Take a moment to imagine yourself in a comfortable space free of furniture. You are sitting on the floor, in whatever position you prefer. Your breath is calm. Slowly, you start to stand. You play a song in your head that makes you move. You feel your breath quicken, your feet stomp to the rhythm, your hands rise to the sky. Soon, you look around at the others dancing to the same rhythm. The room is full of energy and joy. You feel empowered. Why? You have just taken a brief journey into the movement known as One Billion Rising.
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In honor of the organization’s fifteenth anniversary, V-Day has launched a campaign to empower the billion (and counting) female victims of violence around the world to dance. The name, as I mentioned above, is One Billion Rising. Before I elaborate on this campaign, I must tell you V-Day’s story of creation: Three years after Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues sparked the conversation of the stigmatism of rape and abuse against women, on Valentine’s Day 1998, Ensler established an organization called V-Day. This organization “demands that violence against women and girls must end” (www.vday.org). This mission serves the world population via productions, workshops, and festivals. The V-Day site says that in 2012, over 3,500 performances The Vagina Monologues were staged around the world and that college activists raised “an annual average of over $4 million” in which ninety percent of proceeds went to domestic violence shelters, rape-crisis centers, and the like. (BU’s Athena’s Players is putting on The Vagina Monologues on February 23rd!)
The One Billion Rising campaign will be coming to Boston University’s campus this Valentine’s Day. BU’s Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center will be hosting the One Billion Rising celebration from 12-2PM in the GSU on February 14th. I encourage you to attend, bring your friends of all genders, and dance for the sake that you are free to do so. Dance for the twenty-five percent of female college students who Department of Justice estimates will be victims of rape or attempted rape during their college career. Dance for the million children that enter the global sex trade each year. Dance for the silent victims all around the world. Most importantly, dance in order to awaken your passion for equality, peace, and safety. I will be dancing for those reasons and many more that are personal, but much too common. This Valentine’s Day, take some time to put yourself in that room full of people rising for the same cause. And don’t forget to Tweet about it using #1BillingRising (and mention @VDay as well).
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SOURCES:
http://www.vday.org/our-work/c…