APSU hosting V-Day events this February and March

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – At 7 p.m. on Feb. 23 and 24, V-Day Austin Peay State University will present a two-night benefit reading of Eve Ensler’s award winning play “The Vagina Monologues,” at APSU’s Clement Auditorium. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased at the door.

V-Day, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, raises money and awareness through benefit productions of Ensler’s play and other artistic works. The V-Day movement has raised more than $100 million and educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it locally, nationally and internationally.

“Doing ‘The Vagina Monologues’ in 2010, for me, was one of the most memorable experiences at APSU,” said Chelsea Coles, an APSU graduate and instructor with the University’s ESL Institute. “At that time, I don't think that I fully comprehended the power behind a group of woman speaking out about violence, sexual identity, abuse and rape on a stage. For all of us the experience was transformative and freed us from the silence that society demands from us.”

APSU will host a second V-Day event, “ONE BILLION SPEAKING,” at 7 p.m. on March 2 in the Morgan University Center’s Einstein’s coffee shop. That event will feature readings from Ensler’s “A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer.” With new monologues from both men’s and women’s perspectives, that performance will ask for donations to contribute to APSU’s V-Day fundraising for local agencies that assist and support women and girls who are survivors of interpersonal violence.

Last year, APSU joined more than 5,800 V-Day benefits around the world raising funds and awareness toward ending violence against women. These highly successful events raised more than $5 million through performances of “The Vagina Monologues,” readings from “Any One Of Us: Words From Prison” and screenings of V-Day’s documentary “Until The Violence Stops” and the PBS documentary “What I Want My Words To Do To You.”

This year marks APSU’s 15^th production as part of the global V-Day Campaign. Through its benefit readings, the University’s Women and Gender Studies program has raised $18,000 for the Clarksville community, with beneficiaries such as Legal Aid of Middle Tennessee, Clarksville Montgomery County SafeHouse Domestic Violence Shelter and the Sexual Assault Center.

To learn more about V-Day Austin Peay State University, call 931-221-6315 or e-mail the organization at kescue@my.apsu.edu. To learn more about V‑Day and its campaigns visit .