Growing from a singular play to a vast global movement of survivors, artists and activists, V-Day works at the intersection of art and activism to shatter taboos, create space for women and the most marginalized, and initiate community led culture and system change. V-Day is a movement of everyday grassroots leaders demanding change for their communities.
New Campaign
Voices is a new interdisciplinary performance arts project and campaign grounded in Black women’s stories by V-Day to unify the vision of ending violence against women: cis women, trans women, and non binary people across the African Continent and African Diaspora. Our goal is to use art to embody and inspire solidarity-making in our collective imagination.
We are the poems we have been waiting for.
No movement will survive without our sistering.
Global Rising
1 in 3 women across the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise – in countries across the world – to show our local communities and the world what one billion looks like and shine a light on the rampant impunity and injustice that survivors most often face. We rise through dance to express joy and community and celebrate the fact that we have not been defeated by this violence. We rise to show we are determined to create a new kind of consciousness – one where violence will be resisted until it is unthinkable.
One Billion Rising is the biggest mass action to end violence against women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender-based violence) in human history. The campaign, which launched on Valentine’s Day 2012, began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS
City Of Joy
City of Joy is a transformational leadership community for women survivors of violence, located in Bukavu, in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a region plagued by an ongoing proxy war for the area’s vast mineral resources. Since opening in 2011, 1472 women have graduated from the CITY OF JOY, healed themselves, been nurtured, learned new skills, empowered themselves and joined into a network of love and revolution. These women have released massive trauma and horrific memories. They have danced, sung, learned their rights, performed plays, developed agricultural skills, come to love their bodies. They have become leaders in their communities. They are no longer stigmatized for being raped.
These women are forces of energy and determination, entrepreneurs of small businesses, initiators of collectives, restaurants owners, farmers with new land, educators and advocates on sexual violence, volunteers in a self-created recruiting network for new women at the center, journalists, immigration workers, tailors, students, herbalists, and more. 42 graduates are employed at V-World Farm, a large sustainable farm run by V-Day Congo.
City of Joy serves 90 survivors of gender violence aged 18 to 30 at a time.
Student Uprising
Enter the Dismantle Patriarchy Contest to address how patriarchy impacts your life, your community, the world. How might we dismantle – take apart, break into pieces, deconstruct – patriarchy? What would it take? How would YOU do it? Bring your creative voice to this contest! Tell us, in whatever creative method reflects your project, and you just might win an award for your idea. Submissions can be in the form of essay, poetry, music, art, photography, film, etc.
Experiment. Think outside the box. Break down patriarchy and show us what a post-patriarchal world looks like. Articulate your vision using all the creative tools at your disposal.
The Dismantle Patriarchy Contest is postponed until further notice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Please stay safe and healthy, and check back again soon for news on when we will reinstate the competition.
Latest Posts
Just yesterday, City of Joy celebrated its 20th graduation! It was joyous. Filled with laughter. Brimming with hope. 1734 survivors graduated to date. They are change makers, turning pain to power. Congratulations to V-Day Congo Director and Co-founder/Director of City of Joy Christine Schuler Deschryver and the team at City of Joy and to all of the graduates!...
22 December, 2021
A V-Card supports the global activist movement to end violence against all women, girls & the planet and is the perfect gift for the Holidays! This year, you can make a donation to V-Day on behalf of your friends and loved ones. V-Day will send a specially designed 2021 holiday V-Card letting them know of your unique gift to them. Donations support V-Day’s work, including VOICES, the Beyond Incarceration Project, One Billion Rising and City of Joy. To send a V-Card, go to the donate page, check the boxes next to “Make this an honorary or memorial gift” and then......
18 December, 2021(Reposted from onebillionrising.org) One Billion Rising activists are heeding the call of the #1BillionRising 2022 Campaign – a call to RISE for the Bodies of All Women, Girls & the Earth – harnessing the global energy of 16 Days of Activism to connect both in a deeper, more purposeful, political, transformative and yet also empowering, hopeful way. And to make this coming year a truly radical, bold, fearless escalation of artistic Risings, bringing the issue of Gender Based Violence front and center in their communities. We are experiencing the devastating consequences of the ongoing vicious systems of patriarchy, imperialism, capitalism......
14 December, 2021Social Media
