By Shanayah Braithwaite//

Hood College presented a benefit reading of V-Day’s, “Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer: Writing to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls,” on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23 in Hodson Auditorium.

The book is a collection of monologues by world-renowned authors and playwrights, edited by Mollie Doyle and Eve Ensler, V-DAY founder.

Proceeds raised from the event went to the Heartly House, an organization that helps Frederick County residents who have been impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse.

The benefit performance was presented as part of V-Day’s One Billion Rising for Justice campaign, a global call for women survivors of violence and those who love them to gather safely in places where they are entitled to justice and release their stories through art, dance, marches, ritual, song, spoken word, sit-ins and testimonies.

Ellie Blaser, a junior at Hood, performed, “The Aristocrats,” by Kate Clinton. “It’s basically just women telling their stories about sexism that they’ve faced – maybe on a personal level, maybe on a global level, and the different ways stuff like that can happen and have negative affect,” she said.

V-Day organizers have changed laws to protect women and girls, funded rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, educated their communities, and raised over $ 100 million for groups working towards ending violence and serving survivors and their families (V-DAY, 2014).

Members of Hood College’s Feminist Student Union (FSU) and the V-Team, Eve Ensler and part time and full time members of V-Day, teamed up to make the event possible by directing, managing backstage, and performing a variety of monologues.

Kaylene Wright, a junior at Hood and the president of FSU, performed, “First Kiss,” by Mollie Doyle. She portrayed a woman, who at the age of 6, attended a sports camp. One day, she injured herself and her coach assisted her. Then he forced himself onto her and kissed her.

Jeanne Robinson, a junior at Hood, attended the event both nights. “I’d say both times, Kaylene’s really got to me,” she said. “I had grown up playing soccer, and it’s hard hearing stories like that. And it got to me, like how many times could that have happened where someone could have been so excited about soccer or about any sport, as a child growing up, and then to not be permanently tainted anymore because of what happened to her.”

Glorie Cassuto, a freshman at Hood, “My monologue was called, ‘The Next Fantastic Leap,’ by Elizabeth Lesser, and it is basically this long poem about the domestic abuse that she faced and how she was able to overcome that, and the next fantastic leap that she took in life,” she said.

The writings are inspired and display an array of emotions – from funny, angry, and tragic – to heartfelt, and beautiful. They portray how violence against women affects everyone.

Olivia Lacher, a senior at Hood, was performing in her four V-Day event. She performed monologue, “I Can’t Wait,” by James Lecesne.  “It’s from the perspective of an actress who always plays on TV shows, dead bodies or prostitutes, and she is kind of fed up and sick with it,” she said. “Her dream is to have a more important role or active role.  And I really feel connected to that right now in terms of the representation in media, and I’m sort of sick of all the straight – straight white male stories that are going on in the media, it needs to be so much diverse. Oscars So White is an example of that frustration too. So I very much enjoyed my monologue this year.”