V-days...come ya'll Warriors~~>

[muzikchick]

Gotta love the V thang!

vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV

V-Mail: News, Views, and ActiVities of the V-Day Community Worldwide
VV V VV
VV VV
VV VV
VV VV
V V
V
V-Day: Until the Violence Stops
#18 www.vday.org June 2, 2004

vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV

IN THIS ISSUE:

1. V-Day 2004 Recap From Executive Director Jerri Lynn Fields

Vv vV
VvV
V

Dear V-Supporters,

If our only achievement had been... the World premiere of the first
V-Day
Documentary "Until The Violence Stops" at the 2004 Sundance Film
Festival
and the Broadcast Premiere on Lifetime Television it would have been a
successful year.

If our only achievement had been... the February 14, V-Day and Amnesty
International March on Juarez, Mexico to honor the over 300 missing and
murdered women and to support the families and grassroots human rights
groups working for justice - over 7000 marched, international media
transmitted the story of the women of Juarez around the world-it would
have been a successful year.

If our only achievement had been... The two-week intensive V-Day 2004
Visit to India: Celebrating the Indian Woman Warrior which included
events in Mumbai, Himachel, and Delhi and a series of gala benefit
productions of "The Vagina Monologues;" a ground-breaking ceremony for
a
learning center for women in Northern India; and a conference of over
seventy South Asian feminist leaders from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and more to Delhi to strategize methods to
end violence against women and girls it would have been a successful
year...

If our only achievement had been over 2,300 V-Day 2004 benefit
productions
of "The Vagina Monologues" in February and March in 1,100 communities
and
colleges worldwide and raising an estimated $5 million for local
community
anti-violence programs it would have been a successful year...

We had a SPECTACULAR year! We achieved all of this, in just three
months.

We were able to do all of this because of you, our loyal supporters.

V-Day 2004: "Celebrating Vagina Warriors"

Each year, V-Day strives to raise awareness and funds to end violence
against women and girls, and changing consciousness about the issue on
an
international scale.

In mounting our campaigns, we draw inspiration from the thousands of
vagina warriors - volunteers, activists, sponsors, media, and
supporters
like you - who are working worldwide to end violence against women and
girls in their communities recognizing that each V-Day event helps a
woman
tell her story, inspires others to give, engages the local media,
enables
women to expand their networks, and encourages entire communities to
act
together to end violence against women.

Each year we strive to expand awareness of the issue and to raise more
funds.

In 2004, these efforts were extraordinary, surpassing our expectations
and
inspiring us to do more next year...

In looking back at V-Day 2004, we are so very deeply in awe of the
achievements of these thousands of vagina warriors, who, along with our
staff of ten, are responsible for V-Day's biggest year of awareness and
outreach and fundraising to date in the ongoing fight to end violence
against women and girls in the U.S. and around the world.

Following are some of the key highlights that we accomplished together
-

"UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS"
Directed by first time director Abby Epstein, UNTIL THE VIOLENCE STOPS
documents how "The Vagina Monologues" grew into an international
grassroots movement called V-Day to stop violence against women and
girls.
In 2002, eight hundred cities around the world participated in V-Day by
staging benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues. UNTIL THE
VIOLENCE
STOPS shows women from Harlem to Ukiah, California; from the Pine Ridge
Indian Reservation to the Philippines and Kenya, uniting and
courageously
revealing their intimate and deeply painful experiences with abuse
ranging
from rape to female circumcision. In emotionally charged interviews
and
performances, everyday women and celebrities like Rosie Perez, Salma
Hayek, Tattoo Cardinal, Jane Fonda, and LisaGay Hamilton embrace their
bodies, reconcile their pasts, and bond together to break the silence
that
surrounds abuse. More than just testimonies and performances, UNTIL THE
VIOLENCE STOPS is a film about empowerment and the importance of
dialogue
in the healing process. A celebration of women reclaiming their bodies
and
lives, this moving documentary leaves us with hope that change can
happen.

V World premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17,
with
two additional screenings added do to popular demand. Vagina marketing
became all the rage at Sundance with Vagina Warrior ski caps becoming
the
in demand item for Park City attendees..

V Six U.S. communities hosted benefit screenings to raise funds
and
awareness for local groups working to end violence against women and
girls: Santa Fe, NM; San Francisco and Ukiah, CA; Miami (Film
Festival); Atlanta, GA; White Plains, NY.

V Lifetime Television broadcast premiered the documentary,
commercial free, on February 17 with nearly 1 million viewers.
Immediately after the East coast broadcast, Tampax hosted the
first-ever
live V-Day webcast, from The University of Tulsa (OK), where thousands
of
women and men logged on to ask Eve and V-Day questions about the film
and
the movement.

V Media coverage of the documentary appeared in hundreds of
national
and local broadcast and print outlets including CNN, TODAY, NPR,
PEOPLE,
TV Guide, USATODAY.com and many many more. V-Day supporters Jane Fonda
and Glenn Close joined Eve for television, radio and print interviews
and
junkets. Early reports from our print monitoring service found over
400
articles reaching over 50 million people between February 1-29, 2004.

SPOTLIGHT ON JUAREZ
Via the Mexico City production of "The Vagina Monologues," direct
support
to Casa Amiga and other grassroots groups on the ground, and the
efforts
of thousands of activists, V-Day has been working throughout Mexico and
internationally to raise awareness about the missing and murdered women
of
Juarez. For V-Day 2004, Juarez was our Spotlight issue placing the
issue
in front of millions in the U.S. and internationally through the over
2000
V-Day benefits that took place in February - March. While there have
been
victories in terms of awareness and discussions, the struggle is not
over
as more bodies have recently been found and the murders remain
unsolved.

V V-Day Founder/Playwright Eve Ensler's essay on the missing and
murdered women of Ciudad Juarez entitled "The City Of Murdered Women"
appears in the March issue of Marie Claire magazine.

V Working closely with Amnesty International, V-Day places
stories
on the issue in PEOPLE, the Los Angelese Times, CosmoGIRL and more.

V On February 13 the V-Day delegation, including Congresswomen
Jan
Schakowsky (IL) and Hilda Solis (CA), Jane Fonda, Sally Field,
Christine
Lahti, Lifetime Television CEO Carole Black, PBS CEO Pat Mitchell,
Lifetime EVP Public Affairs Meredith Wagner, met with mothers whose
daughters have been murdered or are missing; immediately following the
American Consulate hosted a reception welcoming the V-Day community to
Juarez to support our efforts to raise awareness and to end the
violence
against women in Juarez. The newly appointed special prosecutors met
with Eve and members of the delegation to discuss changes and progress
or
the lack of it in these cases.

V On V-Day, February 14, over 7,000 people traveled to Juarez -
thousands crossing the bridge from neighboring El Paso, TX - to stand
up
for the women of Juarez.

V Following the march, thousands gathered for a community
luncheon
in advance of the historic, first performance of "The Vagina
Monologues"
in Juarez by a bilingual cast included Lilia Aragon, Marinitia
Escobedo,
Laura Flores, Monica Alicia Juarez, Jane Fonda, Sally Field and
Christine
Lahti.

V The March and the performance garner international media
coverage,
saturating the U.S., UK, Mexico and Latin America via CNN, Univision,
Telemundo, local ABC, CBS, NBC stations, Agence France Presse,
Associated
Press, BBC, The Guardian, the Sunday Times and more.

V VICTORY! On March 8 we were notified by a local community
organization in Juarez that as a result of the March on Juarez the
Chihuahua State's Attorney resigned.

V-DAY INDIA 2004: CELEBRATING THE INDIAN WOMAN WARRIOR*
Through V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman's leadership and
vision-art and activism united to end violence against women in India.
V-Day, along with star supporters Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei, traveled
to
India March 8-20 to celebrate South Asian women's activism.

V A beautiful benefit production of "The Vagina Monologues" was
staged on International Women's Day in Mumbai. The India cast, along
with
Jane, Marisa and Eve wowed the standing room only audience.

V Our delegation toured a SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education
and Health Action) hospital/shelter in the largest slum in Mumbai.
SNEHA
was a beneficiary of the V-Day Mumbai event and is now a V-Day awardee.

V We met with representatives of Citibank in Mumbai who are
supporting the work of several groups working to end violence against
women and girls.

V We made a 14-hour (one-way) bus journey to the state of
Himachal,
near Dharamsala (the Tibetan seat of government) to support Jagori, our
host organization in Delhi, to celebrate the opening of their new
learning
center for women and girls. During our stay at the Norbulingka
Institute
(its mission is to preserve Tibetan culture) we visited the Buddhist
nunnery and lit 1001 candles as a blessing for the learning center.

V In Delhi, V-Day, along with Jagori and SANGAT, hosted a 3-day
conference: "Confronting Violence: Recounting Resistance, Envisioning
Justice" The conference objective was to analyze how feminists have
faced Violence Against Women, what connections have been made with
other
phenomena like communalism, fundamentalisms, globalization,
privatization
etc. A dynamic group of over 70 women from South Asian (including Sri
Lanka, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India)
attending this powerful conference. Eve performed a one-woman show of
"The Vagina Monologues" for conference attendees and special guests
that
brought down the house!

V On our final evening in Delhi, and India, V-Day co-sponsored an
evening of Women Artists for Justice, Harmony and Peace, a concert in
an
open-air venue. The voices of youth, the dancing of women, the strength
of
poetry and Eve's powerful words were a beautiful, celebratory way to
end
our journey.

V Indian print, radio and television media covers the trip two
weeks
in advance with multiple stories on the celebrities, the events, and
the
activist conference. Throughout the visit Indian media saturated by
message of V-Day's mission to end violence against women, interviews
with
Eve, Hibaaq Osman, Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei.

*This is just a small glimpse of the journey in India. A full report
from
our Special Representative, Hibaaq Osman, will be completed this
summer.

2,300 EVENTS IN 1,100 COMMUNITIES!
Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produced
annual benefit performances of "The Vagina Monologues" to raise
awareness
and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.

Since V-Day launched its very first event in 1998, the movement has
encountered incredible women working to end violence against women and
girls in their communities. These women have often experienced
violence
personally or witnessed it within their communities and dedicated
themselves toward ending such violence through effective, grassroots
means. They have been the very heart of V-Day. This year, V-Day's 2004
events and campaigns celebrated these women whom Eve has dubbed 'Vagina
Warriors.' V-Day productions around the world selected and honored
Vagina
Warriors in its own community.

V Eve's solo performance to a sold-out, standing room only
audience
in Tulsa, OK benefited The Spirits of Hope: A Coalition Addressing
Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking in Oklahoma Indian
Country. After Eve's performance Jane Fonda performed "Emotional
Creature," a new piece written by Eve.

V The first-ever transgender V-Day was staged in Los Angeles; it
was
a spectacular evening of celebration, performance and education as we
all
learned the horrific violence that transgender women endure. A
highlight
of the evening was the performance of a new piece Eve wrote
specifically
for this event, "He Beat the Girl out of my Boy...or so he Tried."

V We had the privilege of attending a huge V-Day performance at
the
University of Texas, El Paso. The cast was diverse and fantastic.

V In March, models, actresses and politicians joined together to
stage V-Day Nairobi, a performance of "The Vagina Monologues"
benefiting
the Rape Crisis Centre at the Nairobi Women's Hospital in Nairobi and
the
V-Day Safe House, first safe house in Kenya for girls running away from
early marriages and female genital mutilation.

V In an event of corporate activism, V-Day LUNA (Luna Bar, a
V-Day
sponsor) united corporate employees and community members, including
Tiffany Schlain of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, in a
sold
out benefit performance of "The Vagina Monologues" that raised close to
$20,000 and celebrated vaginas in the boardroom.

V London-Eve supported Amnesty International's launch of a two
year
Stop Violence Against Women Campaign with AI Secretary General Irene
Kahn,
Patrick Stewart and activist NAME. Event received worldwide media
coverage.

V V-Day Europe launched on February 14. National coordinators in
the UK, France, Germany and Luxembourg have joined forces to promote
V-Day
in Europe, with the support of the European Commission! Between 14
February and mid-March, V-Day performances of "The Vagina Monologues"
took
place in Trier, Saarbrucken, Frankfurt am Main, Bochum and Bremen, in
Paris, Brest and other cities in France. To mark International Women's
Day, an international team in Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg hosted a
V-Festival throughout the month of March 2004 with a wide range of
women's
art events, performances of "The Vagina Monologues" in French and
German
and culminating in a transnational, multilingual V-Day performance on
14
March 2004 that brought together all European partners in a celebration
of
the movement. On March 8 in London V-Day Westminster, the first ever
performance of "The Vagina Monologues" by women politicians of all
political parties, took place. MPs including Joan Ruddock, Caroline
Spelman, Sandra Gidley and Oona King, as well as the Home Office
minister
Caroline Flint, performed alongside Jerry Hall, Meera Syal and Anita
Roddick before a packed audience at the Criterion Theatre in London! In
addition, there were over 70 local performances across the UK.

V Overall media coverage of the local V-Day 2004 events continues
to
grown in campus and regional papers. Events receive major local
coverage
as well as placement in key papers i.e. The Boston Globe and Chicago
Tribune and on local TV stations nationwide.

And, of note are a few places V-Day events did not happen - China,
Chennai, and Catholics. In the southern Indian city of Chennai
(Madras),
police banned a production of "The Vagina Monologues" scheduled to
include
Jane Fonda and Marisa Tomei. Despite a successful staging earlier in
the
week in Bombay, Madras police canceled the production with the claim
that
it posed a threat to public order. In Beijing, China, authorities also
shut down what would have been the first production in the Chinese
language. And in the United States, the Cardinal Newman Society
continued
its campaign that pushed several V-Day productions at Catholic Colleges
and Universities to off campus locations. There is always next year!

The seventh (7th) V-Day season has come to an end. We are immensely
proud
of the women and men, true vagina warriors worldwide, who brought V-Day
into their communities, raising funds and awareness, and making sure
that
not another woman or girl will experience violence.

Thank you to each and every one of you who support V-Day in so many
ways.
I hope you feel proud of what V-Day has accomplished the past few
months
to radically change women's lives around the world.

Kind Regards,

Jerri Lynn Fields
Executive Director

Vv vV
VvV
V

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
We encourage you to keep the V-Day movement growing and join us, take
an
active role in expanding the movement to end violence against women and
girls worldwide.

Be a Vagina Warrior. Celebrate Vagina Warriors.

Vv vV
VvV
V

vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV vVvVvVvVvVvVvVv
You are receiving this V-Mail because you asked V-Day to keep in
touch with you. Spread the word by forwarding it to a friend!

To subscribe, visit http://www.vday.org/vmail

To unsubscribe, visit http://www.vday.org/vmail

Feedback is always welcome. Send your comments, suggestions,
questions, and raVes to editor@vday.org

Back issues are available at http://www.vday.org/vmail/
You can make a donation at http://www.vday.org/donate/
You can shop to support V-Day at http://www.store-vday.org

vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV vVvVvVvVvVvVvVv



vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV vVvVvVvVvVvVvVv
You are receiving this V-Mail because you asked V-Day to keep in
touch with you. Spread the word by forwarding it to a friend!

To subscribe, visit http://www.vday.org/vmail or send an e-mail
message to .

To unsubscribe, visit http://www.vday.org/vmail or send an
e-mail to .

Feedback is always welcome. Send your comments, suggestions,
questions, and raVes to editor@vday.org.

Back issues are available at http://www.vday.org/vmail/.
You can make a donation at http://www.vday.org/donate/.
You can shop to support V-Day at http://www.vday.org/forsociety/.

vVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvVvV vVvVvVvVvVvVvVv