WELCOME TO THE WETLANDS
NEW ORLEANS IS THE VAGINA OF AMERICA.
AND IF YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW SOME FOLKS
FEEL ABOUT VAGINAS JUST LOOK AT NEW ORLEANS SINCE THE
STORM.
WE ARE NOURISHED AND SUSTAINED BY HER GENEROUS WET
FERTILTY
BUT DON’T HESTIATE TO RAPE HER, DEFILE HER, ASSAULT
HER, SHAVE AND MUTILATE THE MARSH GRASSES AND TREES
WHICH PROTECT HER.
WE CALL HER SULTRY AND SEXY WHEN WE CRAVE HER, BUT
AFTER WHEN WE WANT TO DEMEAN HER AND DISMISS HER WE
CALL HER SWAMPY AND SOILED.
WE BRAG ABOUT HER MUSIC, THE WAY SHE MOVES, WE BEG TO
GET INSIDE HER, BUT DISOWN HER LATER WHEN SHE HAS
NEEDS.
WE USE HER TO ENTERTAIN US AND EXCITE US, THEN JEALOUS
OF HER POWER AND EMBARASSED BY OUR AWE, WE MAKE HER
A WHORE.
WE TAKE HOLIDAYS AND GET LOST AND HAPPY IN HER
EMBRACE, WE EAT HER, WE LOVE THE FISHY TASTE ,WE LOVE
HER SPICES. BUT WHEN SHE IS HURTING, WHEN SHE IS WAVING
FOR HELP, WE IGNORE HER AND LET HER DROWN.
NEW ORLEANS IS THE VAGINA OF AMERICA
IF WE HONOR HER
IF WE HEAL HER
IF WE PRAISE HER
WE CHANGE HER STORY AND THE STORY OF WOMEN.
*************************************************************
[allow a pause for applause]
This year, we are honored to read a special letter from Eve Ensler, author of
The Vagina Monologues who founded V-Day ten years ago.
Dear V-Friends,
Congratulations on your wonderful V-Day. Happy 10th Anniversary. This
year I am issuing a spotlight invitation.
I am inviting you to celebrate ten years of working to end violence against
women and girls, to celebrate a worldwide movement, thousands of V-days
in 120 countries, 50 million dollars donated to local beneficiaries. Celebrate
saying the word, breaking the silence and taboo, ending violence in some
places, reducing it in others, opening safe houses, changing laws, making the
issue front and center.
I am inviting you to show up for and with your sisters of
New Orleans and the Gulf South. To march with them and
listen to them and support them and dance with them and learn from them.
Katrina exposed what was going on in New Orleans and the Gulf South: the
lack of resources, the lack of care for its poor in general and its women in
particular. There are so many reasons to have V to the 10th in New
Orleans, from the vanishing wetlands to the man-made levee failures that
flooded the city to the abandonment and complete neglect of human beings.
Violence against women was committed physically, economically and
environmentally. We need to celebrate New Orleans, cherish it, protect it,
just as we do our vaginas, and make sure it goes on and on. We are showing
up for the Katrina Warriors, the women of New Orleans and Gulf South who
have kept their communities alive with devotion, hard work, sacrifice,
humor and wit.
I am inviting you to join activists, visionaries, performers, leaders, singers,
spoken word artists and poets, mardi gras
Indian queens, and women and men from all over the planet.
I am inviting you to represent your state, your country, your town, your
village, your college, your family, your soul.
I am inviting you to bring or send ten other people to V to the 10th where we
will plant marsh grass, dance in the streets, turn the superdome into
superlove, hear stories, honor the earth and women’s bodies, fight for racial
justice, demand equitable housing and healthcare, support men in being
vulnerable, end war, eat great food, and conjure revolution.
I will see you in New Orleans where we will change the story of women and
girls, bring on the next ten years and end violence against women and girls
once and for all.
Be there April 11th and 12th to make history.
My love, my gratitude and appreciation for all you have done to bring this
glorious movement this far,
Eve