It began 25 years ago today with Eve Ensler’s production of The Vagina Monologues and became a world-wide One Billion Rising (OBR) call for freedom and an end to violence against women and patriarchy led by survivors, artists and activists around the world. V-Day and One Billion Rising are a crucial part of the global fight to stop gender-based violence through attacking the silence ~ public and private ~ that allows violence against women to continue.

The celebration of V-Day’s 25 anniversary and the 10th anniversary of OBR was launched in New York City with An Evening of Reckoning and Rising. V (formerly Eve Ensler) read from her new memoir Reckoning. The book takes us through a lifetime of writing, poetry, and activism, representing the methods through which she survived her own abuse and self-hatred, challenging the myths and narratives that have guided her life and the core of ideas that have become the global V-Day/One Billion Rising movements.

V, you make me so proud that I launched my humble blog 14 years ago today. Although I’m retired now, it boggles my mind that people are still reading posts I wrote in 2009. Nearly one million people from every country in the world have visited. Wow!

Sadly, today is also the 5th anniversary of the shooting rampage at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

See also:

Eve Ensler: Until the Violence Stops, 3-11-09

Book Review: The Apology (by Eve Ensler), 5-25-19

Bravo: Stoneman Douglas Activists!, 2-23-18

Shooting Rampages: A V-Day Tale of Two Cities, 2-23-2018

#Never Again: Parkland, 2-14-19