V-Day Annual Report 2013 2013 | Page 6

V-DAY RISING V-DAY IS A GLOBAL ACTIVIST MOVEMENT TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS. Founded by Tony Award winning Playwright Eve Ensler in 1998, V-Day became a unique global movement when her play, The Vagina Monologues broke ground, offering the world a piece of art like nothing it had seen before. Ensler has been named one of US News & World Report’s “Best Leaders,” one of Newsweek’s “150 Women Who Changed the World” and The Guardian’s “100 Most Influential Women.” V-Day has proven that art has the power to transform thinking and inspire people to act. We have seen that lasting social and cultural change is spread by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We respect that local women best know what their communities need and can become unstoppable leaders. We know that one must look at the intersection of race, class, and gender to understand violence against women. Over the past 15 years, tens of thousands of productions of The Vagina Monologues and other V-Day artistic works have been produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls, and in 2013 highlighting One Billion Rising. 4