Feb 13—Turning Pain To Power: An Evening Of Revolutionary Film, Talk, Drumming And Dance To End Violence Against Women
One Billion Rising, Bay Area Rising & V-Day Present
Turning Pain To Power: An Evening Of Revolutionary Film, Talk, Drumming And Dance To End Violence Against Women @ The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland
ONE BILLION RISING, BAY AREA RISING & V-DAY PRESENT
TURNING PAIN TO POWER:
AN EVENING OF REVOLUTIONARY FILM, TALK, DRUMMING AND DANCE TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
WHAT:
CITY OF JOY, THE AWARD WINNING FILM ABOUT THE REVOLUTIONARY LEADERSHIP CENTER FOR WOMEN SURVIVORS OF GENDER VIOLENCE IN EASTERN CONGO
WHO:
- City of Joy co-founders: Christine Schuler-Deschryver (Director of City of Joy and V-Day Congo) and Eve Ensler (playwright of The Vagina Monologues and Founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising)
- Bay Area Rising’s Afia Walking Tree and Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company
- She The People Founder Aimee Allison
WHEN:
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2019
6PM Doors Open. Film Starts at 7PM sharp.
Talkback immediately following. Closing with Break the Chain group dance.
WHERE:
GRAND LAKE THEATRE, 3200 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94610
TICKETS:
RSVP: https://turningpaintopower.eventbrite.com
$5 Tickets. Limited FREE tickets available.
ABOUT THE FILM:
CITY OF JOY, directed by first-time director Madeleine Gavin, follows the first class of women at a revolutionary leadership center in eastern Congo called City of Joy, from which the film derives its title, and weaves their journey as burgeoning leaders with that of the center’s founders (a devout Congolese doctor Dr. Denis Mukwege (2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner), women's rights activist Christine Schuler-Deschryver (Director of City of Joy and V-Day Congo) and radical feminist Eve Ensler (author of The Vagina Monologues and Founder of V-Day/One Billion Rising) - three individuals who imagined a place where women who have suffered horrific rape and abuse can heal and become powerful voices of change for their country.
A story about the profound resilience of the human spirit, CITY OF JOY witnesses Congolese women's fierce will to reclaim hope, even when so much of what was meaningful to them has been stripped away.
Immediately following the screening, audience members will be invited to RISE and participate in the One Billion Rising “Break the Chain” dance, as well as a Q&A with City Of Joy Co-Founders Christine Schuler Deschryver and Eve Ensler, moderated by She The People Founder Aimee Allison. Reflecting Bay Area Rising’s intersection of art, spirituality, and activism, the event will feature local dance, art, and music, including a drum procession lead by Afia Walking Tree and performances by the Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company.
V-Day FWN 2016: Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues Goes Out with a Bang!
On May 13th, V-Day FWN and the Women of Color United Against Violence cast stood up to raise awareness about violence against women at San Francisco's historical Herbst Theatre to an audience of over 500 people. The production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues raised funds for FWN's Anti-Violence Against Women Campaign and the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, a human rights organization building a Comfort Women Memorial in San Francisco as a place for healing and remembrance.
A special Comfort Women Extro was presented by Fiona Ma, Chairwoman of the California State Board of Equalization calling for Japan's full responsibility for the largest volume of sex trafficking in modern history.
The Cast & Crew of V-Day FWN 2016 Women of Color United Against Violence (L-R: Cecile Ascalon, Rosario Cajucom-Bradbury, Juslyn Manalo, Ava Ragasa, Azja Ragasa, Myrna T. Yao, Rocio Nuyda, FWN CEO Marily Mondejar, Helen Marte-Bautista, Sonia Delen, Jenna Rapues, Sheryll Casuga, Nancy Wong, Amar Bornkamp, Fiona Ma, Ali Collins, Rose Stubberfield, Camellia Santos, Rosaura Sandoval, Rosie Josue, Julie Abrams, Tahitia Dean)
On May 13th, V-Day FWN and the Women of Color United Against Violence cast stood up to raise awareness about violence against women at San Francisco's historical Herbst Theatre to an audience of over 500 people. The production of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues raised funds for FWN's Anti-Violence Against Women Campaign and the Comfort Women Justice Coalition, a human rights organization building a Comfort Women Memorial in San Francisco as a place for healing and remembrance.
V-Day FWN presented a monologue about Comfort Women called "Say It!" written by Eve Ensler who was inspired to write it when she met the Filipina Comfort Women in 2002. A special Comfort Women Extro was presented by Fiona Ma, Chairwoman of the California State Board of Equalization calling for Japan's full responsibility for the largest volume of sex trafficking in modern history.
One Billion Rising Pressures Aquino Administration to Address Increased Poverty and Escalation of Violence Against Women
Eve Ensler joins Monique Wilson (Global FWN100™ '14) and Joms Salvador in the Philippines for One Billion Rising's Rise 4 Revolution campaign.
This year's OBR Philippine campaign calls attention to factors that make women vulnerable to sexual violence including increased poverty, a lack of state accountability and a culture of impunity. News story from Bulatlat.com
Image credit: A. Umil, Bulatlat.com
Women around the world continue to suffer from great injustice of flawed policies implemented by governments. Many women become victims of abuse as they are deprived of jobs with decent salaries, land they own are grabbed by corporations resulting in dire poverty, and they are forced to leave their countries to seek employment abroad.
On the fourth year of “One Billion Rising,” (OBR) women’s rights activists around the world escalate their call for action, with this year’s theme “OBR: Rise to Revolution.”
The system must change, said playwright and women’s rights activist Eve Ensler, who will join the OBR in the Philippines on Feb. 14. She will also visit communities in Manila and the Haran House of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Davao City where hundreds of Lumad evacuees have sought refuge.
“We see how economic deprivation and inequality is connected to violence against women (VAW). Economic deprivation leads to getting raped, getting sold, getting trafficked. When you don’t give jobs to the women of your own country they are forced to go to other countries where they lose their families, they lose connection with their loved ones, they are exploited and abused by other people,” Eve Ensler said in a press conference on Monday, Feb. 8th.
“Why wouldn’t the government want to protect women workers and women from being exploited by other countries? That is so insane when you start thinking about the government that is supposed to represent the people,” she added.
The OBR is a global campaign to end violence against women and children through dancing action.
“This year’s campaign will escalate the collective actions of activists worldwide, and amplify their call for systematic changes towards ending violence against women and children once and for all,” said OBR global director, Monique Wilson.
Women leaders said this year’s OBR Philippines campaign is a virtual indictment of President Aquino, whose regime was marked by increased poverty, absence of state accountability, which has led to an escalation of violence against women.
“On Aquino’s almost six years in power, more and more women have become vulnerable to various forms of violence and abuse, because of poverty and the still unaddressed culture of impunity. The ‘risings’ thus continue to spread in various Philippine cities to highlight their local issues of VAW,” said Joms Salvador, secretary general of Gabriela Philippines, the lead convenor of the OBR Philippines campaign.
Salvador said in Tacloban for example, after typhoon Yolanda devastated Eastern Visayas, extreme poverty coupled with Aquino government’s neglect of the issue of violence for victims led to an increase in prostitution.
Read the rest of the story here.
News story from Bulatlat.com