Valentine’s Day doubled as a day of awareness as students around campus participated in the One Billion Rising campaign’s events intended to “Strike. Dance. Rise!” against violence directed at women around the world.
The campus group represents one chapter of the global campaign, which includes activists from 203 countries around the world, according to a press release from V-Day, the movement that launched the campaign. The V-Day movement aims to combat harm toward women, and the One Billion Rising campaign was “the biggest global action in the history of humankind for women . . . to end the violence and bring about a time when women are cherished,” said V-Day founder Eve Ensler in a video on the movement’s Facebook page.
The campus campaign kicked off with a dance party Wednesday night and continued with events Thursday on the Main Green. A “yarnbombing” of the Green featured pink and red woven artwork hanging from the trees. At noon, a flash mob broke out in front of Sayles Hall. While a crowd of students looked on, the act grew from a couple of dancers to almost 30 pink- and red-clad performers.
Fabio DiSanto, a visiting research fellow in international affairs and one of the performers in the flash mob, said the “energy” of the presentation was enjoyable and an important way to draw attention to a good cause.
“The world has to know that people suffer — and women more than others,” he said. “That’s why we are here.”
The dancing was far from over — the campaign moved into Sayles Hall Thursday afternoon for a dance class in West African Mande style. Eliza Reynolds ’14, one of the head organizers of the campaign, said the emphasis on dancing and physical expression was an important part of the movement’s message.
“It’s about movement as an act of protest, celebration, healing,” she said. “When we reclaim our body through movement, through taking up space, that itself is a way of activism.”
The activists also used discussion, baked goods and other displays to convey their message.
Reynolds called the organization of these events a “real lesson in teamwork.” The planning process for the campaign began in early January when Reynolds reached out to a few friends about doing a dance class, Reynolds said. She added that as word began to spread, she met many people who wanted to contribute. Saudi Garcia ’14, another head organizer, had started working on the project independently before teaming up with Reynolds.
“I’ve been holding open meetings every Sunday … and every time, scores of new people show,” Reynolds said. “The huge amount of people that have put in mainly their energy, their time, their enthusiasm, has been huge.”
The campaign reached a new level when Garcia found students willing to film and document the events, Reynolds said. Students then pitched the idea of covering the events to mtvU, a music channel affiliated with MTV that targets college students, who jumped on board and will run a feature on the campaign in the coming weeks, she added.
“It’s a hard topic to talk about, gender and gender-based violence,” Reynolds said. “I hope that this starts a conversation that is much more real for a wider demographic at Brown.”
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