Nanaimo Women Unite to Help Stop the Violence
Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues returns to Malaspina University-College

V-DAY, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls returns to Nanaimo on Feb. 10 and 11, with two productions of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues at the Malaspina University-College theatre.

Twelve women will present the Monologues in a café-style format that celebrates the collective voices of women through individual stories. Performers include city councillor Diane Brennan, Malaspina Women’s Studies department chair Kathryn Barnwell and Volunteer Nanaimo executive director Marjorie Driscoll. Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Nanaimo Women’s Centre, which lost its core funding to provincial government cuts in the spring of 2004.

“This college campaign has been effective in raising awareness about violence against women, and the need to support women’s shelters, women’s centres and transition houses,” says Jeannie Martin, president of the Nanaimo Women’s Centre. “The organizers and performers who are putting this event together are doing a tremendous service for women in the Nanaimo area.”

V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. The V in V-Day stands for victory, valentine and vagina.

The Malaspina performance joins the rest of this year’s V-Day campaigns in raising awareness about the plight of comfort women, young females of various ethnic and national backgrounds who were forced to offer sexual services to the Japanese troops during the Asia/Pacific Wars between 1932 and 1945. The aging survivors are dying off without redress from the Japanese government, which still denies legal responsibility. V-Day is working with groups in Asia to plan a major V-Day event in Seoul during summer 2006 to bring maximum attention to this issue. V-Day is also working to raise awareness of human trafficking as we recognize the relationship between the story of the ‘comfort women’ and the system of modern day human trafficking.

The Vagina Monologues begins at 7:30pm Feb. 10 and 11 at the Malaspina University-College Theatre, located in building 310. Tickets are $12, available at Lobelia’s Lair (753-5440) and the Nanaimo Women’s Centre (753-0633). The Women’s Centre is located at 10 Victoria Crescent and is open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 10am to 3pm.