One Billion Rising Campaign Arrives in the UK
01/22/2013
JOIN V-DAY’S 15TH ANNIVERSARY: DANCE, RISE AND DEMAND AN END TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
V-Day Founder Eve Ensler to be special guest at London Rising event on Monday 4TH February
“When we come together on February 14, 2013 to demand an end to violence against women and girls, and it will be a truly global voice that will rise up for this year’s One Billion Rising campaign. Activists throughout the United Kingdom are rising. One Billion Rising coordinators Monique Wilson and Rossana Abueva are rallying women and men in every sector of society and curator and producer of the One Billion Rising UK Arts Festival Nadja Romain has gathered an array of stunning and brilliant visual artists. It’s also of real excitement that MP Stella Creasy is channeling the political arena for real change.” - Eve Ensler, V-Day founder and Playwright
Women and men across the UK will join activists and communities around the globe for ONE BILLION RISING on 14th February 2013, the 15th anniversary and largest day of action in the history of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls.
V-Day, founded by Eve Ensler, Tony Award winning author of “The Vagina Monologues,” launched ONE BILLION RISING in early 2012. The campaign is a global grassroots movement that, from Lima, to Paris, New Delhi to Kinshasa, Manila, to Bahrain is clamouring, loud and clear, for the end of violence towards women and girls. On February 14th, 2013, One Billion women, and those who love them, will rise up on the planet, joining activists, celebrities, writers, thinkers, and artists, to strike, dance, shake the world and shift the energy to empower women and girls and break the cycle of violence.
ONE BILLION RISING UK Coordinator Monique Wilson stated, “We are thrilled to announce over 80 One Billion Rising UK events (and growing!) OBR workshops have given voice to the needs of women and girls in communities around the UK; artistic events in the visual arts, film, poetry, theatre and dance are using the arts as a platform for change and transformation; big dance concerts are bringing together artists and musicians and dancers and annual performances of "The Vagina Monologues” and countless flash mobs are happening in universities, schools, theatres, high streets, town halls and squares all across the country. The UK has always been known for the diversity of the cultures and it is this which makes the UK a fantastic representative for the global campaign. The United Kingdom - from London, Brighton, Sheffield, Lancaster, Liverpool, Cardiff, The Scottish Borders, Bute, Norwich and many others - are coming together on February 14th and RISING to demand an end to violence against women and girls.”
London highlights include:
ONE BILLION RISING UK Art Festival - With art being one of the most powerful forms of communication and vehicles of protest, the inaugural festival, spearheaded by curator and producer and founder of Everything I Want ltd, Nadja Romain will invite artists, poets, playwrights, dancers, performers, art lovers and the public to come together in unity against violence. An impressive programme of exhibitions, performances, talks and screenings will take place across the UK beginning January 22nd through February 14th in various venues, museums and galleries, challenging us to new ways of thinking and motivating us to change. Artists involved include Judy Chicago, Rose Gibbs, Hannah McClure, Mimmo Miccolis and many more. For information on all festival events please visit http://www.obrartfest.co.uk
LONDON RISING - Eve Ensler will be arriving in London on Monday 4th February to join the UK’s risings against violence and will be hosting LONDON RISING, a one night fundraising theatrical dance party with music, dance, songs and film that celebrates women at Café de Paris. Produced by New Voice Company and ONE BILLION RISING Campaign Directors Monique Wilson and Rossana Abueva the evening will feature Eve Ensler performing her newest piece “Rising,” written in Kerala for the women in India who lead the way. V-Day board member and acclaimed film actress Thandie Newton will perform a special piece called “Over It,” written by Ensler to launch the ONE BILLION RISING Campaign.
The show will also feature Grammy nominated and internationally acclaimed Sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar, Zambian Scottish songstress Namvula Rennie, cabaret vocalist Karin Bello and singer Enno-Williams Uffort and the Milestones Motown band. Tickets from £25 can be purchased http://onebillionrising.org/page/event/detail/startarising/w5g
MPS CALL FOR STATUTORY SEX AND RELATIONSHIP EDUCATION - ONE BILLION RISING campaign hit the UK parliament on 15th January as a group of cross-party MPs made an impassioned plea to for parliamentary time to be given to a debate and vote on providing sexual and relationship education in all schools, as part of challenging the growing evidence of the violence and harassment of young girls in Britain. Labour MP and shadow Minister for Crime Prevention Stella Creasy is helping to organise the ONE BILLION RISING campaign in the UK.
Governments and politicians around globe join Creasy and her colleagues in their support of One Billion Rising including the First Lady of Nepal, the Mayor of Lima, the Los Angeles City Council, the City of Sante Fe, Vice President of the European Parliament, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and many others.
Thousands of activists and over 13,000 organizations around the globe have already signed on and ONE BILLION RISING events are being planned in over 187 countries. Organizations such as Amnesty International USA, BCBGMAXAZRIA, European Women’s Lobby, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, MTV, NOW, Sonke Gender Justice Network, and AFL-CIO are coming together. Among V-Day’s board members are Rosario Dawson, Thandie Newton, Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington who along with Yoko Ono, Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway, Donna Karan, Jennifer Lawrence, Dylan McDermott, Robert Redford, Lily Tomlin, Rosie Huntington – Whitely, Zoe Kravitz, and many more support the campaign to end violence against women. But we still need you to rise!
Many events are taking place across the UK as part of the campaign. Find your local event on V-Day’s global campaign website www.onebillionrising.org
ENDS
For more press information on all One Billion Rising UK events, One Billion Rising Arts Festival and interview requests with Eve Ensler please contact Julia or Charlotte at Purple: [email protected] 0207 434 7082 | [email protected] 0207 434 7069
Notes to Editors:
About One Billion Rising
One in three women on the planet is raped or beaten in her lifetime, according to the UN. That is ONE BILLION WOMEN violated. One billion daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, lovers and friends. On 14th February 2013, V-Day's 15th Anniversary, we are inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to this violence. ONE BILLION RISING will move the earth, activating women and men to dance across every country. V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, our numbers and our solidarity across borders. Join V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING today and SAY NO to violence against women and girls. To sign up and learn more, visit www.onebillionrising.org
About V-Day:
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler's award winning play “The Vagina Monologues” and other artistic works. In 2012, over 5,800 V-Day benefit events organized by volunteer activists in the U.S. took place around the world educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. To date, the V-Day movement has raised over US $90 million; educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it; crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns; reopened shelters; and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt and Iraq. Over 300 million people have seen a V-Day benefit event in their community. V-Day has received numerous acknowledgements including Worth Magazine's 100 Best Charities, Marie Claire Magazine's Top Ten Charities, one of the Top-Rated organizations on Philanthropedia/Guidestar and Great Nonprofits. www.vday.org