Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Women’s Center
Presents “The Vagina Monologues”

More than 1,100 people attended two performances of the a-winning play “The Vagina Monologues” Feb.15-16 as Part of V-Day, a global movement to promote awareness of violence against women and girls.
 
 “The Vagina Monologues” has been performed in cities across America and at hundreds of college campuses. Eve Ensler’ celebration of female sexuality is a winner of the coveted Obie Award, which each year honors the best off-Broadway theatre productions.

The play was sponsored by the A&M-Corpus Christi’s Women's Center for Education and Service which has been working to improve the well-being of women faculty, staff and students since 1995. The Center also works closely with the local community to build a larger network of resources. Through “V-Day” campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” to raise funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.

“Every 12 seconds a woman is beaten in this country. A woman is killed every six hours,” said Rhonda Williamson, coordinator of the Women’s Center. “If we don’t educate about these issues and empower women to work at eliminating the violence in their lives, this isn’t going to go away. I have a 3-year-old daughter.  I don’t want these to be the statistics for her generation.”

“V-Day” is helping to build movements against violence in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Working with local organizations, “V-Day” has helped open the first shelters for women in Egypt and Iraq, sponsored three national campaigns in Afghanistan that included donating satellite phones to keep the lines of communication with Afghan women open, and convened the "Confronting Violence" conference of South Asian women leaders.

“What’s so moving about ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is that Ensler has captured the impact violence has on survivors and made that accessible to an audience. You leave a performance wanting to help solve this problem,” said Williamson.  “This year’s production was directed by Karen Alvarado, a senior theatre major.  She took a very different approach to the material, weaving it with song, dance, and art. It was an incredible show.”