As part of V-Day's "Turning Pain to Power Tour," the University of Southern California's performance of The Vagina Monologues was followed by a discussion with the play's author, Eve Ensler, and Dr. Denis Mukwege, the OB-GYN who has been recognized for his groundbreaking work in treating rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

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I attended the University of Southern California “The Vagina Monologues” benefit performance on Valentine’s Day evening. Appropriately, I was gifted the ticket and attended with the person who is probably the most intimate with my vagina, having emerged from it 31 years ago.

As part of V-Day’s "Turning Pain to Power Tour,” the performance was followed by a discussion with the play's author, Eve Ensler, and Dr. Denis Mukwege, the OB-GYN who has been recognized for his groundbreaking work in treating rape survivors in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

All proceeds from the shows went to A Window Between Worlds, a nonprofit organization dedicated to using the arts to end violence against women. A spokesperson at the event noted that the program is designed to create “a sense of safety for new visions to be born, visions of a world free of violence and abuse.”

AWBW is dedicated to using art to help end domestic violence. Through creative expression, battered women and children gain a sense of renewal and power. Their images of hope, survival and strength educate the public and become "a window between worlds" for survivors taking steps to change their lives. www.awbw.org  V-Day USC has raised over $44,000 for the organization. As a result, the program has grown from reaching 4500 women annually to reaching over 18,000.

Director Ashley Steed thrust the audience into peals of laughter when she opened the show by asking attendees to turn off their cell phones, pagers and vibrators.

Each time I have seen The Vagina Monologues, the actors have added new richness to the script. The actors in the USC rendition all offered their unique interpretation. Brittany Matthews captivated the audience with “The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy” (the “moan” segment), and Akayjah Watson was riveting with “My Angry Vagina.” Aria Carlston gave a magnetic interpretation of  “The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could,” and Stephanie Castillo gave a joyfully seductive performance of “Reclaiming C unt.” Ensler seemed to be referring to Castillo’s performance when she said, “when I did the show, I didn’t get out of my chair,” noting that “it shows how far the show has come, to see those orgasms at the end (of the show).”

Several times during the performance the actors and audience repeated, in unison, a “Vagina Happy Fact,” incongruously reminiscent of the congregation’s recitation of the Apostle’s Creed during my Methodist childhood:
 
“The clitoris is pure in purpose. It is the only organ in the body designed purely for pleasure. The clitoris is simply a bundle of nerves: 8,000 nerve fibers to be precise. That’s a higher concentration of nerve fibers than is found anywhere else in the male or female body, including the fingertips, lips, and tongue; and it is twice, twice, TWICE, the number in the penis.”

After the performance, Ensler and Dr. Mukwege spoke about the ongoing sexual atrocities against Congolese women. Mukwege is the 2008 winner of the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights, and is founding director of the groundbreaking Panzi General Reform Hospital in Bukavu, DRC.

Mukwege noted that during seven years of medical study in France, not a single woman died in childbirth, but on his return to the Congo, the deaths of three women in one day shocked him.

In 1999, his first year, he performed life-saving fistula surgery for 45 women who had been raped and tortured, their vaginas and genital organs destroyed by guns, bayonettes, sticks and heated plastic. The term “women” is used broadly, his patients range in age from 3 to 80 years old. Few were raped by a single rapist. Whole families were forced to watch, and partake in the atrocities, creating dire psychological consequences for not only the women who were raped, but for entire communities. The doctor noted that gangs with HIV and SIDS are sent to rape a village, with the ripple effect calculated to destroy thousands of people.

Mukwege said that genital terrorism is the cheapest form of warfare, as it is very effective. The goal? The removal of families in order to facilitate the control of the mines that produce a very rare and valuable mineral used in cell phones.

Mukwege’s numbers of patients grew to ten per day, 3600 per year. He said that it became unbearable, and that he felt that he needed to do something more than just repair the women’s’ organs, and began to talk to organizations to try to obtain help. He said that many weren’t interested in things that didn’t concern them directly, and he was ready to give up – when he met Eve. Since then they have worked together to raise the Congolese women up out of the terrorism and violence. Together with V-Day and UNICEF, he is working to build the City of Joy for survivors of sexual violence. It will offer a safe haven, provide educational and income-generating opportunities, and support women in becoming the next leaders of the DRC.

Ensler noted that the Congo is in the heart of Africa, and “if the women in the heart of Africa are destroyed, then the heart of Africa is destroyed.”

She punctuated the evening by noting that she believed that, in the final analysis, “patriarchy (actually) does more damage to men than to women.”

Ensler was glad to share to share that she and Mukwege had been on tour for eight days, and that every venue had been sold out, and invited interested persons to support their work by donating through www.vday.org.

Note: The Vagina Happy Fact is from “Woman: an Intimate Geography” by Natalie Angier

See these related OEN articles:

V-Day Confronts Congo's Brutal Rape Crisis with 'Turning Pain to Power' Tour by Margaret Bensfield
Turning Pain to Power by Marianne Schnall 
Congo Crisis: Doctors without Borders Denounces Cowering Peacekeepers by Richard Power

Authors Website: http://www.OceanViewArts.com

Authors Bio:

Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, 2013. In June, 2015, the combined views on her articles, diaries and quick link contributions topped one million. She was particularly happy that her article about Bree Newsome removing the Confederate flag was the one that put her past the million mark.

Her art in a wide variety of media can be seen on her YouTube video, "Visionary Artist Meryl Ann Butler on Creativity and Joy" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGs2r_66QE

A NYC native, her response to 9-11 was to pen an invitation to healing through creativity, entitled, "90-Minute Quilts: 15+ Projects You Can Stitch in an Afternoon" (Krause 2006), which is a bestseller in the craft field. The sequel, MORE 90-Minute Quilts: 20+ Quick and Easy Projects With Triangles and Squares was released in April, 2011. Her popular video, How to Stitch a Quilt in 90 Minutes with Meryl Ann Butler can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrShGOQaJQ8

She has been active in a number of international, arts-related projects as a citizen diplomat, and was arts advisor to Baltimore's CIUSSR (Center for Improving US-Soviet Relations), 1987-89. She made two trips to the former USSR in 1987 and 1988 to speak to artists, craftpeople and fashion designers on the topic of utilizing the arts as a tool for global wellbeing. She created the historical "First US-Soviet Children's Peace Quilt Exchange Project" in 1987-88, which was the first time a reciprocal quilt was given to the US from the former USSR.

Her artwork is in collections across the globe.

Meryl Ann is a founding member of The Labyrinth Society and has been building labyrinths since 1992. She publishes an annual article about the topic on OpEdNews on World Labyrinth Day, the first Saturday in May.

OpEdNews Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in "Beyond Surviving: How to Thrive in Challenging Times" at https://www.opednews.com/articles/Beyond-Surviving--How-to-by-Joan-Brunwasser-Anxiety_Appreciation_Coronavirus_Creativity-200318-988.html

Find out more about Meryl Ann's artistic life in "OEN Managing Ed, Meryl Ann Butler, Featured on the Other Side of the Byline" at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/OEN-Managing-Ed-Meryl-Ann-in-Life_Arts-Artistic_Artists_Quilt-170917-615.html

On Feb 11, 2017, Senior Editor Joan Brunwasser interviewed Meryl Ann in Pink Power: Sister March, Norfolk, VA at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Pink-Power-Sister-March--by-Joan-Brunwasser-Pussy-Hats-170212-681.html

"Creativity and Healing: The Work of Meryl Ann Butler" by Burl Hall is at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Creativity-and-Healing--T-by-Burl-Hall-130414-18.html

Burl and Merry Hall interviewed Meryl Ann on their BlogTalk radio show, "Envision This," at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/envision-this/2013/04/11/meryl-ann-butler-art-as-a-medicine-for-the-soul

Archived articles www.opednews.com/author/author1820.html
Older archived articles, from before May 2005 are here.