V-Day

For many women, February means candy hearts and flowers for Valentine's Day, but for some women, the month of February brings a different V-Day - a movement to end violence against women.

Started ten years ago by feminist Eve Ensler, V-day (www.vday.org) has grown from a national to a global campaign to increase awareness and raise money for anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery.

Largely done through creative events such as spoken word, plays and films, local activists and college students participate in the events. In 2008, over 4000 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

I recently attended one of these events when I saw The Vagina Monologues performed by University of Michigan students on campus. The Vagina Monologues were a result of several interviews conducted by Eve Ensler and others of various women from different backgrounds, cultures and socio-economic status. The interviews resulted in stories of all kinds - some that made me laugh out loud like the elderly woman who had never "looked down THERE" before, and others that made me cry like the Bosnian woman who was ripped open with the force of a gun inside her. In a world of violence and television images that we've become numb to, art and performance provide a vehicle to connect with people, to open their eyes to what's happening all around us.

Tonight I will attend another V-Day performance in Ferndale, a play written by Eve Ensler called Necessary Targets. Eve traveled to Bosnia to interview female refugees who had been brutally raped and beaten during the war. Their stories of love and community in the face of such brutality inspired Eve to write the play.

Necessary Targets runs tonight at 7:30 at the Ringwald Theater in Ferndale and proceeds benefit HAVEN in Pontiac, an emergency shelter that runs educational programs in the schools, offers counseling, advocates for abuse victims, and maintains a 24-hour crisis line and a forensic nursing program for sexual assault victims.

Tonight is the last show, but there are several other V-Day events taking place in and around Detroit in the next couple of weeks:

Love HER. Cherish HER. RESPECT HER. An Evening of Spoken Word, 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, 1515 Broadway, Detroit.

Women's self-defense seminar, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 28, the Costick Center, located on 11 Mile, between Middlebelt and Inkster, Farmington Hills. Jeff Duncan, master instructor and sixth-degree black belt, his wife Connie, second-degree black belt and chief instructor and additional female black belt instructors from Farmington Martial Arts, will teach self-defense and awareness skills. Open to women and girls, age 11 and up. Advance registration is required by calling (248) 473-1800.

"Anyone of Us: Words from Prison," 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 1, 1515 Broadway, Detroit. The production draws on the writings of women in prison. A panel discussion follows the performance.

Until the Violence Stops Film Festival, 7 p.m. March 3-4, 1515 Broadway, Detroit. "Until the Violence Stops," "What I Want My Words To Do To you," and "From One Prison" screen the first day; "Tough Guise," "Street Sex," and "Lumo" shown the second day.

"The Vagina Monologues," 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, March 6-7, 1515 Broadway, Detroit. Special guest is Kalimah Johnson, a therapist and poet.

If you can't attend any of these events, please visit the www.VDay.org to learn more about what you can do to help stop violence against women.