like That"

Alanis Morisette - "Still" from Dogma Soundtrack [lyrics]

Amanda Marshall - "Everybody's Got A Story"

Amy Ray - "Lucystoners" - about an early 1900's feminist named Lucy Stone

Amy Sky - "Phenomenal Women" (lyrics by Maya Angelou)

Angie Stone - "Sunshine"

Ani DiFranco - Ani sings about a wide variety of women's issues, including rape and abortion (specifically recommended include "Blood in the Boardroom", "Not A Pretty Girl", "Fixing Her Hair", "The Story", "Make Them Apologize", "I'm No Heroine", "Roll With It", "The Slant", "Lost Woman Song", "Gratitude", "Out Of Range", "Letter To A John", "Angry Anymore", "32 Flavors" ... ) [lyrics]

Annie Lennox - "Why"

Aretha Franklin - "Respect"

Bikini Kill - "Liar"; "Star Bellied Boy"; "Suck My Left One"; "White Boy" (other songs deal with rape too)

Bitch and Animal - "Pussy Manifesto" from What's that Smell (unlisted). [lyrics]

Cassandra Wilson - "Sankofa"; "Redbone"

Christina Aguilera - "Can't Hold Us Down"; "Beautiful"

Cowboy Junkies - "Hunted" from Pale Sun, Crescent Moon - about living in fear as a woman [lyrics]

Cyndi Lauper - "She-Bop"; "Sally's Pigeons"

Dar Williams - "When I Was a Boy" (about blurred gender roles/identity as a child); "As Cool As I Am"; "I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono"

Destiny's Child - "Independent Women, Part 1"

Dixie Chicks - "Earl Had to Die" - about domestic violence

Ember Swift - "Freak"; "Swooshi Swooshi" - about shaving

Eve - "Love is Blind" - a friend recounting the abuse of a friend after the friend is killed by her "partner"

Fiona Apple - "Sullen Girl" - about rape

Gloria Gaynor - "I Will Survive"

Heather Headley - "Sista Girl"

India Arie - "Video"; "Brown Skin"

Jamie Anderson - "I Wanna Be a Straight Guy" - saterical look at hetero/male privilege

Jill Sobule - "I Kissed a Girl"; "Karen by Night"

Joan Baez - "Imagine" (cover of John Lennon's)

Katy Moffat - "Ain't I a Woman" - based on Sojourner Truth's speech

Kinnie Starr - "Praise"

Lauryn Hill - "Just Like Water"; "Zion" - about the joy of the birth of her child; "That Thing"

Madonna - "What It Feels Like (For A Girl)"

Melissa Ferrick - "Freedom"; "Drive"

Meshell N'Degeocello - "Beautiful"

Miriam Makeba - "Masakhane" - fantastic South African women singer

Nina Simone - "Four Women" - about four black womyn, each one a little further along in history and different

Pamela Means - "Uncle"

Queen Latifah - "UNITY"

Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women - "1-800-799-7233" (encouraging womyn who have been the victims of abuse to reach out to the abuse hotline number, cleverly used in the title and refrain of the song); "Bitch with a Bad Attitude" (Encouraging womyn to accept and love thier inner bitch and how it makes people stand correct); "Wild Women Never Get the Blues"; "There's Lightning in These Thunder Thighs". [Saffire is a fabulous three-woman jazz and blues band, playing insightful blues about woman-centered issues including: abuse, rape, domestic violence, empowered sexuality, race, and class.]

Sarah Jones - "Your Revolution"

Sinead o'Connor - "The Healing Room"; "Thank You"

Sleater Kinney - "A Real Man"

Suzanne Vega - "My Name Is Luka" - about a husband beating his wife and people around not doing a thing

Sweet Honey and the Rock - their entire catalog is woman-centered and they have multiple songs about resisting violence; "No Mirror's in my Nana's House"; "Run" - specifically about domestic violence; "Oughta Be A Woman"; "Soundbite From Beijing"

TLC - "Unpretty"

Tori Amos - "Icicle"; "Me and a Gun"

Tracy Chapman - "Behind the Wall" from Tracy Chapman - a song about domestic violence [lyrics]; "At This Point in My Life"

The Wyrd Sisters - "Warrior" on Inside the Dreaming

25 November - International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

2005-11-26T09:48:00.000+01:00

More information as well as books to read on the topic here: UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Also, a campaign organised between UNIFEM and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, Not a Minute More

Sixteen Days of Activism: Sixteen Days of Hope
*Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive of human rights abuses. It covers a range of injustices – from gender abuse to systematic rape and from pre-birth sex selection to female genital mutilation – that affect as many as one in three women. *Ending gender violence will take action on many fronts every day of the year. But *16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence *is a start. This worldwide campaign begins on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends 10 December with International Human Rights Day. It provides NGOs, international organizations, governments, individuals and the media an opportunity to mobilize for women's rights and against impunity for perpetrators. This year's theme *For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World: No More Violence*, focuses on the link between HIV and violence against women and girls.

16 Ways UNFPA Addresses Gender-based Violence

1. Providing alternatives to ‘survival sex'
In the capital of Haiti, which is plagued by political and social unrest, 11- and 12- year-old girls trade sexual favours for spending money. A drop-in centre offers them other options.

2. Speaking up for millions of missing girls
Discrimination against daughters, leading to pre-birth sex selection or even infanticide, has left parts of China and South Asia with severe sex ratio imbalances.

3. Speaking out against unacceptable practices
Half of the murders of women in some Arab countries are so-called ‘honour killings', often committed by family members with impunity.

4. Treating and supporting survivors of extreme sexual violence
In the Great Lakes countries of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, an epidemic of brutal rape wreaks havoc on the lives of survivors and continues to demoralize communities and destabilize the region.

5. Training police to deal with domestic violence
In many countries, UNFPA supports training of police officers to assist abused women by taking their cases seriously, informing them of their rights and sometimes even providing victim protection.

6. Highlighting the high costs to women and society
Chapter 7 of the 2005 State of World Population report documents the high social, emotional and economic costs of gender-based violence.

7. Calling attention to a new form of slavery
UNFPA works closely with governments to address the ever-widening threat posed by human trafficking and supports women and girls in their recovery and return.

8. Partnering to stop sexual violence in armed conflict and disaster settings
At a landmark conference chaired by UNFPA, a broad coalition of partners agreed to strengthen collaboration at all levels to end sexual violence in situations of conflict, post-conflict, displacement, and natural disaster settings.

9. Implementing UN Security Council resolution 1325
UNFPA plays a vital role in protecting women against gender-based violence, during and after times of conflict, as called for the UN Security Council.

10. Assisting survivors of domestic violence
Most violence against women occurs in the home. But women often stay with abusive partners because they have no other place to go. UNFPA-supported shelters offer an alternative.

11. Providing a safe haven for girls escaping coerced marriage
In many countries, forced child marriage robs girls of their human rights and subjects them to violence. UNFPA-supported shelters provide a haven for young girls trying to escape a cruel fate.

12. Addressing the needs of women in refugee camps
Refugee camps are intended to be safe havens – but displaced women often face many forms of gender-based violence. UNFPA has partnered on an interagency field manual that includes guidelines for addressing sexual and gender-based violence in refugee camps.

13. Taking concerted action to address domestic violence
An Indonesian NGO is tackling violence against women by raising awareness of the issue, providing shelter, seeking peaceful reconciliation, and when that doesn't work, taking perpetrators to court.

14. Promoting legislative reform and the enforcement of existing laws
UNFPA works with parliamentarians and monitors legislation in both Europe and the developing world having to do with domestic violence, gender equality and sexual exploitation and offences against minors.

15. Involving men
Ending gender-based violence will require the full engagement and participation of men. UNFPA seeks to involve them in many ways.

16. Supporting local activities in countries around the world
Many of UNFPA offices throughout the world have planned activities to mobilize support for the 16 Days of Activism.
[source]

Fiction, To Be a Woman

2005-11-25T05:19:00.000+01:00

One of the main objectives of V-Day is to raise awareness. Every time I look at the V-Day/V-Spot site, I feel like this feeling to get the word out there -- to educate and to irradicate -- has been boiling beneath the surface of who I am since I became a woman, or realised what womanhood was to me. I looked over the list of fictional books "about the topic" and had either read them, had them on a list to read, or am familiar with the author mentioned. So here they are, in my first installment in getting the word out there. The list has been compiled by vday.org, and is listed in the vspot for campaign organisers, like myself. But you can read them too...

The Awakening (Kate Chopin) - the story of a young woman who finds it impossible to accept that, "for women it is a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals" and fights back in the only way she knows, and her solution is extreme

Bastard out of Carolina (Dorothy Allison) - a semi-autobiographical and controversial book about growing up as "poor, white trash" and experiencing abuse and rape from childhood

Clit Notes: A Sapphic Sampler (Holly Hughes) - 5 outrageous performance pieces

*The Color Purple (Alice Walker) - a disturbing yet realistic account into the life of Celie, a young black woman with a tragic, abusive past who learns how to survive, how to let go of the past, and most of all how to love

Dawn (Octavia E. Butler)

Laguna Women Poems (Leslie Marmon Silko)

The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) - from heaven, a young girl who was brutally raped and murdered watches her community respond to her death

*Paradise (Toni Morrison)

*Possessing the Secret of Joy (Alice Walker) - a young girl submits to the ritual female circumcision and spends the rest of her life trying to understand its meaning and live with its consequences

Push (Sapphire) - a story about an abused girl who learns to cope after growing up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed

The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) - an insider's look at the daily life of a biblical sorority of mothers and wives and their one and only daughter

*Temple of My Familiar (Alice Walker) - Transcending the conventions of time and place, Walker's novel moves from contemporary America, England, and Africa to unfamiliar primal worlds, where women, men, and animals socialize in surprising ways

Woman Hollering Creek and House on Mango Street (Sandra Cisneros) - a collection of stories, whose characters give voice to the vibrant and varied life on both sides of the Mexican border. The women in these stories offer tales of pure discovery, filled with moments of infinite and intimate wisdom.

The Woman Warrior: Memoires of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (Maxine Hong Kingston) - a pungent, bitter, but beautifully written memoir of growing up Chinese American where a young girls distills the dire lessons of her mother's mesmerizing "talk-story" tales of a China where girls are worthless, tradition is exalted and only a strong, wily woman can scratch her way upward

*books i've read

Future Slogan, etc.

2005-11-22T05:15:00.000+01:00

This is what I came up with while my mind was wandering during our staff meeting:

Is your vagina itching for some action?

Join us for a benefit production of Eve Ensler's play, "The Vagina Monologues."

All proceeds will support local women's shelters to aid in stopping violence against women.

Needed:
Full Production Team
Actresses
Support and Volunteers from all backgrounds.
Production will be in English unless we can organize two performances
(1 English, 1 German).

Event will be held in the beginning of March before International Women's Day.

I'm thinking colours: pink, red, black.

This is my goal for the week. Create this and head out on Saturday again to post more, stop by women's shelters, cafes, anyone who will take them.

Poppy Seed Cake

2005-11-21T08:08:00.000+01:00

So here I am on my first VDAY campaign outing. My fingers are now entering dethaw mode as I hold my cafe creme between hands, shifting to write. Poppy seeds melt in my mouth and I am happy to be here.

Here. Zurich. Here. A cinema cafe in the old town. Old movie posters cover the walls and I search around for a spot I might leave some VDAY fliers. With each sip of coffee, I begin to warm from the inside out. I thank God the sun was shining today and that I woke feeling refreshed rather than ill, as I had felt all week.

I began my day feeling motivated because of these things. I walked along the river to school to print up a few things and complete the fliers and larger posters. While on the train I folded each brochure and wrote my VDAY email contact at the bottom.

Once arriving, I stopped at the Tourist Office to get a map and left some brochures to be set out with the other Zurich events for would be travellers. My first shop stop was at The Body Shop on Bahnhoffstrasse. I would need to contact headquarters to get permission to leave fliers. So I will do that this week.

I left about a dozen of each flier version at the English bookstore. Perhaps because it sells only English books, they had heard of The Vagina Monologues and were supportive. I will visit again next week to see about restocking with more VDAY information.

I stopped by a couple of lingerie shops. One gal took an example for her boss to look over that week and another woman refused to even see the information.

I walked to the lake and saw the Alps for the first time, peaking through the clouds. The sun was beginning to set behind the city and an orange-pink hue was settling over the water.

Then my fingers began to get cold. I decided to search for a cafe and an ATM. On my way, I posted a couple of the large posters in places where I think it was ok, but wasn't so sure. I looked over my shoulders for the Polezei to come and get me. Not really knowing the rules here (and there are many), it felt even more exhilarating.

Well. I'm off in search of more cafes to leave my VDAY stamp behind.

journalled: 19 November, 5.30pm

V-Day Adventures.

2005-11-19T12:08:00.000+01:00

Day One. I'll get back to you on that after I've slept.