Women's Issue - V-DAY

The ground breaking Vagina Monologues enters its 10th year and a massive 2 day celebration is planned:

April 11-12, 2008: Join Salma Hayek, Oprah Winfrey, Faith Hill, Jane Fonda, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Hudson, Glenn Close, Julia Stiles, Ali Larter, Sally Field, Marisa Tomei, Calpernia Addams, Rosario Dawson, Kerry Washington, and musicians Common, Eve, and Charmaine Neville on Friday and Saturday, April 11 – 12, 2008 for V-Day’s mega two-day anniversary celebration in New Orleans at the New Orleans Arena and Louisiana Superdome - V TO THE TENTH. Doors 6:30PM. Showtime 7:30PM.

For those of us in Nigeria who want to be part of this experience, the Nigerianized version of the Monologues kick off tomorrow in Abuja and then next week and the week after will be dedicated to Lagos.

I saw excerpts of the Vagina Monologues in New York a few years ago and it was a freeing experience. To sit there and have respected women use the word Vagina over and over again took some getting used to but by the time i was done, i felt proud to be WOMAN and was even more determined to make a difference in the lives of women - starting with my own.

I do not know what the new script that has been written by 4 talented Nigerians will say but i imagine since it will be relatable...I imagine passionate words on women's issues from abuse to battered self esteem. I have heard there will be music and dance. I forsee an emotional, enlightening and revealing experience and i truly hope that there will be more men in the audience than there were last year - i didnt attend last year's shows but my friends were appalled at the fact that the people that needed to hear this message and see this were the men largely responsible for a lot of the atrocities against women worldwide - and they were largely absent.

3 bloggers are part of this year's experience - Overwhelmed Naija Babe (part of the writing team), Laspapi (directing) and Funmi Iyanda (a member of the cast) and that in itself is pretty exciting. More details about the shows can be found on Laspapi's and Funmi Iyanda's blogs....

From a female point of view, from the point of view of someone passionate about women's issues i urge us all to make time in our busy schedules to see it.

Here's to many more beautiful V-Days, here's to the beauty of womanhood, here's to women finding their voices, here's to the good men that support and empower their women and here's to a blazingly bright future for our girls......