Playwright Eve Ensler will be honored at the Heartland Alliance's 63rd Annual Women's Board Celebration Ball. The black-tie gala will take place at the Chicago Hyatt Regency, 151 E. Wacker Dr., Saturday, Nov. 8.
Ensler is the founder and artistic director of V-Day, an anti-violence organization that has raised millions of dollars in the fight against violence toward women. She started the not-for-profit in 1998, after personal testimonies from women who had seen The Vagina Monologues confirmed the pressing need to protect women and girls from all manner of brutality. Today V-Day has become a global movement that promotes creative activities, organizes benefit events and helps fund numerous groups involved at the grassroots level. With a permanent staff of only eight, 'doing the work of 50,' Ensler said, V-Day and its hundreds of active volunteers have raised and redistributed $7 million in 2002 alone. Consequently, more than a thousand organizations around the world have been able to survive and, in some cases, expand their outreach.
V-Day coordinates an amazing variety of programs both here in the U.S. and abroad. The one initiative it is perhaps best known for is the College Campaign wherein benefit productions of the Monologues are put on by students on or around Valentine's Day. Such performances have gone a long way in raising awareness and channeling financial support in their respective local communities. Other types of events are also imagined and realized all the time: more than 800 of these took place last year in a total of 599 cities. Ensler herself has attended performances of the play in many of the 35 countries where it has been exported. She says she is 'pretty fluent in French.' Having heard the lines in 20 different languages (Croatian, Greek, French, Italian and Portuguese, to name a few), she remarks with enthusiasm that 'You can close your eyes and the laughs always come in the same places.' To date the play has been translated into 28 languages.
Not surprisingly, considering the feisty nature of its founder, V-Day has not shied away from entering the political arena. Its 1% Campaign calls for 1% of the U.S. defense budget to be redirected and invested in violence-protection measures such as shelters, crisis centers, and help hotlines. The program operates in conjunction with the National Organization for Women (NOW). Asked if she has any political aspirations of her own, Ensler is quick to respond: 'No, I'm an artist first and foremost.' She then goes on to say that 'agitating' is what she thinks she is good at. Anyone who has seen the Vagina Monologues no doubt will agree. But more importantly, all the women and girls whose lives have been improved as a result of V-Day are grateful that she is doing it with such tangible success.
On the international front, Ensler has been to Afghanistan several times in relation with her organization's Afghan Women's Summits. In Brussels and then in Kabul, V-Day representatives and local activists have met with the Afghan Minister for Women and other officials in order to promote women's basic human rights and gradually lift the oppression under which they have suffered for so long. Needless to say, the ongoing war on terrorism has not been a tremendous help in the matter. Nevertheless, efforts continue.
V-Day also has projects with partners in India and Africa. This year a shelter for women in Kenya was re-opened with V-Day's help after lack of funding had forced it to shut its doors.
Like most changes in attitude, the reduction in violent behavior toward women and girls is an incremental process. Although education and prevention represent ideal strategies, they often come too late. Dreadful statistics on violent crime are compiled each year by the United Nations and almost all countries of the world. Collection methods and crime classifications are not always transparent, but most numbers clearly indicate that women and girls constitute an overwhelming majority of the victims. By way of illustration, the V-Day Web site has links to a list of official databases of reported crimes. To put the statistics in perspective, one of the sites mentions a recent Department of Justice estimate which says only 26% of rapes in the United States are reported.
Also engaged in the fight, the Heartland Alliance is an anti-poverty human-rights organization based in Chicago. They serve the more underprivileged and vulnerable people in our region by providing housing solutions for homeless and low-income families and operating a network of support services in the fields of literacy, substance abuse prevention, and employment. They also facilitate access to healthcare, including HIV/AIDS treatment and medical translation services. Linguistic barriers have been identified by the medical community as a major impediment to the quality of care, yet most small clinics simply do not have the financial resources to hire translators and interpreters.
Two of Heartland Alliance's initiatives are especially related to the ethos and aims of Eve Ensler's V-Day: The Domestic Violence Program and the Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center (MIHRC) both have helped a considerable number of women deal with and, in some cases, escape violent situations.
The Domestic Violence Program was started in 1979. Last year 1,746 women and children benefited from its counseling and advocacy work. Through the Families Building Community project many have been able to move out of temporary shelters and make a transition toward permanent housing.
MIHRC has a team of pro bono attorneys who provide legal services to poor immigrants in need of representation in asylum status procedures or at deportation hearings. Refugee women and girls seeking protection from violence (honor killings, female genital mutilation, etc.) in their country of origin made up 562 of the center's cases in 2002.
Building on this impressive list of achievements, the next few months should bring even more positive developments in the fight against violence. At the local level, Heartland Alliance is working with the Howard Brown Health Center, Horizons Community Services and the YMCA on an upcoming domestic-violence awareness campaign. This collaboration will highlight the issue among LBT women.
Nationally, a documentary entitled What I Want My Words to Say to You looks at the writing workshop Eve Ensler has led inside Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women since 1998. The film won the Freedom of Expression Award when it premiered at the 2003 Sundance Festival and it will be released soon. Ensler is one of the executive producers.
Always busy fostering new ideas, Ensler has two new plays in the works. Both revolve around the theme of the female body and how it is perceived. The Good Body, which she will be performing when it opens in New York in the Fall, explores what she calls 'my obsession with my post-40 stomach.' While we can certainly predict the piece will be funny, we should also expect it to contain a good dose of social commentary on the gendered dynamics of aging. The other play announces a return to the monologue format. To be called I Am an Emotional Creature, it will be based on a series of interviews Ensler conducted with teenage girls around the world.
Giving suffering and victimized women a voice has become a way of life for Eve Ensler and it is to her immense credit that she can do it in such an effective fashion. After all, making people laugh while reminding them of the destructive effects of intimidation, rape and incest is not a talent all of us share. But far from exhibiting any self-congratulatory tendencies, she expresses her admiration for women she calls 'Vagina Warriors.' They are women in all sorts of communities, living under different conditions, who are themselves survivors of violence and are now helping others recover. 'These women spend their lives combating violence against women and girls. They are what interests me the most on the planet right now,' she declares.
Through their power of imagination and tireless work Eve Ensler, V-Day, and all the organizations they support have increased the safety of countless women, even saved some lives. Such results are of course the only true reward. In focusing attention on the cause, The Heartland Alliance award will celebrate past successes and, hopefully, inspire many to join in the struggle.
A VIP reception with Honorary Host Mary Morten, who received the award in 2001, will take place before the Celebration Ball. Ron Magers of ABC-7 will emcee the evening.
For more info on V-Day, see www.vday.org . Tickets to the event are $200 each and all proceeds will benefit the Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights. They can be purchased by calling Jenny Mack at (312) 660-1313.
The 2004 Chicago V-Day benefit will be Feb. 18 at the Park West, tickets start at $65 and will benefit the AIDS Foundation of Chicago and Southwest Women Working Together. Call (312) 922-2322. The all-female cast is multi-racial and very lesbian-inclusive.
----------------------------------------
