V-Jay-Jay VDay!

Well, Saturday night was my first real night out after bedtime (7pm!) in four years! I went to see VDay–the tenth anniversary of the Vagina Monologues. Eve Ensler has chosen to focus on Gulf Coast women for 2008. She wrote some INCREDIBLE monologues for the women of Katrina and dear New Orleans. She opened the show with a monologue saying New Orleans is like the “woman” of America. People come to her for pleasure, for spiciness, for fun, but when she had needs of her own, they turned away.
Eve has so much energy, is so smart and amazing and leaves a wake of healing and inspiration and courage and care wherever she goes. The Sports Arena was packed with thousands of women. I pretty much wept from the moment the Mardi Gras Indians led the actresses into the arena in a second line parade.
And if I wasn’t weeping I was laughing my ass off and screaming with everyone else. I found the show to be very cathartic and healing in many ways. Without even realizing it, I had been thinking negative thoughts of my own v-jay-jay ( Cathy’s code word for vagina). She just hasn’t seemed as perky and cute lately. She seems more languid, like a lioness who has just had a huge meal and now rolls around in the grass, stretching. She’s gone from peppy cheerleader to one of those ladies in Arizona who drinks beer and smokes cigarettes and speaks with raspy voices and who are really tan and wear a lot of turquoise and gaze at the world with merry but world weary eyes.
But after seeing VDay, I celebrate my V-Jay-jay! I sing her praises!! She’s seen the world, given birth to two amazing children, and she’s beautiful! A creator of miracles! A holy vessel of love! A delectable crumpet of divinity! A kick-ass powerhouse elegant queen! Don’t mess with the V-jay-jay!!
Back to Vday! The VDay actresses nailed it! Christine Lahti wowed with the hair monologue. Jennifer Beals rocked the house with the hysterically funny orgasm monologue. Jane Fonda was a powerhouse with the birth monologue, and Ali Larter was awesome in the short skirt monologue. An actress I’ve never seen before–Liz Mikel–just totally brought the house down with two monologues–the angry vagina and a new one about Katrina. At the end of the show, Eve Ensler asked everyone who had ever been raped or abused to stand with the at the end, to break the silence, and from that moment on, to rewrite their stories from tragedy to triumph and power. Then she asked everyone who knew anyone who had ever been raped or abused to stand up and by now, the entire arena was standing in solidarity and support. The show ended with Faith Hill and Jennifer Hudson and Charmaine Neville singing Respect and everyone in the place dancing.
I went with Miss Cathy, and we of course, were sitting right behind one of the three men who attended, and as luck would have it, he was a drunk and obnoxious man and he nearly ended up getting whacked in the head with my purse. Cathy was kinder–she kept gently putting her hand on his back to tell him to quiet down at which point he yelled at her that he was not in a library, but at a sports arena. As if we were watching a basketball game and not a life-altering piece of theater. Eve announced the focus for 2009 would be women from the Congo and showed a very moving little film about her visits there to help the hundreds of thousands of women there who are experiencing rape and torture in the name of war. There is a doctor there helping them, and he came to New Orleans to receive an award and quietly and humbly spoke in swahili about how honored he was to help women. The Vagina Monologues has raised more than 50 million dollars to help fight violence against women. There are VDay activists in so many different countries, even the countries you would never expect–the Middle East for example.Totally incredible show.
And the world didn’t fall apart while I was gone. George did a phenomenal job putting the kids to bed for the first time alone, and all was well.