'V Day USU' Joins ‘One Billion Rising for Justice’ Campaign

Utah State University’s Access and Diversity Center coordinates activities for “V-Day USU” in conjunction with the “One Billion Rising for Justice” campaign. The USU activities include a benefit reading of The Vagina Monologues Feb. 12-14, in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.

The readings are a benefit performance with proceeds going to CAPSA. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door or in advance at USU’s Access and Diversity Center’s office, TSC 315.

The USU performance and V-Day campaign are part of “One Billion Rising for Justice.”

According to the national organization, the campaign is “a global call for women survivors of violence, and those who love them, to gather safely in places where they are entitled to justice — courthouses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, homes or simply public gathering places where women deserve to feel safe but too often do not ? and release their stories through art, dance, marches, ritual, song, spoken word, sit ins and testimonies.

USU organizers of V-Day USU invite the campus and local communities to “join us as we rise, release and dance to demand justice for women and girl survivors of violence.”

Last year more than 5,800 V-Day benefits were held around the world, raising funds and awareness toward ending violence against women. The events raised more than $5 million through performances of The Vagina Monologues or readings from V-Day’s A Memory, A Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer and Any One of Us: Words from Prison, in addition to screenings of V-Day’s documentary Until the Violence Stops and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You.

Utah State University has joined the global movement as part of the V-Day 2015 campaign.

The Vagina Monologues, a play by Eve Ensler, was first performed in 1996. It has been hailed by The New York Times as “funny” and “poignant” and by the Daily News as “intelligent” and “courageous.” It was first performed off-Broadway with Ensler and “dives into the mystery, humor, pain, power, wisdom, outrage and excitement buried in women’s experiences.”

V-Day USU is a local effort that joins the worldwide efforts of the 2015 V-Day campaign. By creating a global community, V-Day “strives to empower women to find their collective voices and demand an end to the violence that affects one in three women in the United States and around the world.”

More information can be found on the campaign’s website.

Related link:

USU Access and Diversity Center

Contact: Michelle Bogdan-Holt, 435-797-1728, michelle.bogdan@usu.edu

Source: USU Access and Diversity Center, 435-797-1728