V-DAY IS A GLOBAL ACTIVIST MOVEMENT

TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST ALL WOMEN, GIRLS AND THE EARTH

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.

The new audio play, VOICES: a sacred sisterscape is now streaming across all audio platforms. Distributed by Blackstone Publishing, VOICES, is an audio experience of stories written by, narrated by and centering Black women across the diaspora.

For more information, please visit visforvoices.org and follow the journey at @visforvoices and @vdayorg.

We are the poems we have been waiting for. 
No movement will survive without our sistering.

Global Rising

1 in 3 women across the Earth will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. That’s ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. Every February, we rise – in countries across the Earth – 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 Earth 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

TURNING PAIN TO POWER

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, 2240 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

DISMANTLE PATRIARCHY

V-Day and A Call to Men have launched a competition calling on high school students in the United States and college students around the world to use their creative talents to Dismantle Patriarchy. 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.

Latest Posts

NEWS

  • In honor of the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Ashé Cultural Arts Center will produce Swimming Upstream: The Katrina Monologues at the Mahalia Jackson Theater. This powerful stage production shares the true stories of women navigating the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita—stories of survival, displacement, return, and transformation—through spoken word, song, and movement. Originally produced by Carol Bebelle and playwright V (formerly Eve Ensler) in partnership with V-Day and the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, Swimming Upstream was first performed at the Superdome in 2008 to honor the women of New Orleans and the Gulf South post Katrina, in a......

  • On the fourth anniversary of the 2021 Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, we stand with the women – and all vulnerable groups – of Afghanistan against imperialism, militarism, fundamentalism, and fascism. Since 2021, the Taliban has targeted women, destroying their right to education, autonomy, and the most fundamental human rights. Women and girls in Afghanistan can no longer attend school, they’re banned from almost all jobs, including medical training, and are banned from most public spaces. Girls are forced into child marriage and face a devastating mental health crisis. The female suicide rate in Afghanistan remains among the highest in the......

  • This month will mark the 4th anniversary of the Taliban’s domination of Afghanistan. For many, Afghanistan’s crisis is an “old story.” It is not breaking news anymore, not exciting enough for headlines, because our country has been in conflict for more than four decades, used again and again as a proxy battleground for the interests of powerful nations. In August 2021, after 20 years of NATO and international presence in the name of “fighting terrorism,” the fate of our people was once again handed to the Taliban. Through a signed agreement, they were effectively reinstalled. Since that day, they have......

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