Welcome to V-Season 2020
V-Day, the global movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence) has seen its work evolve over the past three years. The rise of misogynist, authoritarian regimes the world over - from the United States to the Philippines, India to Brazil - has recalibrated our work, further escalating the urgency with which we feel compelled to fight for gender, climate, economic and racial justice.
We are in the midst of a rising tide of right-wing nationalism, white supremacy, fascism, tyranny, hatred of and fear of immigrants, misogyny, femicide, homophobia, transphobia, corporate greed and climate destruction. We cannot beat these violators on their terms. We will never be that cruel, discompassionate, greedy, or murderous. We cannot let ourselves be changed by or sunk in their cynicism, hatred, divisions and destruction.
What we can do is remember we are the many and we can RAISE THE VIBRATION through Action, Art, Connection, Imagination and Love.
That is why we do theater, music, art, poetry, dance.
That is why we stand in the face of injustice and are just.
That is why call out the systems that create insane inequality and we give more.
That is why we open the borders of our heart when the state builds walls, detention centers and refugee camps.
That is why we reach out to include everyone in our circle of rising as the state creates further and further divisions between us.
That is why we devote ourselves to developing trust and solidarity, to joining our issues in solidarity, because this bond, once secure becomes our wings.
That is why we move our bodies so that the freedom and energy we shake loose becomes a new energy bringing in a new future.
That is why we see, cherish, nurture, respect and protect our Mother Earth as we are not separate from her. Her life is our life.
Together, we RISE to free all women (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities) from sexual, physical, racial, economic, political, socio-cultural, ideological and climate crisis violence. We RISE to end rape, battery, incest, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, sexual slavery and trafficking, child marriage, femicide, sexual, gender and reproductive oppression, violence towards LGBTQIA+ communities. We RISE to end capitalism, colonization, racism, imperialism, climate catastrophe and war.
Join us in 2020!
V-Day Kiev; V-Day Boston; V-Day Myanmar
V-Day: Say It, Stage It – Produce a V-Day Benefit of "The Vagina Monologues" or "A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, or a Prayer" as an Artistic Uprising at your college/university, in your community
One Billion RISING: Revolution 2020 – RISE in your community, for your community
City of Joy: Turning Pain to Power – Screen the Documentary, Support the Women in DR Congo
We feel the energy of rising up, of resistance, of bold artistic energy and creativity coming forward from V-Day and One Billion Rising activists across the globe. At the City of Joy in Congo, 1294 women survivors have graduated, and the documentary film also entitled CITY OF JOY is available on Netflix, bringing a vast global audience their message of Turning Pain to Power.
V-Day 2020: The Vagina Monologues gave birth to V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, and those who hold fluid identities that are subject to gender based violence). With creativity and determination, activists around the world tirelessly work to end harassment, rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation and sex slavery.
Amplifying New Voices: For the 2020 V-season, we invite activists to create a new event called RAISE THE VIBRATION. This will be a community-created artistic piece. Create a vibration that is powerful, beautiful, compelling through music, chanting, dance, drumming, original monologues, and more. Since V-Day first began in 1998, many new and long-term activists have begun to stage their own works reflecting the voices in their communities. If you would like to foreground new voices in the conversation around ending violence against women, we encourage you to do so by curating stories from your community and creating this new artistic evening that you present separately. Many organizers have done this, both instead of "The Vagina Monologues" and in addition to it. It's a wonderful way to invite local writers, activists and artists to participate.
When women take the stage, incredible things happen, as their issues are voiced and confronted for all to see and hear.
As we collectively raise the vibration, there will not be a specific 2020 spotlight campaign. Instead, we ask that you, our activists, donate 100% of your proceeds to a group or groups in your community who are doing anti-violence work at rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, groups working with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, with refugee women, and with women affected by climate catastrophe. Research and support groups on the front line in your community, serving survivors who have been traditionally marginalized or made vulnerable to violence due to current socio-political conditions.
Over the next few months and leading up to February 2020, we will be releasing a brand new graphic/slide to project at your V-Day benefits, a new song/anthem, a Spanish video and also an acapella arrangement for "Like a Woman", videos from our #OBREurope coordinators, and more art, graphics and videos from the movement. Stay tuned!
Beginning today, activists can register to produce a 2020 V-Day benefit production of The Vagina Monologues and/or A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer and/or Raise the Vibration. They can also begin listing their One Billion Rising events.
The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer will be available free of charge to registered activists hosting benefit productions solely from 1 February - 8 March.*
Sign Up TODAY! V-Season is now open!
ONE BILLION RISING REVOLUTION 2020:
One Billion Rising activists worldwide mobilize, engage, awaken and join people across the planet to end violence against all women and girls. 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.
In 2020, we invite OBR activists to keep our risings strong, radical, creative. That they embody a true and higher consciousness of the body, revolution, imagination and love. Something that captures the gravity and urgency and cruelty of the political and economic situation of today, and something that at the same time harnesses the huge and powerful energy of the collective creative power of our movement that continues to bring hope, connection, possibility and the future.
Rise for Revolution
Join us in 2020
Ready to RISE in your community, stage a RISING event >
CITY OF JOY: Turning Pain to Power
City of Joy is a revolutionary leadership center for women survivors of gender violence, located in Bukavu, in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. City of Joy, the film, tells the story of the first class of women at City of Joy, and chronicles the process by which such a transformational place came to be, from its origins with the women survivors themselves, to the opening of the center's doors.
Whether you are new to City of Joy and V-Day or have been with us in the movement since its inception, know that you are joining a network of activists who will be viewing the film and hosting screenings and house parties around the world to celebrate the work of City of Joy, honoring the women leaders of the Congo and the 1294 women who have graduated from the City of Joy, joining together in a network of love and revolution, Turning Pain to Power. Watch the Film, Host a House Party or Screening & Spread the Word.
HOST a Screening/House Party
LEARN more about City of Joy