The College Initiative is a project of V-Day, an organization working to stop violence against women. The V-Day College Initiative debuted in 1999. It followed the event that launched the V-Day movement, the critically-acclaimed celebrity benefit performance of Eve Ensler’s Obie Award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues,” at the 2,000-seat Hammerstein Ballroom Theatre in New York City on Valentine’s Day 1998. The sold-out house was treated to performances of the monologues by Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Calista Flockhart, Hazelle Goodman, Gloria Steinem and Ms. Ensler herself, among many wonderful others. V-Day 1998 was a huge success but was limited in reach in that it was only accessible to a specific, local audience. The V-Day College Initiative was conceived to bring the message of V-Day to a larger audience at a grassroots level. The goal of the Initiative was and still is not only to spread the V-Day message far and wide but to do so by empowering young people, the leaders, shapers and messengers of the future.
For the V-Day 1999 College Initiative, colleges and universities nationwide were invited to mount productions of “The Vagina Monologues” at their schools on Valentine’s Day V-Day – 1999. Over 65 schools in the United States and Canada participated and more than 20,000 people were exposed to V-Day via the College Initiative. For the V-Day 2000 College Initiative, 150 schools worldwide participated, from San Francisco State University in California to Friedrich Schiller Universitat in Germany. Based on figures reported by the participating schools, it is estimated that about 65,000 people attended V-Day 2000 College Initiative events and that, through these events, more than 15 million people were exposed to V-Day around the world. The goal for the V-Day 2001 College Initiative is to get even more schools involved worldwide than in the two preceding years put together. In the first two months of the 2001 Initiative, almost as many schools signed up to participate as participated in the entire 1999 Initiative.
Read a Letter from the V-Day 20001 College Initiative Director.
Join the V-Day 2001 College Initiative. There is NO COST to participate in this rewarding and important project.
