UNCW Sponsors Performance of The Vagina Monologues
1/6/2004 12:00:00 AM
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The University of North Carolina at Wilmington’s Women’s Resource Center is sponsoring a performance of The Vagina Monologues 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4 in Kenan Auditorium. Tickets are priced at $4 for students and $6 for everyone else and are available for purchase at the Kenan Auditorium box office. All proceeds will benefit Domestic Violence Shelter and Services and the Rape Crisis Center of Coastal Horizons, Inc.
This is the fifth year that The Vagina Monologues has been performed at UNCW. In order to participate in the V-Day College Campaign, performances must be staged in on-campus venues and productions must be primarily student-run, student-acted and student-directed. Last year’s performances at UNCW raised almost $3,000 for Domestic Violence Shelter and Services and the Rape Crisis Center.
The Vagina Monologues is based on playwright Eve Ensler’s interviews with more than 200 women throughout the world. It celebrates women’s sexuality and strength as well as exposes the violence and indignities that women endure. The Vagina Monologues won an Obie Award in 1997 and has been translated into 22 languages; Ensler’s performance of the play on HBO can be seen on video and DVD.
Eve Ensler has devoted her life to eradicating violence against women. Her new play, Necessary Targets, is also based on extensive interviews and features two women who travel to Bosnia to help women refugees confront their memories of war. An upcoming play and book, The Good Body, examines how women around the world mutilate, fix, and transform their bodies in order to fit in with their cultures. What I Want My Words to Do to You, Ensler's documentary about women in prison, recently aired on PBS.
In the wake of the phenomenal success of The Vagina Monologues, in 1998 Ensler launched V-Day, a day (on or around Valentine’s Day in February) on which a series of innovative productions, events and initiatives are produced around the world in order to transform consciousness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. The organization also generates broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sexual slavery. V-Day provides funding to create and nurture innovative programs to stop the violence. In 2003, V-Day encompassed a 13-week calendar of events and social action campaigns, including more than 1,000 productions of The Vagina Monologues performed in theatres, community centers, houses of worship, and college campuses around the world.
V-Day is also a non-profit corporation that distributes funds to grassroots, national, and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. In just five years, V-Day has raised over $14 million, with $7 million raised in 2002 alone. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth magazine’s “100 Best Charities.”
In 2002, V-Day sponsored the “Spotlight on Afghan Women” to raise funds for Afghan women working for change within their country. In 2003, V-Day sponsored the theme “Afghanistan is Everywhere: A Spotlight on Native American and First Nations Women” to will call attention to the epidemic levels of violence against women and girls that occur in Indian Country. The 2004 campaign theme --"Spotlight on the Missing and Murdered Women in Juarez, Mexico"-- is designed to raise awareness about the murder or disappearance of over 300 women and girls Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. Many of the victims were raped, mutilated and tortured. One of the victims was a six-year-old girl. Despite the fact that these murders have persisted over the past decade, there has not been significant progress in providing protection to the women of Juarez or in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
The “V” in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina. For additional information, visit the V-Day web site at www.vday.org.
The mission of the Women’s Resource Center at UNCW is to provide educational programs, support and advocacy, and resources related to women for UNCW students, faculty, staff and the local community. For additional information, visit the Women’s Resource Center Web site at www.uncw.edu/wrc.
Tickets are $4 for UNCW students; $6 for all others. For tickets, call the Kenan Auditorium box office at 910/962-3500 or 800/732-3643 outside of the Wilmington area. Box office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. For additional information, visit www.uncw.edu/kenan.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Ervin, Director of Women’s Resource Center, 910/962-3650.
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