Eve Ensler's Spectacular Celebrates New Orleans Women

“I’ve been trying to free myself of Katrina’s grasp... With what I’ve gone through I should be just stark raving mad by now, but I’m able to go on.” These are the words of Herreast Harrison, Upper Ninth Ward resident, political and cultural activist.

Welcome to New Orleans, newly christened the “Vagina of America” by playwright Eve Ensler, because, as she explained, it’s a delta, it’s fertile, and people love to party there. She chose the city to commemorate the 10th anniversary of her global V-Day movement to end violence against women and girls, and dedicated the celebration to the women of NOLA (New Orleans, LA) for holding up the sky during and since Katrina. Not one for small gestures, Ensler rented out the Superdome—the once infamous home to thousands of New Orleanians, mostly people of color, abandoned when the levees broke—and renamed it Superlove. Entry was free to all for the mega-weekend events, April 11-12.

Herreast Harrison is one of many women working to bring the city, its citizens and culture back, to save it from developers. “I don’t like to use the term, ‘gave me a trailer.’ FEMA provided me with a formaldehyde infested temporary residence.” This was like giving the native Americans “disease infested blankets,” she says. “In hindsight I felt it was done to me rather than for me.” In her 70s, Harrison is surprised at her own resilience.

“Welcome to the Wetlands,” Ensler says in her new monologue. She points to New Orleans after the storm to show “how some folks feel about vaginas….We call her sultry and sexy when we crave her….But when she is hurting, when she is waving for help, we ignore her and let her drown.” She chants:

If we honor her
If we heal her
If we praise her
We change her story and the story of women.

“V to the Tenth” is V-Day’s biggest celebration ever, and Ensler vows to multiply by 10 the work they do over the next decade to “change the story of women.” The first 10 raised more than $50 million for its mission, primarily through performances of The Vagina Monologues in more than 100 countries. After the New Orleans mega events, to date, V-Day announced $700,000 donated for local efforts.

When I arrived at the “V to the Tenth” site on the first day I couldn’t help but remember the images of post-Katrina despair. But what a transformation.  I walked uneasily through a giant origami-like vulva that glowed in the dark and exited onto the dimly lit floor of the stadium.  Off to one side sat the lighted V-Stage, its backdrop graced with the colossal symbol of a red, white and pink vagina.

The transformation was about more than props. Passionate voices of poets and performers and panelists on stage filled the stadium with the sounds of renewed life. The events created a fertile ground for a shift in consciousness through the range of subjects, creative voices and styles chosen. Entrenched attitudes were absent, replaced by a willingness to listen.

“How have you moved into a loving healthy relationship with your body?” Kerry Washington (of Ray and The Last Kind of Scotland) asked other young actors on a panel. “‘Perfectly imperfect’ is what my mother called me,” said Rosario Dawson (Rent). “She loved me for exactly who I was and thank god I have that voice of reason, respect, love in my life that I can go to when the stuff in my head or the stuff outside of me is too much.”

The audience, overwhelmingly women, cheered and clapped as Washington, Dawson, Ali Larter and Amber Tamblyn talked about the problems they face in their industry, struggling with their bodies, and finding their power. Larter told of being a teen model at 15 when “they took duct tape to tape my thighs back.”

When “V-Men” took the stage, facing a sea of women, moderator and author Mark Matousek asked, “why aren’t more men involved in this movement?” Later Baltimore Ravens linebacker Bart Scott said, first it has “to be made cool to respect women and show compassion.”

Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, argued that the system her book describes “has no qualms about occupying spaces after disasters and taking advantage of them.” In the Crescent City, she cited the demolition of housing projects to make way for more upscale residences and tax money that ends up in the hands of private developers.

A big part of Ensler’s Superlove plan was holistic care, and the lounges in the upper regions of the dome became a nurturing haven. Hundreds of volunteers offered professional expertise, and yoga, massages, beauty treatments and therapeutic and medical services took over the spaces of fast foods and beer sellers. These were offered free of charge to the women of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. After so much stress and care-giving to others they relished it.

An estimated 30,000 visitors passed through “V to the Tenth.” Moving Forward Gulf Coast, a non-profit dedicated to rebuilding for communities in need, partnered with V-Day on the “Coastal Women Coming Home Project.” They bused in 1,200 women of color and low income from Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Little Rock, Memphis and Jackson—some home for the first time since Katrina. Many would return permanently were it not for the dearth of low-cost housing that leaves whole neighborhoods as ghost towns. Those who do make it back find all too few jobs. It was an emotional return.

The climax of the weekend was the star-studded Vagina Monologues with Jane Fonda, Washington, Jennifer Beals, Shirley Knight and Christine Lahti, among others in the New Orleans Arena.

The other major work was a local creation, premiered on the first night in Superlove, Swimming Upstream (produced by Ensler and V-Day, in partnership with the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, which promotes the work of African Americans, and its director Carol Bebelle). The project started with a group of 16 local women artists who met regularly to share Katrina stories and to affirm their own strength, resilience and leadership. Then they wove their stories into a script meant to touch women everywhere who have survived disaster and learned their own power. Co-producer Ensler helped mold the project, flying to New Orleans monthly for more than a year.

Swimming… was performed as a staged reading with five of the original team, local singers, and guest performers Shirley Knight, Anna Deavere Smith and Kerry Washington. It exudes the strong flair for story telling and humor that, along with music, goes with being a New Orleanian. “We see Swimming Upstream as an ambassadorial work for New Orleans,” said Bebelle. The producers hope to take it to New York and beyond, bringing along its message of courage and hope.

Throughout, I realized how very special “V to the Tenth” was. It took Ensler and V-Day to mobilize the thousands involved to honor those, most of them women of color, who saved lives and held things together with grit and imagination. Now they are working from the grassroots to rebuild their lives and threatened traditions. They are resisting those politicians and developers, both white and black, who would remake New Orleans into a tourist parody of itself. An army of women descended on NOLA to give them love and support. The V of V-Day stands for vagina, victory and Valentine. Victim was out of the question, never even discussed among the sisters of NOLA; but perhaps valor should be added.