Production Raises $1,935 For Two Charities, 180 Turning Lives Around and One Billion Rising
“The Vagina Monologues” were presented by Boom Roasted Productions on Tuesday, April 2 in Pollack Theater. The sarcastic and informative movement promotes awareness and the prevention of violence against females.
The performance produced both a room full of laughs and serious moments when talking about the female body. Stories were told that most would not express in public as well as experiences that some had similarities with.
There was a short film shared with no sound, only background music, which showed grueling clips of females being tortured in different emotional, mental and physical ways. At the end of the film, the story is tied up with women fighting back for what they believed was right by holding up their pointer fingers in the formation of number one. The powerful, speechless exhibition ensured the audience of what this advocacy is about.
This video was launched for the fifteenth anniversary of V-Day, accompanied by the campaign One Billion Rising. One billion women on this planet will be impacted by violence. On the V-Day anniversary, the plan is to invite one billion women and others supporting them to stand up and rise to the occasion of fighting against this violence.
Alex Marino, junior, thought it brought huge awareness to the University and the community. The personal stories that were told created a connection when listening to the pain that many of these women went though. Having this opportunity to provide help for these women is something that shows empowerment for the female community.
Volunteer students each stood up and spoke on others behalf of past real-life stories. Caroline Hulester, freshman, said “The different stories presented serious situations as well as light and funny predicaments. While having fun with the performance, it also provided serious stories and statistics that unfortunately have occurred.” One out of every three women in the world will be physically or sexually abused in her lifetime.
This was the University’s ninth year of hosting “The Vagina Monologues.” At the end, two awards were presented to Alan Foster, professor, and Poonam Patel, graduate student. This award, the Vagina Warrior Award, was in honor of them working and volunteering to end violence against women and girls and ways to enhance their lives.
V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation, and sex slavery. The V-Day campaign searchers for volunteers as well as college students to produce annual performances within a specific region and then educates and changes the views towards female violence. The movement has raised over $90 million and reached over 300 million people. Abuse is any sort of sexual, physical, verbal, or mental mistreatment that one doesn’t agree with.
“I would say the importance of informing others of female abuse is increasing its overall awareness and resources available for women suffering from abuse. Also the possible negative consequences if abuse continues,” assistant athletic trainer Nick Scaramazza said.
